Scarlett

A Turner Syndrome Angel

After a healthy start to pregnancy, regular genetic prenatal testing, and a couple of normal first-trimester ultrasounds, our 20-week anatomy scan revealed that her heart was failing. She had hydrops and a cystic hygroma. The doctors suspected Turner Syndrome, but due to decreased amniotic fluid levels, we couldn’t confirm it until after birth. At that point, we were told there was no chance for her survival—we just had to wait for her to pass and then deliver her. We went in for twice-weekly heart tone checks.

I love to bake and had always dreamed of teaching Scarlett how to make all the Christmas cookies I love to bake. Once we found out she was sick, one of the things that brought me a bit of joy during that heartbreaking holiday season was telling myself this was my chance to still “bake with Scarlett.” I picked myself up off the couch and decided I was going to make all my cookies—and then some—because she was still alive, she was still with me, and I wanted to do the things I had dreamed of doing with her.

After two and a half weeks of heart tone checks, we found out the day after Christmas that her heart had stopped. She was born sleeping at 22.5 weeks. They confirmed she had Turner Syndrome. She was born in December 2019, just two days after Christmas.

Scarlett was my third loss after one and a half years of trying to conceive.

Every year since, when I bake cookies, I find myself smiling and remembering that special, bittersweet time—my year of “baking with Scarlett.”