Faith was to be our last child, baby number six after having four boys we were so excited that God had granted our hearts desire and given us another girl as our 15 yr old Tosha has been a great joy from day one!

The pregnancy started out very rocky with a ovarian cyst and then a polyp and then a bleed on the placenta we didn't think we would ever get thru the first threee months.

We did have an episode that the genetic doctor speculates may have caused Faith to have an Enutero stroke Hense causing the HPE and Her jejunal Atresia. It was an episode where my blood pressure bottomed out and I fainted and was rushed to the hospital via ems and given a bolus dose of meds to stabalize my condition where they found that my ovarian cyst had twisted cutting off the blood supply which was extremely painful the fact that I did not miscarry was astounding.

After this happened the pregnancy seemed to blossom and go beautifully and I enjoyed everyminute until 33 weeks when a freind offered to do anouther ultrasound to guess the babies weight and she found the odd shaped venticals on the brain and also the dialation in the stomach at this point we felt like our world crashed around us and we were told it had to be downs and we were sent to an Maternal fetal specialist who performed an amnio and ultrasound and had a neurologist and cardiologist on hand to review the babies condition all were hopeful that it was just something that could be corrected and that it would be wise if my labor was induced and that I deliver at IU Med center so that I could be where the specialist were so, I was sent home to wait the results of the amnio and the induction date.

The amino results were great and had no abnormalities so of course we rejoiced that all could be corrected only to have my water break that night and deliver at a local hospital and was told by the new neonatalogist an hour after her birth of her condition, we could never have imagined such a thing could happen to a baby that was so perfectly formed. Her Atresia was corrected the next morning and she came home Three weeks later and is now Four months old and 7lbs 10ozs. and now we are facing a G-tube to fatten her up and we are scared to death each day brings new challenges and new questions and we have yet to get an answer as to why.

We are so thankful for the HPE support group as we are alone in our community with this condition and need all the support we can get! Thank you to the Carter Centers for this Forum!

The Pifer's