They are some beautiful new photos. Nara and Ben look so beautiful
together in your arms and already rainbow baby looks like a cutey.
Dont you love 3D.

hello to all,
My name is Elizabeth. 9 weeks ago i had a interuption of pregnancy
because my baby girl had anencephaly. It was the hardest decision
that i have ever had to make but i knew that i couldn't go to full
term knowing that she wouldn't have survived. Not only could i not
put myself through that heart break but i couldn't do it to my
husband, kids, family or friends. I envy every one here who did
decide to go on. Unfortunally i know that i am not strong enough for
that. I found out that our baby had this awful condition at 14 weeks
when i went for a scan. The lady who done the scan was not very nice
with the way she told me. It was a case of your baby has no scull, it
will die, you have to get rid of it. i couldn't believe what i was
hearing. We got taken to brisbane where i had another scan to confirm
it and they took me in the next day for the interuption of pregnancy.
It took a further 7 weeks before they could tell me that our baby was
a girl. We still haven't named her yet. I want to but my husband
doesn't. he is a typical guy that really doesn't like talking about
it. I thought that i was handling the grieving process really well
until about 3 weeks later and i was a complete mess. I ended up
phoning a support group called sands and fould them really good to
talk too. They called me back a few days later and gave me the number
for a lady who had also had a interuption of pregnancy as her baby
had the same condition. We have became so close over the past few
weeks and it is so good to have some one who lives only 20mins away
who is going through the exact same thing as what i am. I have made a
little memorial garden in my yard and i have a few things inside so i
have some thing to remember her by (not that i would ever forget
her). I desperatly want another baby, (not to replace the one that i
lost) I just don't know when its a good time to start trying. We're
not doing any thing to prevent it from happening, i just don't know
how i am going to react when i find out that i am pregnant again. i
guess i will be excited but also really scared until i have the first
scan and find out that he/she is ok. Well, i had better be off. Hope
to talk to some one soon.

--- In as_ap@..., "pettinabeves" <pettinabeves@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi my name is Pettina. Im a mum to Isabella 17mths and sweet Mercy
> Grace, who went to heaven on the 3rd November 2007 after almost 6
> weeks of lfe.I have put some photos of my angels in the photo page.
Im
> so excited to of found this group.
>
Hi Pettina,

My name is Tammie, Your photos of your family are just beautiful. Your
children are gorgeous. I am glad you found the group it gives us
special mums and dads a better understanding of why our little angels
go to heaven. I have a daughter Abbey 7 1/2 and an angel April marie
she went to heaven on the 19th April 07. I hope to hear from you soon.

Tammie

Pettina, welcome to the group, it's great to have a message from you
so soon.

Oh your photos, they are so beautiful, thank you so much for sharing
them with us all.  Mercy Grace was so beautiful, that last photo of
her with Isabella is divine, such adorable sisters!

I'm so glad you've found the group too, I hope like crazy you find
that being here helps.

Lots of hugs

Lea xxxxx

Hi my name is Pettina. Im a mum to Isabella 17mths and sweet Mercy
Grace, who went to heaven on the 3rd November 2007 after almost 6
weeks of lfe.I have put some photos of my angels in the photo page. Im
so excited to of found this group.

I just wanted to encourage any new users to feel free to add a photo
album here at AS~AP, show of your family, your angels, anything that
you care to really.

If you have a file you'd like to share go for it too, I see that
Leigh and Tammie have included their stories in file format (I will
get around to that one day) which is great.

While I'm at it, if you find any information on anencephaly,
including prevention information, data, stats or find news articles
please share them with us.

Got any ideas on how to make the group work better?  Let me know I'm
so eager to make this a place we all feel comfortable to express
ourselves in.

This group is your group guys, please make the most of your chance to
be heard by people who have a real understanding of your journey from
experience.

Lea xxxxx

Tammie, those photos are gorgeous, how cute is the one of Abbey
getting her groove on with John.  And when was the photo of you and
John together taken, you look so gorgeous you beautiful thing!

April's resting place looks gorgeous, so bright and colourful.

Lea xxxxx

Welcome to the new members of this wonderful support group.  My story
is in the files area.

Although it is very sad that we all come together like this, this site
has helped me on a numerous occasions when I have felt down and out,
Lea is wonderful in supporting all of us I dont know where she gets the
strength from.

I hope that we can all help each other with the questions and just to
talk about our feelings, its a bit like a roller coaster that never
seems to end although the pain and suffering eases each day.

Tammie
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

I would like to welcome our new members and wish you well in your
journey with us.

My story is in the Files section, but briefly.....

My son, Tyson, an identical twin to my surviving son Reilly, was
diagnosed with anencephaly early in 2002 at our first u/s at 12 weeks
gestation.

