Saturday, October 29, 2011

What's going on with us....

Scroll down three posts to the one that I wrote back in August for a short explanation of a sad family situation. I've tried to tell most of you who read this blog (and I'm sure my number of readers has diminished) but for those I haven't I wanted to let you know what's going on as my due date approaches. I will try to update my blog as I have things to write about but for now not much as changed since August.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

30 week update


Here's a picture before my 30-week appointment last week. We had a sonogram that day. The baby has continued to grow and the heartbeat has been strong and normal despite no change in the conditions that the 20 week sonogram showed. The doctors believe that it's Trisomy 18 (I'll let you do your own google search but basically the baby has an extra 18th chromosome and that has cause the abnormalities.)


The problems with the baby haven't caused me any pregnancy problems that a normal pregnancy would have. I'm just dealing with the regular 3rd trimester uncomfortableness and some hip pain that was similar to what I had with Lydia. I'm also having some sciatic nerve issues but again that isn't abnormal for pregnancy.


The sonogram I had was done in the doctors office by one of my obstetricians. He tried to tell us the sex of the baby since the baby's legs were crossed at the 20 week sonogram. He looked between the baby's legs and said, "well, I don't see anything so I'm pretty sure it's a girl." So we're going with girl for now but I'm not 100 percent sure.


At first we were concerned that the Trisomy 18 would cause pre-term labor but as time as gone on we have found that the pregnancy is a waiting game. Thankfully I have been able to feel her move pretty regularly so I haven't been as worried about hearing the baby's heartbeat as I go into my appointments. The baby could still pass away in utero before I'm full term but we are hopeful that she will make it through labor and that we will get to meet her even if it is for a few minutes. Of course nothing is guaranteed.

Emotionally, so much of this really hasn't hit us yet in the sense that the hard part is yet to come. Since we found out the sad news and dealt with the initial shock, life has gotten mostly back to normal except that at least once a week, I tell someone new about the baby. That's where we are right now, just telling people slowly and reading Scripture and books on loss and grief. We'll be meeting with our pastor soon too. As always we appreciate your prayers.