By Taylor Roberson
Mommy to Jacob
Trisomy 10q
2022-2023
When we first found out we were pregnant we were so excited. Then we went in for our anatomy scan and our world changed. Baby boy was measuring small and his heart did not look normal. We got an amniocentesis that confirmed his diagnosis of Trisomy 10q, which felt surreal. There were a lot of unknowns, but one thing we knew for sure was that, no matter what, our baby boy would only know love and live his whole life knowing how much he is loved.
The day Jacob was born was an ordinary day. I was 35 weeks pregnant. We went in for a routine checkup and ultrasound. Everything was going great until we had to get our stress test done. He was not showing hardly any activity, which was alarming so we were sent to labor and delivery for observation. After several hours doctors decided it was time for baby boy to make his appearance into the world so into the OR we went, and Jacob was born! He was only 3 pounds!
In the beginning, doctors didn’t think Jacob was going to make it through the night and were preparing us for the worst, but he showed us that he was a fighter. Genetics are very complicated and the one thing we learned from all of this is that doctors don’t have all of the answers, which made it very hard to get through this whole process.
After several months of being in the NICU we noticed that Jacob was not able to get off the ventilator, which was very difficult to accept. We made the decision for him to have a trach procedure, giving us hope that even if he had to be on a ventilator longer than expected, maybe he wouldn’t need it forever.
However, we soon discovered that Jacob’s lungs just couldn’t take anymore, and he was unable to make any progress. This ultimately led us to the very difficult decision of removing him from the ventilator and holding our sweet boy as he took his last breath in this world.
That’s when On Angels’ Wings came. We are grateful that we got to have family pictures done before Jacob passed away. Precious memories that we will cherish forever. Without OAW, we probably wouldn’t have been able to get professional pictures done. I highly recommend those in a similar situation take the opportunity to do the same. These moments only last a short time and I think having pictures taken help keep those memories alive forever.
Jacob is missed every single day. We love him so much and are thankful for the time we got to spend with him, thanks to the amazing care he received at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. We miss the staff there. They have become a second family to us.
My hope for the future is to help other families going through situations like what we went through. My hope is to be able to be encouraging to other families and also be there for support on their hard days and celebrate the good days with them.
