Baby & Co. Shower

My dear friend and neighbor, Cass, hosted a wonderful shower for me. We had several more showers following this one, so I invited just neighbors and coworkers to this one. 

The theme was Breakfast at Tiffany's, and it could not have been more fun! 

Here are some pictures ...

Canaan's Storybook Shower

My sisters and Mama did such a great job hosting my baby shower! The theme was adorable with the books correlating with the food.

Here are some pictures...

Canaan Patrick Michael Clancy

Since before we were married, we always loved the name Canaan. At our gender reveal party we found out we were having a boy, but (due to our Trisomy 18 scare) we wanted to wait to name him until we knew he was healthy. 

When we got the good news from the amniocentesis results, I felt sure Shane would be ready to make it official, but he was really reluctant. We considered a few other names, but always came back to Canaan. We wrote our top two names on the mirror in our bathroom, and we practiced saying and writing the names over and over again. Shane even threw darts at a dartboard. Ha!

He is always the one to take his time with decisions, weigh all the options, think things through completely -- and this was no different. It is a lot of pressure naming a child, and when you add the (unwarranted) opinions of others in the mix it can cause doubt. but ultimately we decided to go with the name we have loved all along! 

Around Here Lately...

I am enjoying some free time and relaxation before Baby Boy Clancy rocks our world, so I have not been keeping up with the blog. Here are some pictures to recap the past few months...

We took a trip to Kentucky to go on the Bourbon Trail with our sweet friends Angela & Steve. 

Crib: Before & After

My cousin was so sweet to give us her old crib, and I was thrilled that Shane was willing to refinish it to coordinate with some furniture that he antiqued about 4 years ago. 

It was a quite process, and with Shane's long work hours and terrible commute he had very little time to work on it. It is all finished now, and as I write this post Shane is painting the nursery! 

^^ Before 

Second Trimester Recap

14 weeks - Peach

Baby’s probably thumb sucking and wiggling his toes in there! Baby’s kidneys are making urine, and the liver and spleen are doing their jobs too. And baby’s growing lanugo, a thin, peach-fuzz-like hair, all over—it’ll help keep the body warm!

Baby is as big as a ... lemon

Mama is craving ... a HEALTHY baby boy! (This was during our Trisomy 18 scare) 

& feeling ... shocked that it is a boy!

Health Scare -- Trisomy 18

Edward’s Syndrome is what she called it, and the rest was just a blur. I was sitting at my desk at work the Thursday before our Gender Reveal Shower when the nurse called with results from our Panorama/Natera DNA Panel. The same test results that revealed to the host of the shower that Baby Clancy was a boy also revealed to me that he was high risk (1:32) for Trisomy 18, also known as Edward's Syndrome. The test results are 97% accurate, so our hope for a false positive was very slim.

Symptoms of Tri18 include low birth weight, small abnormally shaped head, and birth defects in organs that are life threatening. Edward’s syndrome has no treatment and is usually fatal before birth or within the first year of life. I was shocked, devastated, desperate for a more definitive answer, but even more desperate for a healthy baby. 

“Now remember, it is a screening, not a diagnostic test”, she said as I sobbed uncontrollably. I locked myself in a conference room with spotty cell service and frantically called Shane.