Growing Belly

Okay...per Karen's request here are a couple pictures of my growing belly. The first one was when I was 20 weeks along...just a little bump. And the second picture was from last week at 32 weeks along. I can't believe we are already at 33 weeks....this little baby is going to be here before we know it! (P.S. Don't look too closely at me...I hate taking pictures of just myself....I don't think I know how to smile properly if there is no one else in the picture with me...ha!)

Our last Mayo visit

Our most recent visit to Mayo was this last Friday (Feb 15). Our first appointment was with Dr. Allison, our cardiologist, and we had another fetal echocardiogram done. This one went a lot faster than the first one since they already knew what they were looking for. Anyways, we had positive news from her. The left ventricle is still small but seems to be growing in proportion to the right. They couldn't see the arotic arch but they are thinking that it too will be a little more narrow than it should be. But the good news is that the heart seems to be a very strong muscle...it is pumping and working great...the heartbeat is still at 160 which is good....there is no fluid around the heart...yea! And there isn't an irregular rhythm. So all seems to be good except for the fact that the left ventricle is still small so surgery is still the plan of action after the baby is born. We found out that our surgeon will be Dr. Burkhart. Here is a link to his bio:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/bio/11362731.html
The surgery that will be performed after the baby is born is called the Norwood Procedure. Here is a link to the description of that surgery:
http://yourtotalhealth.ivillage.com/norwood-procedure.html
The good news now is that the baby has turned...it was sitting breech for so long they thought he or she might not turn. But now that the baby is head down they will plan to do a induction around 39 weeks...so we are looking at the 2nd week of April for the baby to be born. This will be good because then I will have a shorter healing time and be able to get over to the other hosptial to be with the baby (at Mayo you have to deliver at Methodist hospital but the baby goes over to St. Mary's to the NICU...they are only 10 blocks apart but that seems so far!). Right now they are talking about doing the surgery on the baby's 4th day of life. They need to make sure the baby is stabilized and they need to do all the tests on just the baby to see what exactly they are dealing with. So now we don't see the cardiologist again until after the baby is born. Oh...one more thing....we were alittle confused as to what our baby actually has...they said it was an AV Canal Defect but from what we read it sounded like hypoplastic left heart syndrome...so I wrote Dr. Allison an here is her reply:
Good morning! Sorry for the confusion; although it gets harder to "see" the farther you get in your pregnancy, the baby still has what we would primarily call an Unbalanced AV Canal Defect (right ventricle is dominant, or larger than the tiny left ventricle)-so all babies with this will be treated surgically the same as one with hypoplastic left heart syndrome(HLHS)--functionally the two are very similar and we sort out the very fine details of the anatomy once this little one is born. Nevertheless, the surgery for the various stages is the same for both; initially the Norwood operation. Hope that helps!
Anyway...so that's that. At our next appointment with our other doctor they did another ultrasound and the baby is growing just like it should be which is such an answer to prayer! The baby is measuring about 3lb 6oz! And the baby is practicing it's breathing and they said we have a very good baby on our hands...he or she is doing exactly what it should be doing. They don't see anything else to be concerned about so we will just continue to 39 weeks!
Thank you all for your prayers....we definitely feel like we are being covered in them. We still believe that God can give us a miracle and that our baby will be born without any defects to the heart. But we also know that God has a plan for us and our baby and it might not include that miracle....however, He is faithful and He promises not to give us anything that we cannot handle so we have this amazing peace about our whole situation...which we feel can only be a God thing! And we figure this little one of ours must be so special if God already thinks that he or she can handle something like this at such an early age...there must be big plans already in place fot this little one! Thank you all again for your prayers and positive words for us...we appreciate them all and and thank you in advance for the continued prayers and support! Well I think that is all for now. Until next time...

Series of Ultrasound Pics

These were our first ultrasound pictures taken on Aug. 29, 2007 at just 7 weeks along! It's amazing that they can already see a little baby inside of there!

This was our second ultrasound...such a difference from our first one already! This was done on Sept. 24, 2007 at almost 11 weeks along. The baby was already active, waving his or her hands around and looking like he or she was scratching it's head! Amazing!

These are my favorite ultrasound pictures. These were done at 19 weeks on Nov. 19, 2007. They are the most clear because the baby is still so small but what a change from just a few short weeks before! The last one is actually a 3-D ultrasound pic...pretty cool!

These pics were from our ultrasound on Jan. 3, 2008 (25 weeks). This was the day they were checking out the baby's heart for the first time down at Mayo. Looks like our baby was staying calm by sucking his or her thumb:)

These ultrasound pics were from our last visit which was on Feb 15, 2008. The baby is 31 weeks along here...the ultrasound tech says that our baby already has chubby cheeks and that it's very

flexible...those are his legs and feet up by his or her face!

News of the baby

Well here the story goes...on Jan 2nd we had a meeting with a specialist from the Mayo Clinic. My doctor here in Northfield was a little concerned about our baby's size and the amount of fluid surrounding him or her so she suggested we see the specialist when he came to town. During the ultrasound he first focused in on the brain and didn't see anything that concerned him. And then he went to the heart. What he found was that the left ventricle appeared to be smaller than the right. He also said that the baby was only measuring in the 6th percentile for size and there was not much fluid. He quickly got up...made a phone call down to Mayo...and then informed us that it was not looking good and we needed to be seen down at Mayo tomorrow. Well needless to say, that was not a very good day for us. I think by the end of the day I was emotionally spent! But we kept praying and calling on family and friends to help us pray. That night (or early morning) at 4 a.m. I woke up and just started crying. Well that woke Jon up and we started praying again. All of a sudden our baby just started kicking like crazy and really hard! I had never felt the baby kick that hard...Jon could even feel it which was the first time and so cool! I told Jon that I believe the baby took a growth spurt over night and he told me that he was thinking that they would find so much fluid around the baby that all was going to be okay. Well we couldn't sleep after that so we got up and decided to go into Northfield for breakfast and just enjoy our morning. That afternoon we went to Mayo and first met with the pediatric cardiologist. After about an hour of laying there having a fetal echocardiogram done we met Dr. Allison. She told us that it didn't seem to look as bad as what Dr. Rose had originally thought but that it was still a serious heart defect. What the baby has is called an unbalance AV Canal defect and also it borders along the lines of hypoplastic left heart syndrom. The good news was that the left ventricle still seemed to be growing and it was pumping and working on its own. So that was a little better news than what we thought we'd get. Then we went to have another ultrasound and meet with Dr. Rose. Well the first thing he said was "where did all that fluid come from?" And then he said, "lets see where the baby is measuring today since yesterday it was in the 6th percentile." Well the ultra tech couldn't believe he said that because the baby was measuring in the 33rd percentile that day! Praise God! And people think prayer doesn't work! So now his tune changed. Instead of saying the baby would have to be born early he said that the baby needed to stay in as long as possible to keep growing healthy and strong...the day before he was suggesting we do steroid shots to develope the baby's lungs so that the baby could be born early...he thought that would be the best possible option because the risk of the baby being born stillborn was high. Well not anymore. We have a fighter on our hands! Well there is the long story...I'll write later on our news from our appointments since then. Until then....

Creating a Blog

HI Everyone!
We've decided that it is time to enter the world of blogging! I can't believe we are taking this huge step:) But with the news of the baby and all we thought this would be the best way to keep everyone informed as to what is going on on a day to day basis. If some of you don't know what I'm taking about as far as the baby is concerned look for a future post on that. Until then...