hallelujah!

I am so relieved I feel like crying. In fact, it has taken me a couple of days to put in to words how happy I am. Our ultrasound on Wednesday showed completely normal growth and no evidence of any extra fluid anywhere! When the doctor came in to tell us she said almost word-for-word what AnneMarie told me at the beginning of this whole ordeal, “This is one of those rare cases where if you never would have had an ultrasound, no one would ever have known there was ever problem.”

It makes you realize how intricate life is and how often we probably have no idea how close we are to losing it, only to have everything work out fine. Even though there has been so much worrying and stress, I am so glad we were able to witness up close the amazing way this child has been formed and healed. I feel so blessed that God chose to use me as the vessel for this miracle.

So, now they are just going to let me wait for natural labor and most likely will have no interventions needed! They will still continue to monitor me twice a week just to be sure no problems return and that my amniotic fluid stays good (it was a little low this time). Also, I still have to monitor my blood sugar and blood pressure and keep to the low-carb diet. But hopefully in a week or two we will get to meet this little one that we have been praying over for so long!

Liam "checking on the baby".
He insisted we bring his play doctor kit to the hospital with us this time so the doctors could fix the baby.
I guess it worked!

still waiting for answers

We have been anticipating today’s appointment for a while, knowing that it was to be the “big consultation” with the specialists and the NICU doctor to discuss the special care plan for delivery and what to expect for the baby after the birth. We expected to get all of our questions answered as far as natural birth vs. induction vs. cesarean as well as what procedures might need to be done on the baby and how long we would have to stay at the hospital. We went in today supported by prayers and in hopeful anticipation of positive information. However, now we feel like we know even less about what is going on than we did before. We didn’t end up meeting with the NICU doctor due to scheduling issues. And our consultation with the specialist left us with more questions than answers. Basically, the answer to anything anyone might be wondering is, “No one knows.”

The good news is that the fluid around the lungs is gone as far as they can see. The lungs are fully developing and seem to be functioning as they should be for this stage in development. This is an enormous relief as the chances of this happening were very low to begin with. All along the doctors have been so concerned with the lungs that they only ever mentioned as a side note that there seemed to be some fluid around the abdomen area. But they always said that didn’t concern them as much. However, now that the lungs seem to be fine, the focus has shifted to the baby’s abdomen, which appears to be growing at a faster rate than the rest of the body. Part of this is due to the excess fluid, but today we were told that the amount of fluid present there did not account for the total size increase. Although, the liver and organs seemed to be normal. So, if it’s not the organs or the fluid, what is making the belly larger than normal? No one knows. The problem with this is that if the belly continues to grow larger than the head, it could make a natural delivery impossible. I also asked if the enlarged abdomen could indicate health problems for the baby after it is born. “Maybe, no one knows.”

So, now we will wait another two weeks for yet another ultrasound to see if the abdominal measurements continue to be concerning. After that we will meet with the specialist and the NICU doctor to discuss the special care plan for delivery and what to expect for the baby after the birth. We’ve heard that before. Just waiting for some answers.

the two hours before breakfast

Awake to a child one inch in front of my face yelling “time to make smoothies mama!”

Tell him to go eat a banana while I try to stumble out of bed.

Go to the bathroom, put in contact lenses.

Wrestle my compression stockings on.

Rest for a minute.

Take my blood pressure. It’s normal...for now.

Find him in the bathroom naked and washing his hands.

His overnight diaper is dry…the bathroom is not - Time Out #1.

Wipe up the counter, floor, toilet seat, and wall.

Take down the shower curtain, rinse out the shower.

Help him clean up and dress himself.

Re-fold and put away the rejected wardrobe options.

Go through the hampers to find enough laundry to make up a load and put everything in the washer with the shower curtain.

Wipe up bits of banana that have been left around the house.

Make my bed.

Find him trying to build a fire in the fireplace - Time Out #2.

Assemble the truckload of vitamins and medications I am taking and attempt not to throw up while choking each one down.

Hear him “accidentally” dump over the basket of freshly folded laundry in my room - Time Out #3.

Pick up and re-fold the laundry.

Discover we don’t have ingredients for smoothies.

Toast him a bagel and pour him a glass of milk.

Deny his request for ranch dressing on his bagel and convince him to go with nut butter.

Get him in his chair, pray for strength for the rest of this day, serve him his food.

Toast my bagel, pour my milk.

Get him another glass of milk (he did said please).

Sit down to eat my breakfast.

Take a deep breath and look out at the sunny day.

Realize how thankful I am.