Meinen family

Hello, my name is Jenna and I am putting this together for my sister, Brittany and her husband, Wayne, and family.

Currently, Brittany and Wayne are expecting their daughter, Aubrey. Transparently, Brittany and Wayne a true supporters of their family. Typically, they are the ones who volunteer to help and be the rock the family needs.

Unfortunately, Brittany and Wayne have hit hard times and received devastating news about their unborn daughter, Aubrey. Please see full details from the Meinen Family. Aubrey has a very rare condition that caused her brain to not form correctly.

After receiving devastating news about Aubrey, medical bills have been coming in and Brittany has used all her PTO to go to the weekly appointments required for Aubrey. As a result, Brittany’s maternity leave will be unpaid, on top of the medical bills coming in and care required for Aubrey. Aubrey, our beautiful ray of sunshine, will be placed on hospice care if/when she arrives into this world.

If you are unable to help, we completely understand and ask that you keep the Meinen Family in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.

From the Meinen Family:

We have a devastating update on our sweet Aubrey. We initially were watching some tubes inside her brain that were slightly swollen at our 20 week ultrasound. The specialists wanted us to get an MRI to check out the rest of her brain, just to make sure everything else was ok. We did the MRI last Thursday and unexpectedly found out that Aubrey has a very rare condition called smooth brain. It happens in 1 and 100,000 pregnancies. It means that the folds in her front and side parts of her brain did not develop normally and the folds need to be deep in order for those parts of the brain to function. Unfortunately Aubrey's brain is missing a significant amount of tissue in those parts of the brain, which significantly decreases her brain function. The front of her brain is her personality, and the sides control her eating, breathing, and cognitive functioning like walking and talking. Unfortunately because all of those areas are so underdeveloped, she would need life support like a feeding or breathing tube to keep her body alive but she would not have much brain function. She would also develop epilepsy (seizures) and would most likely develop cerebral palsy (affects body movement and muscle coordination).

Wayne and I had to make some tough decisions about the quality of life she would have and how to proceed once she is born. Because of our decisions, the Drs have told us that Aubrey could pass shortly after birth or live for a couple months. It just depends on what she can do once she has to function on her own without my support in the womb.

We are still trying to wrap our brains around the diagnosis and are devastated by the news but we feel at peace with our decision for her. Our plan right now is to try and survive everyday life, live the next couple of months like we would if the pregnancy was normal, love her as much as we can, and know we will soon have to say our goodbyes. Moving forward, we really would like to try for another baby but we first have to do some genetic testing to make sure this wasn’t caused genetically.

One of our biggest stressors is all of the unknowns after birth. We are not sure if Aubrey will be able to breathe or eat on her own. Hospice will be there to help guide our time with her, but we are very nervous about her time at home if she struggles. Our main concern is making sure she is comfortable.

The other main stressor is finances. Being new to the district and using the little PTO time I had left for all of Aubrey's additional appointments, my maternity leave is unpaid. With medical bills starting to arrive we are worried about stressing over finances and not being able to focus on our time with Aubrey. This is very hard for Wayne and I to bring up, but we know if we were on the other side of this situation we would want to help.

Many of our family, friends, and colleagues have urged us to start an account to help our family during this difficult time. We appreciate any donations, prayers, hugs, kind words, and meals anyone would like to offer. Thank you to everyone for all of the love and support you have shown our family since finding out about Aubrey's diagnosed. We have been blown away by all of the love and kindness ❤️

With Love,

The Meinen family