FIGHTING TO GIVE MY GIRL A CHANCE

When Kate Skelton, 39, got the little girl she’d always dreamt of, it wasn’t anything like she thought it would be

- FRANCES LEATE, PUNTEHA VAN TERHEYDEN

My scream of delight rang out around the room as my husband Philip, then 34, beamed back at me. It was July 2014, and we’d just been told at my 20-week scan that our baby was a little girl - the daughter I’d always dreamt of. Back home, I wasted no time in decorating the nursery pink, complete with pink butterflies. We already had our son James, then three, and he, too, was excited to have a little sister on the way.

When Annabelle was born in December, we were all in awe of her. ‘She looks so precious,’ I smiled at Philip as she let out a tiny kitten-like cry nothing like her boisterous and full-of-energy older brother. When, weeks later, she still hadn’t made proper eye contact with me, her dad or brother, I tried not to worry, or compare her.

Only, by the time Annabelle was six months old, it was hard not to, as she lay sleeping on a play mat at baby groups, dwarfed by the other babies, who were sitting on their mums’ laps, grasping for toys and babbling. Her head was also much larger than the other babies’. ‘She hasn’t even sat up yet,’ I panicked to Philip, who agreed her slow development needed to be investigated.

SEEKING ANSWERS

When Annabelle was nine months old and still not crawling, our doctor referred her to a paediatrician, but he told us to be patient and come back in another nine months. As we considered paying privately for further tests, we celebrated her first birthday. Watching her stare at the candles of her cake, I felt overwhelmed with fear. ‘What is wrong with our little girl?’ I kept asking Philip over and over.