I was 33 weeks and 2 days pregnant, and the nurse was looking at the home monitoring footage with me. She didn’t quite trust the latest result and insisted that we go to the hospital anyway.

Once at the hospital, we had to wait a long time.

An emergency delivery had just come in between.
I saw a woman lying on a stretcher, crying; she was going “somewhere.” The thought flashed through me like lightning: “Am I being prepared for something?” It felt as though something “unpleasant” was about to happen, and yet I remained in denial.

I went for an extra check-up at the hospital. On the monitor, Avalon’s heart rate dropped to something like 45 beats per minute. In less than 2 minutes, the room was full of people, I had an IV in my arm, and I was wheeled away on a stretcher (just like the woman I had seen). Now the thought went through my head: “Yep, so I was indeed being prepared.” By now, it was clear that I would undergo an emergency C-section.

Completely numb from the general anesthesia, I saw Avalon on March 27, 2024. She weighed less than 1 kg and was immediately taken to the intensive care unit. I saw her lying in the incubator, and no matter how much I still wanted it, I could no longer deny the truth. This soul would not stay.

On March 28, there was a woman who feared the worst; she said she thought she had something, and if she did, it would be very bad. Her eyes welled up as she said it. I looked at her and I looked at Wytze, and my eyes welled up, and I told Wytze that she has it. Even though it was not yet known what it was, I felt and heard: yes, she has it.

On March 29, the clinical geneticist finally came to examine her little body. She had determined that she had Trisomy 18. That means she had a 3rd gene strand on chromosome 18 (3.18) and this genetic mutation was not viable in her case. Eventually, her organs would fail, etc.