All of my children are the result of IVF treatment after being
diagnosed with PCOS in early 1999.

Tyson and Reilly were born via c-section at 32 weeks due to twin to
twin transfusion syndrome.  Tyson lived for approx. 10 minutes, but
did not spend any of his short time outside of the womb in the arms
of his loving parents.  He is forever remembered as a mirror image of
his gorgeous brother Reilly, who is now 5.

I was also lucky enough to be blessed with fraternal boy/girl twins,
Jed & Dael in 2005, after a battle with breast cancer which cost me
my left breast and 6 sickly months of chemo.  August this year will
mark my 5 year 'official' remission (fingers crossed!).

I hope that you all find the time to share your story with us, and
know that you are amongst friends who share your pain and anger at
the loss of our precious babies.

Thinking of you.

Leigh
xx

Hi, I'd like to welcome our new members Rachel and Elizabeth, I'm very
sorry you've both had a need to join us here and hope that you find
support and friendship amongst this group.

I'm Lea, my son Ben was born at 34w3d on 8 June 2006 along with his
twin sister Nara.  We found out about Ben's anen at our first
ultrasound, his twinship made our decision making very confusing
indeed.  I'm also lucky enough to have a 9 year old daughter named
Sage and a rainbow baby due on 11 Feb this year.

Please feel free to write to your heart's content about your journey
ladies, we're here to help each other.

Lea xxxxx

Hi there,

I have added some pictures of April's grave and April's family to the
Photos section. I am sorry to say that we did not get pictures of our
angel as we felt that she had been through enough anguish.

Hi to all,

I hope you all had a wonderful christmas.  Happy new year every one
hope you all have a safe holiday.

Love Tammie xoxoxox

Sorry gang, I have had to send this as a special notice as one of our
members only receives special notices (please check your preferences
to make sure you're able to see all messages posted if you're
interested).

..................................................

Hi to all our members

It has come to my attention that we had a member join us who was
doing so to find one of our other members with whom they'd had a
previous relationship. In light of this, that membership has been
removed.

AS~AP values all it's members privacy, as such, I believe it might be
best to create an application form to be sent to new member
applicants for completion asking them some basic questions about who
they are, where they come from and what their story is, to help
justify membership.

It's so sad that it's necessary but I can't see any other way to
protect our little group from predatory applicants.

So, my idea is simple, create a Word document (or similar) asking for
information about their circumstances with the hope that this sorts
genuine applicants from mischief makers.....it's amazing how quickly
being asked to give out your private information makes someone who
has bad intentions run for cover.

I'd really like input from our members about this process, my train
of thought is that perhaps we should have all our current members
fill out this information also.

All information supplied will be kept private and confidential by
AS~AP moderators (which at this stage is myself only.....but our co-
founder Leigh will at one stage also be included...note to self to
get onto that, Leigh please poke me with a stick). Does anyone have
any issues with this process?

Your thoughts on this matter will be greatly appreciated. Please
help me make this group work fantastically and be a support to people
who really need it!

Lea

Hi to all our members

It has come to my attention that we had a member join us who was
doing so to find one of our other members with whom they'd had a
previous relationship.  In light of this, that membership has been
removed.

AS~AP values all it's members privacy, as such, I believe it might be
best to create an application form to be sent to new member
applicants for completion asking them some basic questions about who
they are, where they come from and what their story is, to help
justify membership.

It's so sad that it's necessary but I can't see any other way to
protect our little group from predatory applicants.

So, my idea is simple, create a Word document (or similar) asking for
information about their circumstances with the hope that this sorts
genuine applicants from mischief makers.....it's amazing how quickly
being asked to give out your private information makes someone who
has bad intentions run for cover.

I'd really like input from our members about this process, my train
of thought is that perhaps we should have all our current members
fill out this information also.

All information supplied will be kept private and confidential by
AS~AP moderators (which at this stage is myself only.....but our co-
founder Leigh will at one stage also be included...note to self to
get onto that, Leigh please poke me with a stick).  Does anyone have
any issues with this process?

Your thoughts on this matter will be greatly appreciated.  Please
help me make this group work fantastically and be a support to people
who really need it!

Lea

Hi lovely ladies, and a big warm, but sad, welcome to the newcomers.

We have been extra busy lately.

In early November we all went on holidays to the Gold Coast and had a
ball, but it was exhausting more than relaxing.

The highlight though was catching up with the 'positively glowing'
Lea, and finally visiting Ben's grave, something I have wanted to do
for so long.  Time as always was way too short, and although we also
spent some time with our two families mingling at Lea's local town
fair and then another day spending some girly time shopping, it's
just never enough.

