Sooner than later maybe?

Well Jen is a little tired tonight so you'll have to put up with me writing this. We had our regular meeting with Dr O'Hara, our regular specialist, along with a standard sonogram. They said everything looked pretty much like last time. Still looks like a horse-shoe kidney and fluid levels are still very low but not any worse (which in our world is good news). We will still have to deal with why the baby isn't able to urinate and if that is the kidney or a urinary tract blockage or what. As far as we know they won't know that until after birth or know it is something surgery can fix or not.

The Dr seems to have shifted plans some today though now that we are 27 weeks + along. They consider 26 weeks as being the point where a baby has a decent chance in neo natal intensive care. So the Dr recommended that Jenny get a couple of steroid shots. Steroids are what they use to help increase lung development in premature babies. Jenny taking the shots won't actually help the lungs develop at this stage but if she gives birth early having the steroids already in the blood stream gives them a jump start on treatment after birth.

We also now have weekly appointments where they measure how active the baby is and how well he is able to breathe. The have a scale of 1 to 8 that they rank it on. They are doing all this to help keep a very watchful eye to do the best to avoid stillbirth which is still a very high risk for us. We got the feeling from the doctor that she is leaning toward an early birth. She didn't come right out and say when or anything but based on some of the treatment choices we are getting the feeling that it might be coming sooner than we expected.

Well we will keep you all posted as best as we can as we continue our appointments. Thanks to everyone for all the thoughts and prayers! We still have a long battle ahead and are far from out of the woods at all but at least taking steps in the right direction still.

Fetal Echo-Sept. 23rd appt.

We went to see Dr. Battise, the fetal cardiologist today and she did a fetal echo on the baby's heart. As they were doing the echo, the Dr. and the tech thought they saw a hole but when they went over it and looked at it from several directions they decided that maybe it was just a false reading. She also said that the chambers looked equal in size which is a good sign because if there is an issue one side of the four chambers would be larger than the opposite side. Before we left the Dr. said that we should plan for a echo after the baby is born to check the heart while he is in the NICU to make sure that the heart is working well.

Our take on all this is that it is good news and that we are just continuing to pray that God will watch over our little man and keep him growing. We go to see Dr. O'Hara on the 29th because Dr. Farb had to cancel the appointment that was scheduled tomorrow.

Things seem to be going well because he is moving all around and I am hungry all the time!! The other night I just laid there and just watched my belly dance, he was moving all around. I told Lanny he must be a dancer because he was moving so much. He then asked me "what music was he listening to" and I said "the music in his head". Lanny just rolled his eyes and said "yeah, he got that from you!" I just laughed, because it's true!!

We do want to thank all of you for your support during this trying time in our lives. It is very uplifting and lets us know that we are truly lucky to have friends and family care so much about us and our son!!! We love you guys!

Sad/Scary News

Well, as some of you know we found out some sad and scary news about the baby after our second sonogram. Dr. Lopez came in and told us she had some worries about the sonogram. She said that the baby had a cyst on its kidney and we had seriously low amniotic fluid so we were going to need to go to a specialist to better see what we were up against. She said that the baby was in the 85th percentile for growth so that was promising but that she wanted me to do the triple screen to check for chromosomal abnormalities

Of course we were freaking out and worried sick! The nurse said she would call us when she sets up an appointment for us to see the specialist as well as the triple screen results later in the week. Lanny and I went home and just cried and called our families with the scary news. I prepared myself for the worst and wasn't sure why God thought I was so strong because I am so not strong enough to take this on!!! The nurse called later that week and said that the specialist couldn't get us in until Aug. 12th for a sonogram and the 13th for a consultation.

So we went to the sonogram and couldn't see much difference from what we saw the last time we had a sono, so we still knew nothing. Plus the darn kid had it's hands behind its back and it's legs crossed over its face, which you would think would be a great way to show off what you got but no...not this kid. The next day we got to see Dr. O'Hara and she gave us the worst news I have ever heard in my life! She told us that the issues the baby has are fatal, I broke into tears...it was like a nightmare I couldn't wake up from! She said that the sonogram looked like the baby had Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney Disease on both kidneys, an issue with the heart because of it's large size, no lung development and low amniotic fluid. Dr. O'Hara was awesome, she delivered some horrible news that you could tell broke her heart to tell us. She has the best bed side manner. She then told us that she wanted us to do another sonogram to show us what she was talking about.

