Vanessa

I will be praying for you and your family tomorrow as you see your
little man again.
Would love to meet up whenever you are ready. Im sure the girls
would enjoy a play as well. My personal email adress is
pettles8@...

--- In as_ap@..., Chris & Vanessa Murphy
<chrisandvanessamurphy@...> wrote:
>
> HI Pettina & Lea,
> Thank you for your lovely messages to me - they meant a lot.
> I have found it very important lately to search out stories of
other women who have been through anencephaly & understand the
variety of experiences women have.
> We have another ultrasound to "see" Matthew tomorrow. I'm really
looking forward to it and hope that he is in a good position to see
him. We are taking Anabelle with us this time too.
> Pettina, I would like to meet you if you are comfortable with
that. So, perhaps we could email further about that if you like.
> Thanks,
> Vanessa
>
>
> --- On Tue, 1/7/08, pettinabeves <pettinabeves@...> wrote:
>
> From: pettinabeves <pettinabeves@...>
> Subject: [as_ap] Re: Welcome Vanessa
> To: as_ap@...
> Received: Tuesday, 1 July, 2008, 4:43 PM
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Vanessa
>
> Wow.. Our stories sound so similiar. I ilive on the central Coast
> and at 6 weeks was told I had most likely miscarried our precious
> Mercy Grace but 2 weeks later there her heart beat was. After 3
> weeks they checked to make sure the bleed was clearing and i found
> out that my daughter had anencephaly. I was 11.5 weeks at the
time.
> With a 6 month old at home.
> My husband and i are also christians tho we kept the news to
ourself
> as it was late Friday and we had to have a level 2 scan on the
> Monday. The anencephaly was confirmed and we were told that we HAD
> to abort. Luckily we had the weekend as my husband and i were
unsure
> of this decision. When then went home to think it through and were
> given a week so the EASY termination option could still be done.
Wow
> are some doctors horrid.
> We decided that we would be best keeping her as long as we
possibly
> could.
> At the 19 week scan we discovered we were having another little
> girl. Mercy Grace.
> At 38 weeks 4 days i had a selective induction. Luckily one lot of
> gel was all i needed to put me in full labour.
> On Monday 24th September 2007 our beautiful Mercy Grace was born
> alive and weighing a whole 4 pounds 5 ounces.
> We were even further blessed when our beautiful daughter carried
on
> living for another 5 weeks 4 days 18.5 hours.
> Isabella was 13 months when Mercy Grace was born. so a bit younger
> than what you are experiencing so was never really explained to
her
> that Mercy was sick tho she knew i was pregnant and would
frequently
> feed her the bottle thru my belly button.
> To this day she kisses Mercys photos and cuddles her bear tight.
> They formed a lovely bond.
>
> You appear to live so close so if you would like to catch up
please
> let me know though dont feel any pressure.
>
> Pettina
>
> --- In as_ap@yahoogroups. com.au, Chris & Vanessa Murphy
> <chrisandvanessamur phy@> wrote:
> >
> > Hi everyone,
> >  
> > It has been very interesting to read of your experiences at the
> moment, especially those going through a subsequent pregnancy and
> all the anxiety that this brings. I’m not yet at that
point, but
> it is good to know there are people out there who understand what
> I’m going through now and will go through in the future.
> >  
> > I wanted to share a bit more about myself with you all. I am
> currently 29 weeks pregnant with a baby boy, Matthew who is
> anencephalic. We found out at the 12 week scan, and of course were
> shocked and upset about the diagnosis. I had been taking folate
and
> there was no family history or anything like that for us to even
> suspect that there may be a problem. In fact during the
ultrasound,
> I told the sonographer how all I really wanted to see was that the
> heart was beating, and what a relief to see that. She completed
the
> scan before sending the radiographer in, who told us they had
> detected an abnormality and we would have to go and see our GP
about
> it. What a terrible 30 or 40 minutes of waiting to find out what
was
> wrong! It makes me feel teary and a bit sick just recalling the
fear
> that I felt at that moment.
> >  
> > Anyway, our GP was lovely and took all the time we needed, even
> though it was after 5pm and she had a waiting room full of people
> yet to see. We found the decision to continue the pregnancy an
easy
> one, and my husband (Chris) and I were both in agreement on this
> one, thankfully. We are both Christians, and felt that it was not
> our decision as to how long our baby should live, and we were
> prepared to go through with the pregnancy as long as it would
> happen. This baby, which we found out at 19 weeks is a boy (now
> called Matthew) is a precious member of our family, no matter how
> short his life is, and we thank God for giving us Matthew to look
> after for this time.
> >  
> > We have had a lot of support from our friends (mostly from our
> church â€Å"family�) and our own families too, although
they are
> facing their own grief through this, I guess, and some of them
> don’t live close by, which has made communication
difficult. One
> of our biggest challenges has been talking to our 2 year old
> daughter Anabelle (almost 2 years 5 months) about Matthew and
trying
> to give her little bits of information about him so her
expectations
> will not be too far off when it comes to the birth/afterwards. She
> is very clued up about the fact that Mummy is having a baby, and
has
> been from very early on (before the scan), so there has been no
> hiding the fact. She says things now like â€Å"Belle love
Matthew�,
> â€Å"Matthew’s nice� and she kisses my belly and
says hello to
> him. I would be interested to hear of any of your experiences with
> older siblings and how you explained things to them and especially
> anyone who may have had 2-3 year old
> > children at the time.
> >  
> > Today we had an appointment with the head paediatrician at
> Maitland hospital, which is where we will be having Matthew. He
was
> really nice and answered all our questions, although we may not
see
> him again â€" it is hard to predict what we/Matthew might need,
but
> at least we know they are there if we want to call on them.
> >  
> > I’ll leave this email at that â€" I look forward to
being able
> to â€Å"type up� my feelings again and share them with
you - this
> has been good for me.
> >  
> > Thanks for your support,
> > Love Vanessa
> >
> > --- On Tue, 27/5/08, Lea <leannec72@ ..> wrote:
> >
> > From: Lea <leannec72@ ..>
> > Subject: [as_ap] Welcome Vanessa
> > To: as_ap@yahoogroups. com.au
> > Received: Tuesday, 27 May, 2008, 11:32 PM
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Vanessa, welcome to AS~AP
> >
> > I am so sad to read that you are needing the support of our
group
> > during your pregnancy, I dearly hope that you will find that we
> are
> > able to give you good counsel as you wade through the ups and
> downs
> > of your emotions at this time.
> >
> > My name is Lea, I'm co-founder of the group. I gave birth to my
> twin
> > son ~Ben~ and his sister Nara on 8 June 2006 at 34 weeks
> gestation,
> > ~Ben~ survived for 1 hour and 21 minutes and he passed away
> > peacefully in his daddy's arms.
> >
> > We live in far northern NSW along with our eldest daughter Sage,
> Nara
> > our surviving twin and our rainbow baby Arden.
> >
> > Please feel free to write and tell us all about yourself...feel
> free
> > to ask as many questions and talk as much as you need to about
> your
> > feelings, that's what we're here for.
> >
> > If you feel you might like to talk to me on the phone, please
send
> me
> > an email and I'll give you a buzz or vice versa.
> >
> > Lea xxxxxx
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Get the name you always wanted with the new y7mail email
> address.
> > www.yahoo7.com. au/mail
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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>
>
> Start at the new Yahoo!7 for a better online experience.
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