We already have our next get-together planned in Oct 2008, but
hopefully there will be some spur of the moment trips before then,
especially when the new baby arrives in early Feb.

Reilly has also been attending Prep orientation days at his new
primary school, and while he is excited, I am already feeling anxious
at letting him go.  Being another milestone, it is a constant
reminder that his brother is not there to share it with him.

I seriously don't know how I'm going to cope.  Kinder is only 3.5
hours 3 times a week, how will I go with him gone from 9 till 3.30
every day?  I have stepped up into a few new volunteer roles, so
perhaps, if I keep myself busy (not that 2yr old twins don't keep me
busy enough!), then I won't turn into a snivelling mess.

I guess the good thing is that he is such a confident and social kid
(two words that were repeated over and over in his final Kindy report
LOL!), that he will have no separation problems.

Jed & Dael are now 2, and are starting to make a little more sense
with their words.  But they have also reached the fighting and biting
stage.  Oh, the joys!

Anyhoo, enough ramblings from me!

Looking forward to getting to know all the new members and hearing
your stories.  You are amongst friends.

Wishing you all a peaceful Christmas.

Leigh
xx
Leigh

Just an update on April's birth certificate.  Keving Rudd and the
health minister got together with Births, Deaths and Marriages to
discuss the issue of getting My angels birth certificate. In the end it
was all left up to Frankston Hostpital for them to make the decision to
change the date of gestation. They refuse to do that so I am going to
speak to my midwife on the 22/12/07 to see what else we can do.  I have
also spoken to her regarding advertising our support group in the
Bonnie Babes hand outs that they give to the poor families that lose a
child.  Hopefully we will get some advertising done soon.  As I work
for Melb Health I am trying to get in contact with our communications
director to advertise the group at the Royal Womans and Childrens
Hospital so fingers crossed ladies hopefully it will all happen soon.

Hi, sorry I havent been on for a while lots of things happening.  How
is everyone? Just letting you all know that I am now 26wks pregnant. I
am thrilled, all tests have come back normal.

I am still missing my angel and I go and see her every week. It is
still very hard to deal with but each day becomes easier.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful christmas and I will talk to you
soon.


Love

Tammie

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Hello everyone

We have had two new members join us within the past week or so, I
encourage them both to jump onto the boards and introduce themselves
when they feel comfortable doing so....so we can welcome you with open
arms.

Whilst I'm really very sad that our new members have a need to join us
here, I am thrilled to bits that they have found us, I hope that we'll
be able to support each other through December with Christmas upon
us...and of course far beyond that too.

My love and best wishes to you all

Lea xxxxx

Hi everyone

I know Leigh is aware of this news already but, I thought I'd share
the good news that our group has gained some wonderful publicity
recently with thanks to an article in the Australian Multipe Birth
Association National Magazine.

It was a great pleasure when I was asked to submit my story to the
magazine, along with that of another of my OzMOST (an Australian
support group for mothers of surviving twins) friends, they kindly
allowed me to include the link for our group which is a wonderful
blessing....I dearly hope it will allow us to reach out to more
parents/family and friends touched by Anencephaly.

We should also expect a little publicity through the next issue of
the  NSW Sids & Kids Connections Newsletter to whom I also supplied a
short article recently and included our link.

Please don't forget to mention AS~AP to anyone you speak to about
your own journey, you never know who you may help in the process.

If anyone has any ideas about how to promote our group please don't
hesitate to hurl them at me!

My love to you all

Lea xxxxx

Hi girls

It's been a while since we had any traffic in here so I thought I'd
write you both and let you know how excited I am today.

I've just had an email reply from the midwife who cared for me during
my twin pregnancy at the Mater Mother's Fetal Medicine Unit in
Brisbane.  She is very excited about our group and wants the link
(which I sent) and flyers!!!  She said she recently had a mum who has
had 3 anen babies.........I hope we can help.

So, it's time to put my head (and yours too if you're up for it) into
making up some flyers to get circulated about our humble group.  I'll
chat with you via yahoo Leigh to talk about this more.

Here's hoping that we can start spreading ourselves out to help some
more families in need with our little group hey ladies.

Lots of love to you both

Lea xxxxx

I will be appearing with Nichola Bedos, author of "IVF and Ever After",
on THURSDAY 12th July at 9.10ish, on the 9am show with David Reyne &
Kim Wilkins!

Leigh

I spotted something a few weeks ago in the news online but forgot to
bookmark it, so I did a quick search and found this interesting tidbit.

I know some breads already have folate in them, but this will make it
compulsory.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1959777.htm

Here is an interesting thing, a dietry folate calculator, take a peek.

http://www.choice.com.au/viewCalc.aspx?
id=104455&catId=100406&tid=100040&p=5