Date is set

Our delivery date was set today.....scary! My c-section is set for Thursday, February 21st. I'll be exactly 32 weeks which is 4 weeks from tomorrow. I feel like I am cheating since I'm not going the full 40 weeks, but its not by choice. If we weren't having problems we obviously wouldn't be delivering early so I guess I shouldn't feel that way. Now that we have the day set, and it is so soon, I am starting to feel sad that it is almost over. I actually like being pregnant...it does have a few very nice perks! I am very excited to see her but sad about missing the last 2 months. And I am going to miss feeling her move too. This may not be going as planned and hoped for but in 4 weeks I will have a pretty little girl and none of this will make a difference. Maybe next time??? Cayson went with me today to see the Dr. He was fascinated by hearing the heartbeat and wanted to hear it again. The Dr even put the doppler up to him so he could hear his own heartbeat. He thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to take it home with us. I wish I had a picture of his face when he heard the baby, it was priceless! That's it!

5 weeks

Here are some new pictures of Carly. She's looking like more of a little person now. I think she looks mostly like Thad right now but its hard to tell still. Please, someone tell me she looks like me too!!!! And yep, you read right. We don't have the date yet (we will schedule that on wednesday) but we are delivering at 32 weeks...that is 5 weeks away! I actually hit 32 weeks on Feb. 22nd but don't plan on scheduling the delivery until the following week. We did better this past month with the growth issue. The brain size only increased 4 mm which is good considering the previous month it increased 10 mm. Our Dr thinks she may be stabilizing but the swelling is still way above and beyond the severe point. He says that as long as the brain doesn't start pushing on the skull we have a good shot at the brain recovering but we wont know anything until she comes. We have our next ultrasound in 3 weeks, Feb 8th. He'll look at the pictures and as long as everything looks okay we'll have 2 weeks to go. SCARY!!! I am not looking to foreward to staying in the hospital for almost a week but I guess we do what we have to. The bright side for me is less stretch marks, no episiotomy (of course my other incision will be larger and probably more painful but the idea of being cut down there just makes that seem worse...), good pain drugs, no false labor or 5 trips to the hospital, and not going through 36 hours of labor. I'll put up my new due date when we find out! Thank you everyone for keeping us and Carly in your prayers. I have no doubt that we may have gotten different news if we didn't have so many people keeping us in their prayers.

This picture is my favorite...she looks like she is smiling and her cute little hand is in her face!

Neuro visit

We saw the neurosurgeon on Friday January 4th for the first time. He looked at our MRI films and brain scan images and came to the same conclusion that the other Dr's had. The swelling is pretty severe. The ventricles are over 3 times the size that they should be. At the time of the MRI there was about 10mm between her skull and the brain (in the back) which doesn't leave much room for any more growth. He feels that with the swelling being so severe that it is in her best interest to deliver early. We are talking as early as 30 weeks (4 weeks away) and probably no later than 34-36 weeks. I obviously do not want to have a baby 10 weeks early so I am hoping for as late as we can go. We will deliver at Good Sam and she should be able to stay there as long as I'm there. (at least that's what the Dr says...fingers crossed!) Then she will be transported to Phoenix Children's as long as she is stable enough. Two options, they will either place a small catheter in her head to drain fluid or draw fluid out daily with a needle to relieve pressure until she is healthy enough to have a shunt placed. Things can change since her condition is very unpredictable. We have another brain scan on friday and then see the neurosurgeon next monday to hopefully determine when we will deliver. He says they see the most growth between 25-30 weeks so this is a scary time and we are hoping that there isn't so much growth that we have to deliver before 30 weeks. At least I'm somewhat prepared to have a baby early, some people go into labor and have no idea that they will have a premie. That's it for now, hopefully I'll have some more information next week!