We all (the dr., the resident, the intern and the sono tech) went in to do a sonogram and Dr. O'Hara began showing us all the babies issues. It was so hard to not cry and to try to take all of this in to understand what we were up against. We left the doctors office heart broken and trying to figure out how we were going to handle all this.

Lanny and I spent the next week just trying to process and deal with this information. Lanny has been my rock, I absolutely married the best man in the world! He is an amazing Godly man who had talked me down from many a ledge, I am very thankful he is here to support me. We also let our family know about the news and the support from them has been amazing. Everyone is here for us and praying for this baby, the support is really helping us get through this.

Today we had another sonogram and appt with Dr. O'Hara and the news is a little more encouraging. The tech was doing our sonogram and when she got to the kidneys she identified them with a bunch of arrows which I thought was interesting. I wasn't sure what it meant but it stuck out in my mind as weird. So the tech said she was done, that she would go talk to the dr. and they would be right back. The dr. came in and had a bit of a smile on her face, she asked us how we were doing and I told her hopefully better since the corners of her mouth were up a little. She began to smile and said that Michele the tech might have found an interesting discover...the baby might have a horseshoe shaped kidney and that the cysts could be pockets of renal fluid (basically urine) that can't easily escape. This to us is good news because people can live with this condition, the possible urinary blockage is an issue but could possibly be taken care of with surgery.

Our next step will be a Fetal Eco cardiogram to check on the baby's heart. We have that appointment on Sept. 23rd with Dr. Battiste a fetal cardiac specialist and an appointment with the other Fetal Maternal specialist (since our dr. will be out of town) on Sept. 24th for another sonogram and consultation.

All we ask is that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers while we are going through this tough time.

Oh, I forgot to mentioned...we found out the sex of the baby...it's a BOY!!!

2nd Sonogram

Well, we had our 2nd sonogram and we got to see the baby from just about every angle but the most important one...we still don't know what the baby's sex is yet!! That little booger wouldn't move it's legs. It's a big bummer because we really wanted to know what it is...guess the baby has other plans. We have a doctors appointment tomorrow so hopefully she will give us good news on how the baby is developing. Everything looked good to us but what do we know! We got to see the brain, kidneys, heart, legs, arms and a little bit of a profile but the baby wasn't in the best position, he or she was breech, so it was hard to really see it's face.

Based on the measurements of the sonogram the baby is 10 oz. and they changed the due date to December 24th, which makes me just laugh!! Poor kid! Oh well, we will sure make the baby's birthday a BIG deal no matter when it's born.

Week 16

I just wanted to update the blog to let you all know I think I can feel the baby moving. It's subtle but it feels like a little flutter of movement. Not quite full on butterfly feel but movement of some sort. It sure makes this all so real to me! I just wish Lanny could feel it...he will soon enough I guess. We are scheduled for a sonogram on the 28th to find out the sex of the baby and I am really excited to find out what we are having. One of our friends told us we needed to make our guess before we go in to find out so I asked Lanny what he thought we were having and he said "girl" I agreed with him...I am guessing it's a girl because I keep having dreams about a sweet little baby girl with a somewhat balded head and chubby cheeks. We will be happy with whatever God gives us but it's fun to make a prediction...so what is your prediction. Check out the poll I've created and let your voice be heard!!

2nd Dr. Appointment

Well we went for our 2nd appointment today. It look forever to see her, we waited about an hour and 1/2 but once she put the Doppler on and we heard the heartbeat it was well worth it. Thalia said that the baby's heart was beating about 156 beats per minute. Then she asked me if I had any motherly instinct as to what we were having, I said "No, not really." I don't know what we are having but I am excited to find out.

At the end of next month we will have a sonogram and learn the sex of the baby, YEAH!!!! I get a notice once a week telling me what's going on with the baby and at week 14, the baby can squint, frown, grimace and suck his/her thumb. He/She is about the size of a lemon at 3 1/2 inches long and weighs about 1 1/2 ounces. I am going to try and update what's going on with the baby as things begin to change. I am also hopeful to get a picture of the first sonogram up on the blog so you can see the baby when it looked like a jelly bean!

Week 1-14

I didn't really blog much about my pregnancy to date because it's been pretty uneventful...well except for that it has begun!! I have had a great first trimester. I haven't gotten sick, just tired but I have slowly started to get my energy back. Life is just great right now! I am one of those people who at this point would say she loves being pregnant! My clothes are just starting to get tight and I have begun wearing prego pants...the best part is the elastic band, a girls best friend!!