The rest of our talk was pretty much a blur. How amazing that sounded now, because at least I would be bringing home a baby. At that moment all I could think about was that I took back all the bad things I said the night before about not wanting to have a baby with dwarfism and all the struggles that would come with it. With kind sympathetic words, the perinatologist explained that our baby boy did have OI Type 2. I called my doctor the second the office opened and explained what I found, how distraught I was, and how I needed to see the specialist that day. But this time I could feel it was more than that. Tim stayed calm and told me to just wait and see what the doctor said the next week. Everything I read pointed to one thing: osteogenesis imperfecta, Type 2 (the most severe form of a disorder characterized by bones that break easily). I went online and looked up the different symptoms the doctor told us about and to see what kind of dwarfism they were linked to. He told us that he was pretty sure our child would be born with a type of dwarfism and made an appointment for us in Savannah to see a perinatologist. The long bones were not the length they should have been and they were bowed. The ribs and chest were not the size they should be to hold the organs. He explained that our baby's skeletal structure was not how it should be. He hadn't said anything, but I just knew that he wouldn't have been in there if everything were OK. He thought maybe she just forgot something. And then she excused herself and said she would be right back. I started to notice a blank look on her face. And then she started measuring and she wasn't saying much. The ultrasound tech was doing all the routine measurements, showing us the baby’s face, etc. We couldn't wait to find out if it was a boy or girl. Finally, it was time for the appointment that everyone is so excited for: the mid-pregnancy ultrasound. All the doctor’s appointments were routine. We were shocked, but really happy! Everything was great.Īn early ultrasound showed my due date to be in the first week of November. Two weeks later, at a routine doctor’s appointment, I found out we were expecting. We hadn't really talked about when we would add to our family, but we knew that we probably would soon. Two weeks later, Daddy left for his second tour in Iraq. Our first son, Timothy Jr., was born on Dec. Two days later I moved to Fort Stewart, where he was stationed. We got married in July 2003 - about three weeks after he returned - at the Milwaukee County Courthouse. That routine tour turned into the Iraq invasion. Thomas More High School and started dating in 2002, two months before he left for a routine six-month tour to Kuwait. My husband, Tim, and I went school at St. Monica Panfil, a photographer in Junction City, Kan., writes: Monica and Tim Panfil, and their sons Timothy (front) and Joseph
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