The beginning

Dear Marley,

It's hard to believe that in 2 days you will be 3 months old. The last 3 months have absolutely flown by.

Actually my whole pregnancy with you flew by. I'm sure that was mostly due to the energy that it takes to keep up with your crazy sisters. It seemed like I got a positive pregnancy test and the next week you were already here. We were so worried that you were going to follow in your sisters footsteps and have to go to the NICU and were so relieved when you didn't.

Our first day with you was amazing. We got to keep you in the room with us and it was perfect.
Later on as your nurse was checking your vital signs she thought maybe your reflexes in your right hand and arm weren't so great. Your pediatrician, Dr. Awesome ( your knight in shining armor even though you don't know it yet) decided to order an x-ray of your collar bone to make sure it hadn't been broken during your delivery. This was our first indication that anything could be wrong with you. We got the results back shortly though and it showed that your collar bone was fine. We just figured that it was a soreness that would quickly be gone.
So approx 24 hours after you were born we took you home. You truly have been the perfect baby from day one. You ate, slept and pooped right on schedule. You did have a little bit of jaundice and we had to use a bili blanket for 2 days but other than that we had an excellent first week.

When you were a little over a week old we took you to back to Doctor and had you weighed and measured and checked over. You looked great. You had gained a few ounces and grown about half an inch. Dr Awesome came in and looked in your eyes and ears and we talked about how perfect you looked. The next moments though will be in my mind and heart forever.

Dr. Awesome had picked you up and was cradling you in her arms and she said that the Radiologist had seen something strange on the x-rays. She said he had seen something in your joints that looked like little dots. It was apparently so rare that the only time he had ever seen it previously was when he took his boards. At that point he thought it might be indicative of something called Conradi Hunnerman disease.

Needless to say I was pretty shocked and a little teary. Dr. Awesome took you and I into her office and explained that from what she had been able to find out about Conradi it seemed as though you could have a mild case and that it that might include cataracts and little else. She also thought that it would probably be a good idea for us to go ahead and get a full body x-ray to confirm their suspicions. So off we went for the first of many diagnostic tests you would have to be subjected to.

We got the results back from that x-ray the same day and it indeed confirmed that the stippling was widespread throughout all your joints. While we were waiting for those results I googled Conradi on my phone and what I read was actually comforting. I looked at the rest of the signs of Conradi and thought well you don't have any of those, so this will just be something minor that we might have to list when filling out paperwork. Surely it won't be anything that will effect you on a daily basis or for the rest of your life...

To be continued....