"Knot" Your Average Miracle

"All babies are miracles, but you have a true miracle baby."  I will never forget hearing Dr. Bassil say those words to us in the recovery room.  

I remember right when Landon was born, he told Chris to start taking pictures.  Chris took several and then I remember hearing the doctor tell Chris to get a picture of the umbilical cord and he would explain later why he wanted him to do that.  I didn't think anything about it really.  I was too busy listening to the sweet sound of my baby boy crying and anxiously awaiting to see his face and kiss him for the first time.

A little later, when we got to the recovery room, Dr. Bassil came by to check on us.  He then wanted to explain the importance of the picture he asked Chris to take.  He said that Landon's cord had what they call a "true knot".  Often times the baby's cord can get wrapped around them, but this was different.  It was an actual knot in the cord.  He said that had the knot tighten while he was in the womb, we would be dealing with a very different outcome and probably wouldn't be holding our baby today.  

I was in a bit of a fog from the medicine and the surgery, but I remember asking how this happened and how long ago.  He said it most likely happened around week 15 or 16 when the baby is still small and has lots of room to move and flip around in the waters.  I asked if they should have found this on the ultrasounds and he explained that it would be very hard to find it with ultrasound because the ultrasound is 2D and it's hard to get a good view of the entire cord.  I squeezed Landon and thanked God again for this precious baby.  Not only was he our miracle after 15 months of trying and 3 loses, but he proved to be even more of a miracle.  

I did a little more research once we were home and found that true knots occur in only 1% of pregnancies.  One report also stated that tightened knots are associated with a fourfold increase risk of fetal death.  

Here are two more pictures of the knot.  

****Warning.....You can see blood in these pictures so view at your own discretion.  I just think it's too amazing not to share.****