Meg and I learned we were pregnant around six weeks along, and the six weeks that followed were predominated by feelings of joy, excitement, gratefulness and a sense of ease. I remember walking into our 12-week ultrasound with a level of confidence that bordered on unfounded invulnerability. I felt on top of the world and genuinely, yet naively, believed nothing could go wrong.

Teddy wasn’t exactly cooperative during our first few ultrasounds. When he wasn’t doing flips during his 12-week scan, he was contorting his body in ways that made whatever the sonographer was trying to look at nearly impossible to see. In between bouts of frustration and impatience, we revered his existence. There simply had been no feeling as first-time parents like seeing your child on a small black and white monitor in below average resolution showing crystal clear resemblances of his father’s recalcitrance.

When the sonographer told us that Teddy’s nuchal fold — the area containing fluid behind his neck — measured around seven millimeters thick, and that they typically liked to see this measurement under three millimeters, initially I was confused.  Did that mean something was wrong? That couldn’t possibly be the case . . .  The sonographer was so calm as she reported her findings. Only a few minutes later would Meg tell me as tears ran down her face that she knew something was off when the sonographer’s hand holding the probe started trembling on her belly. Seconds later the sonographer would deliver the results.

The feelings that followed may best be characterized as deep fear and uncertainty. Would we lose our child? What was causing his symptom? We were told that causes could range from a genetic defect, to a virus, to a heart condition, to an innocuous anomaly, and that only time would tell. In a matter of minutes, the foundation upon which our prior optimism had been built was shaken to its core. We didn’t know at the time that we would be tried, strengthened and shaped in a way that would bring us closer together and more resolute in our love and commitment to our precious boy. In the meantime, we prayed, we cried, we fought and we forgave until the picture became clearer.