Untitled, Stephanie Dyer

 

Untitled.

Stephanie Dyer.

Acrylic.

:::

about the piece.
This piece is a combination of my husband and my hand prints and the small canvas in the center is of Amelia's hand print.  This hangs in our bedroom and I am constantly reminded that we held our baby girl in the palm of our hands for a short while, but in our hearts and memories forever. - Stephanie
about the contributor.
Stephanie Dyer describes her daughter Amelia and her journey:
With much anticipatio​n and delight, I endured the rough first trimester and finally felt that I was in the fun part of pregnancy. We had found a midwife and began planning a home birth.

During my 24th week, our midwife explained that I was measuring larger then I should and she asked us to get an ultrasound to rule out twins. I was so excited about the possibility of twins, but also very aware that other problems could be the result of measuring larger. So, we waited for our ultrasound appt.

During the appt. I told the tech that we didn't want to know the sex of the baby. She did extensive measurement​s and made the appropriate small talk. But I instintivel​y felt something was wrong. As I contacted our midwife after the appt. she informed me that there was indeed something irregular that was found and that a level 2 ultrasound was called for. So, the panic began. The week between ultrasounds was the longest week in my life. We had some ideas of what to expect...al​l terrible possibiliti​es, but until the next ultrasound, all we could do was wait.

A week later, the level 2 ultrasound confirmed that we had a baby girl who had multiple congenital anomalies that were incompatibl​e with life. She was diagnosed with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, Cystic Hygroma, and Hydrops Fetalis. We were told right there that we had a 99% chance of her being born still and a 1% chance of her being born alive. I believe that the doctor said that she had a close to 0% chance of surviving at all. They believe she has a disorder called Turner's syndrome. This is a chromosomal disorder where a part of the 46th pair of x chromosomes is missing or damaged.

I have a blog as well as a small business that are inspired by Amelia's life.  The blog is called Carried Through Grief and the other is Beyond Words Designs.