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!

Heading to the neurosurgeon

I had a fetal MRI done last Friday and we got the results on Wednesday. First let me just say that I never want to have an MRI done again. I thought the tube that they put you in was much larger than it really was. I get very claustrophobic...not good. I did very well though with the exception of an itch that I couldn't get to because of the teeny tiny space and just about freaked out but really, no big deal! And now for the results, not that much of this will make sense to anyone reading. She has ventriculomegaly which means the ventricles of her brain are enlarged. They have increased in size substantially over the last month which leads them to believe she has obstructive hydrocephalus near the aqueduct of Sylvius, a condition called Aqueductal Stenosis. All these fancy words basically mean there is an itty bitty blockage where the ventricles meet. At this time the ventriculomegaly is being classified as moderate to severe which is making our case more urgent to be seen and may possibly mean in-utero shunting. We see the neurosurgeon next friday to go over the MRI and ultrasound films and get his diagnosis. So far the information that we have are opinions from my perinatologist, radiologist and OB. I am actually hoping that these are pretty accurate guesses as this seems to be the best form of hydrocephalus. As far as delivering goes, she will be delivered cecarean and be evaluated immediately with a possible transfer to Phoenix Childrens. If they do in-utero shunting now she would then go into surgery to have a more permanant shunt placed. Other than her brain she is perfect. She is small, in the 8th percentile for size but seems to be completely healthy. Hopefully we will get a more solid idea of what we are looking foreward to next week. Our neurosurgeon was classmates with my OB and is the top pediatric neurosurgeon in Arizona with extra research in hydrocephalus and shunting, and for me something I thought was important is he is LDS. That's it until I have more information to give.

Carly news and update

 

I finally got pictures of Carly that I could post on the computer! Its so fun to brag about my pretty girl. I've been waiting until today to post an update and it looks like I still don't have much information, but here's what I've got for now.

We got the rest of our amniocentesis results back last week and they all came out normal. Hurray! Now that we have any chromosomal (is that a word) disorders ruled out we have been waiting to see if the brain swelling has gone down, stayed the same or increased. Today was the dreaded yet long awaited appointment for a repeat scan and fetal echocardiogram. I can already tell that we have a little Thad on our hands...very stubborn. She wasn't in the best place for the scan and refused to move. No amount of pushing, jiggling, turning on my side or laying on my stomach would get her to move from her cozy little spot which happens to be breach with her head right under my ribs. Regardless of her stubborn ways we got a pretty good look at the heart which seems to be perfect. Her brain unfortunately has continued to swell which leads us to having a fetal MRI done on friday...again more waiting. As of now the brain doesn't look like it is malformed which goes in our favor. There isn't much we can do until we have the MRI results except for wait. We will continue seeing the radiologist monthly to monitor the swelling as well. We are waiting for a referral to a pediatric neurologist who will most likely require her own testing, aid in the delivery and then treat Carly after she is born. It is highly unlikely that this will resolve on its own having continued to swell over the last month but we are hopeful that it is nothing more than a small blockage that can be fixed with surgery. She is still my pretty baby and I can't wait for her to be at home with us. Until then, I know that she is in good hands being watched over by her Nana B. After our appointment today we stopped to visit her and I felt comforted knowing that someone so special was there to watch over Carly until we get her here.

That's it for now. We probably wont know much until next wednesday at my regular visit with the Dr. We are continually thankful for all the prayers in our behalf.

Our baby is finally not an it!

We finally found out today that we are having a baby girl. Yea!!! Her name is Carly (no middle name yet) Merrill. We are so excited...with the exception of Cayson. He really wanted a baby brother and isn't quite sure he wants a baby sister yet. He really doesn't want to be a big brother either and an even bigger issue is that he wants to be a baby again too. He even told me that the baby can't have his crib anymore. He is coming around to the idea slightly when I tell him he gets to protect his baby sister and keep her safe from all the boys. (I may have said that he can hit any boys that try to hurt her.....) We took him shopping and he picked out a few little girl outfits for Carly to wear plus a toy for himself. Before long he will change his mind...at least I hope so! This little girl is going to be her daddy's little princess, I can already tell. We will get more pictures on monday and hopefully get some on a disc so I can post little baby pictures!