I had yet another ultrasound on Friday. Let me do some 'splaining: what I didn't share on this blog is that at the anatomy scan/boy-or-girl ultrasound, we were told that it was possible that there was a hole in Declan's heart (specifically, in the SEPTUM that separates the two ventricles in the bottom part of the heart).
My doctor was unsure, so she scheduled another ultrasound about a week later to get a more detailed view of the heart and to have a "specialist" review the new ultrasound. So, we went a week-ish later and the bad news was explained to us more fully: yes, indeed, Declan did have a hole in the septum of his heart. Woah.
What that meant was that I might have to deliver in Milwaukee where the pediatric surgeons are, in case he needed surgery. The specialist elaborated even more: 78% of the babies with this particular heart defect have it healed on its own before birth. Of the remaining babies, only half need surgery. Additionally, 3% of the babies with this heart defect have Down's Syndrome or another chromosomal abnormality such as Trisomy 13 or 21 (I think those were the numbers).
After receiving this news, we were ushered into another room where we met with a genetic counselor, who explained a little bit more about what I covered above and said that we could do amniocentesis or a blood screen to determine if the baby has any of those abnormalities. {Let me tell you, I did not wake up ready on that day to go through that. But, God is good. He walked with us through it.}
After telling us of that information, that there was a 1/4 percent chance of miscarriage after amniocentesis, that there is a false positive risk with the blood test...we each freaked out a bit internally. So, we asked for a few minutes and prayed. God told us to trust Him and so we decided on no tests--it's not like it would change much for us--we would still go through the rest of the pregnancy and delivery as normal.
We left, feeling rather good about everything. We decided not to tell our parents just yet, as my mom was dealing with the death of her mother that had happened the day after our anatomy scan. We told our parents a couple of weeks later and began sharing with others bit by bit. We only shared this information with a select group of people to avoid looking like we were gunning for sympathy. That, and I think we were still scared and unsure and processing it.
In the interim, we prayed consistently for Declan's heart to be healed, for his development to continue on as normal and surrendered him to his Heavenly Father who loves him more than either Ryan or I ever can--which must be a lot, for all the love I already have for this little guy.
Fast forward about 8 weeks...I endure another ultrasound--not as painful this time, but when I was on my back Declan was on my vena cava vein which caused me nausea, rapid heart beat, cold sweats, and light-headedness like I was going to pass out...after only about two or three minutes! You can imagine the extraordinarily slow progress of the ultrasound! I would have to turn onto my side and rest, letting the blood flow resume, for a few minutes afterward. I thus flipped back-and-forth for the first half hour of the ultrasound. I was continuously praying that God would relieve my sickness and put Declan into the correct position for the ultrasound; and while lying on my side about the half-hour mark the tech told me not to move, that she was getting the views she needed! No more feeling sick!
After she finished, we were moved into that same room to wait for the doctor to review our scans and be ready to tell us the results/progress. He called us in and said that he would start by showing us what a normal septum should look like, it was completely intact, etc, etc, blah blah blah...I was a little tired at this point and cannot remember exactly what he said. He then asked us to examine the name in the upper left-hand corner of the picture and it said, "MILLER, NICOLE!" We then all rejoiced and he admitted that he wanted to "tease" us a little. It was smiles all around, and congratulations on our healthy baby, etc. Wonderful. God has answered that prayer.
Additionally, without asking, the ultrasound tech provided us with some 4-D views of Declan's face! And while I feel like I'm cheating by seeing them, it is also rather comforting as I don't see the Down's Syndrome characteristic facial features. Just a confirmation of the trust I place in God. However, it does seem that the little man has his daddy's nose and my nostrils...at least at this point! So cute.
All right! After getting all that off my chest, I will go on to give my updates about the past week...besides the answer to prayer!
I am having trouble sleeping {surprise, surprise}. That's not new. I feel like I'm stretching again, which is uncomfortable. Declan kicks ALL THE TIME and sometimes it is almost disturbing to see how much my stomach distorts in reaction to him moving! I still love it, though. Ryan is finally able to catch the kicks on a regular basis and even exclaimed, "WOW!" in reaction to one of the stronger kicks. Declan seems content to sit under my right set of ribs...a lot. Rather uncomfortable.
Often, I feel like I have a dragon residing inside my chest due to the amount of heartburn I have...it doesn't seem to matter much just what I eat anymore, anything and everything seems to cause it. So, Tums are my constant companion. I've discovered that the mint ones are ok, the regular fruit-flavored are decent, and that the tropical fruit ones are weird, gross even.
I also find that my skin is r-e-a-l-l-y dry and I have some stretch marks (I'm still not concerned about them, but slightly disappointed in the lack of a starburst around my belly button...I was kinda hoping for that one! Hahaha!). Oh, and my belly button is getting shallower... :/ I am still too small for my maternity shirts to fit nicely (YES!) so I am only in maternity jeans...apparently, all my shirts are really stretchy or too big for me or something. I'll take it.
From what I can remember, I am up about 8 pounds from my first doctor appointment...and 3.3 pounds of that is Declan! According to the weekly update I get in my email inbox for the 29 week mark, he should be at about 2.5 pounds! He is my big boy already! He is also just over 15 inches long and his muscles and lungs are continuing to develop. Oh, and his head is growing bigger to accommodate his growing brain. All this growth contributes to an increased nutritional need (which I feel)--he adds 250 milligrams of calcium to his skeleton per day! I guess I need to make sure and get all my milk and cheese in every day! {ice cream counts too, right???}
The closer I get, the more I just want to meet this little guy that I love so much! And, as much as I "complain" about the difficulties of being pregnant, I don't actually mind it that much. People tell me often that I'm "glowing" or that I "look beautiful" and I feel it. Maybe I'm more confident in myself or more comfortable in my body...I feel like this is freeing! Utterly freeing! I don't have to worry too much about what I look like (unless I'm having a bad hair day--then it IS a bad day for me), I am wearing less make up even though my skin's far from perfect--I just don't mind as much. I feel beautiful from the inside out and know that I am exactly where God wants me to be, doing exactly what He wants me to do.
Lately, I've been tired. Less sleep does that to me. Then I'm unmotivated to do things. I want to finish Declan's nursery--specifically I have curtains to hem and hang--and start working on Christmas presents but I am missing the energy and motivation to do them.
Next week we start our Lamaze classes and I am a bit nervous about them...we shall see if my husband is the one cracking not-funny jokes throughout the class because he is nervous...I suspect he WILL be...but we'll see if he surprises me.
Wow, this post is getting long. Just so much to write about this week! Below is my oh-my-goodness-I'm-29-weeks-pregnant-already update photo. Enjoy!
Cheers!
~N~
No comments:
Post a Comment