For over a year Evan and I tried to give Jack a little brother or sister. When I finally found out I was pregnant in January of 2007, we could not have been happier. Although the pregnancy was tough from the beginning (extreme morning sickness), I kept strong knowing that in the end I would have a beautiful baby. From day one Jack told us that the baby in my "tummy" was a girl and that her name was Anna. One day when I was 13 weeks pregnant, Jack was laying with me on the couch and he shot up saying "baby Anna uh-oh, baby Anna uh-oh." I quickly reassured Jack that she was fine, but from that moment on my gut kept telling me that Jack was right; something was wrong. As the weeks passed I was having even more health problems (high blood pressure, thyroid issues and kidney issues) so they did an ultra sound at 12 and 16 weeks to make sure the baby was fine, which she was. My midwife said that it was just a rough pregnancy. It wasn't until my ultra sound at 21 weeks that they saw some "problems" with Anna. There was some fluid on her brain, but they told us not to worry, it usually is nothing. We then had to wait four long days until our appt. with a specialist in Des Moines. When he saw her ultra sound he said that it looked like she was a trisomy 13 or 18 baby and that she would not be "compatible with life." Evan and I did not want to believe the diagnosis and waited for two more extremely long weeks for the results of my amnio. When the phone finally rang with the genetic counselor on the other end I immediately began to cry and handed the phone over to Evan. He then went into our bedroom and was in there for what felt like forever. I just knew it was bad. When he finally came out of the room, he didn't have to say anything, his tear streaked face said it all. Anna had triplody, which was a complete extra set of chromosomes. It happens during conception when somehow two sperm enter the egg, or the egg does not under go one of the initial divisions for some reason. As the doctors put it, it was a "fluke." Our specialist told us that because of my health we should terminate the pregnancy. That was not even an option to us. I held unto her for another 2 weeks. Finally, on June 17th, 2007 (Father's day)at 26 weeks, my body could not hold onto her any longer. I blacked out and went into labor. I was in labor for 12 hours and delivered my beautiful, silent little Anna at 8:12 am on June 18th. She weighed only 1 lb 3 oz, and was only 12 inches long. To us she was perfect. We had her funeral that Friday in Ames, Iowa. It was pouring rain, which to us was a sign that she was with us. She is now and forever more my little Anna angel.