Kelly Ann Harding was born on August 28, 2007 at 8:37am, via c-section. She weighed 11 lbs, 1 oz and was 21 inches long. Kelly’s mom had gestational diabetes during her pregnancy and this caused some health issues for Kelly when she was born.

Within minutes of being born and few teary and happy glances from her mom and dad, Kelly’s lips began to turn blue. She was not getting enough oxygen in her. Come to find out Kelly had PPH and had very little surfactant in her lungs to help get them mature and open. The nurses quickly whisked Kelly off to the level 2 NICU at Scripps La Jolla and worked on her for most of the day to keep her breathing.

Approximately around 5pm that same evening the doctor came to let us know what was going on and the course of action that was needed. We were informed at that time that Kelly showed several physical traits of having Down syndrome and the doctor wanted to order karyotyping. She had moderate to severe hypotonia, epicanthal folds, brush spots and a larger space between her first two toes. Also at this time we were informed that Kelly needed to be transferred to Rady Children’s hospital because the level of care she needed was only available there. Kelly needed to be intubated and have a special gas given to her to help her lungs open. So Kelly was medically paralyzed and intubated. She was brought to us so that we could see her before she was transported around 7pm that same day. After being taken to Children’s hospital, it was found that Kelly had mild cardiomyopathy. She had an enlarged septum, thus causing the left side of her heart cavity to be smaller than the right. This made her heart have to work twice as hard with half the results.

Kelly spent almost 2 weeks intubated. Then it took another 2 weeks to get her weaned off of the various breathing apparatuses and gasses. During this time we were informed that the karyotyping results had come back and Kelly, in fact, had Trisomy21. After meeting with the geneticist and Kelly’s NP, we walked out of there feeling somewhat confident that we could handle whatever this information brought us. We knew we were just blessed to have God trust us enough to keep her.

Kelly spent another 2 weeks in the hospital learning to eat, for a total stay of 6 weeks. We were able to finally bring our beautiful little girl home on October 10^th.

Kelly will be 6 months old on February 28^th and is doing wonderfully. Her older sisters love her to pieces. With a lot of working with her mom, Kelly’s hypotonia is diminishing and she is getting stronger everyday. Kelly loves to listen to her daddy practice his guitar and getting tickles from her mommy. Kelly is always ready to smile and when she does, it makes your heart melt.

Taking care of Kelly does require some extra work, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.