Those nine months a mom carries her baby are filled with joy, anticipation, and a dose of uncertainty. What the new parents hope for is their bundle of joy to be healthy. Sadly, that is not always the case.
Jennie Wilklow, from Highland, New York, couldn’t wait to meet her daughter. She and her husband were over the moon to hold her in their arms. All the ultrasounds and doctor’s appointment suggested the baby was healthy, so they were eased and never thought sweet Anna would be born with a condition that would change all of their lives forever.
Jennie delivered Anna via C-section at 34 weeks. Doctors told her she looked beautiful and that was all Jennie needed to hear at that point.
Shortly after, the proud mom heard her daughter cry, and that was just another sign that everything was right with her little jewel.
When her husband visited Jennie, he was strangely silent and looked worried and puzzled.
“My husband’s silence scared me; he just sat in shock as the doctor left, and I prodded for more info,” Jennie shared with Cafe Mom.
“He just kept saying, ‘It’s bad.’ What does that even mean? I thought in my head. He told me, ‘Jennie, I looked in her eyes, and she has the most beautiful soul.’”
Anna was diagnosed with harlequin ichthyosis, a rare condition that causes thick diamond-shaped plates that are separated by deep cracks. “As they tried frantically to help her, her skin hardened within seconds (of birth). After hardening, it began to split, causing open wounds all over her body,” Jennie told Cafe Mom.
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Although doctors weren’t sure she would survive, Anna beat the odds and is thriving. “She was beauty in the purest form,” her mom said.
There isn’t cure, and the treatment is quite demanding as it requires constant baths and keeping the skin as much moisturized as possible. “Every couple of hours I covered her with Vaseline and bathed her for many hours of the day. I had dreamed for years about the things my baby would wear, and though it seemed so trivial, it was what I struggled with most,” Jennie said.
In an attempt to raise awareness about this condition, Jennie posts photos of Anna on her Instagram page harlequindiva. She opens up about the everyday struggles and what it is like to have a child with harlequin ichthyosis.
“Anna captured everyone’s hearts because she is the purest form of perfection. Doing the work every day is simple when I’m doing it for her, and with every new accomplishment, the world celebrates with me,” Jennie told Cafe Mom.
She adds, “I now understand that I was given her because of the love I already carried in my heart for my daughter. Anna was meant for me, and I for her, and together we will show the world what true beauty is.”
A month after the Tom Cruise rumors, Katie Holmes has confirmed the truth about their daughter in a rare interview.
Katie Holmes stated in an unusual interview that she want to “protect” the daughter she had with Tom Cruise.
In 2012, after six years of marriage, Holmes and Mission Impossible star Cruise called it quits. Their breakup was well reported.
After the couple’s divorce, which was the subject of many rumors, Holmes retained custody of their daughter, Suri. Holmes has been candid about how little of the now sixteen-year-old has been viewed over time.
Holmes gained notoriety at the age of 19 after landing a role in the teen drama Dawson’s Creek.
In an interview with Glamour Magazine, Holmes stated, “I remember really wanting to grow as an actor and not just do things to capitalize on the moment when we were doing Dawson’s Creek and it was successful.” “I wanted to learn from other people.”
But after she began dating Hollywood A-lister Tom Cruise, the Batman Begins actress hit new heights. The media’s attention in the couple and their family intensified with the birth of their daughter Suri.
The increased scrutiny caused new paparazzi pictures of Tom and Kate’s young daughter to surface almost daily. In response, Katie made the conscious decision to avoid the limelight so as to protect her young daughter’s morals. This resulted in a pause in career that lasted till 2011.
As was previously noted, Tom and Katie split up in 2012, five years after getting married in an Italian ceremony.
Considering that they were two of the most well-known couples on the planet, it would not come as a huge surprise that the rumors went bananas. There was a lot of speculation as to why they broke up, with Holmes being thought to be wary of the Church of Scientology.
Actually, Katie used New York to file for Tom’s divorce. This was purportedly done to improve her chances of being granted sole custody of Suri because the law forbids giving parents who are at odds with one another partial custody of their child.
Once Holmes was given sole custody of the child, she was able to ensure that Suri stayed away from Scientology. Because it was alleged that Tom did not anticipate the divorce, he was unable to control the narrative, as he was accused of doing during his break with Nicole Kidman.
In any case, Holmes’s desperate desire to protect her child doesn’t go away.
Before her most recent film, Rare Objects, debuted, the 44-year-old said:
Since my child was so noticeable when she was a little child, I truly like to protect her, which has been extremely important to me. I feel very lucky to be her mother. She is a very remarkable individual.
The fact that Tom Cruise and his daughter hardly ever interacted was just made public this month. Page Six claims that the 60-year-old Top Gun star is no longer active in Suri’s life and hasn’t seen her in years.
Which do you prefer, Tom Cruise or Katie Holmes? Do you think Katie is acting appropriately by keeping Suri secret from the press?
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