Our Little Legend...

In honour of dwarfism awareness month I am sharing our story and how my original pregnancy blog (which comically lasted all of five minutes - being pregnant is tiring you know lol) - the little puffin - has taken on a whole new meaning. Well the term 'little' has anyway! When Callum was 3 months and five days old we were called into hospital to discuss the results of some tests. At birth Callum's head was considered large - plotting on the 98th centile compared to his body which was only around the 58th - and after weeks of monitoring his growth we were sent for X-rays and blood tests which led to where we are now:- There is a strong possibility that our beautiful boy has a condition called achondroplasia which is the most common form of short limbed dwarfism. Dwarfism affects roughly 1 in 30,000 people and 80% of children born with achondroplasia are born to average size parents like us. They have average size trunks and short arms and legs, most with a larger skull. The condition is caused by a mutation in the FGFR3 gene which basically tells the skeleton to grow. The long bones in the upper arms and thighs remain short which lead to their smaller stature. The average height for a male is 4"4' with females measuring slightly shorter and not many growing past 4"10'. In Callums case we are still being diagnosed. It's a long procedure, well feels that way anyway, and currently we are awaiting the results of genetic testing. So far it's been quite the rollercoaster. In all honesty, and that’s what this blog is about, I was gutted. I'm not going to lie. Sat there holding my precious baby being told all the things this could mean for him and feeling completely overwhelmed, I cried right there and then. To me, it felt like I was grieving! I was grieving the baby I thought I had and the future I had planned for him. And weeks on I admit I still sometimes do. We all have our good days and with those inevitably come the bad.. the 'why me' 'why us' days!! And as I have now leant to accept, why not! But now I know that there was no need to grieve him at all. He is after all still here right in front my eyes making my smile every single day! And he is still as precious, if not more now than ever! He will simply be different and there is nothing wrong with that! They say that it's amazing how a little person can turn the whole world around and he will do just that.

Callum is now almost 5 months old and making us proud every single day.

#achondroplasia #dwarfism #babyboy