an update of sorts

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Things have been a little busy with preparing for the start of school, Matt's job picking back up, and some family things. This past week was a fairly regular week for Matt, and the next two months or so will be really busy for him. I go back tomorrow and my kiddos come on Tuesday. It should be a good year, and I'm looking forward to it - it's just always time consuming getting my room set up and prepared :)

In lieu of a normal weekly update on Baby B (who is now the size of a mango), I'm going to do a little bit more serious of an update. We had an ultrasound this past Wednesday, what's traditionally the 20 week ultrasound but we did it at 18 weeks 4 days so that I didn't have to miss work. And no, we did not find out if Baby B is a boy or a girl! We still want to be surprised when he or she arrives in January! Baby B weighed 9 ounces and had a good heartbeat of 143 beats per minute. We got to see all 4 chambers of the heart, baby's brain, both kidneys, and a foot. Unfortunately, Baby B was also a little stubborn :) He/she was facing my spine and despite the orange juice I had that morning before going in and the ultrasound tech's pounding on my stomach with her wand thing (I don't really know what it's called when they're doing an abdominal ultrasound), Baby B was content to stay facing that way instead of rolling over so we could see his/her face.

This past Friday, two days after the ultrasound, I got a phone call from my doctor. And well, you know it's never good when the doctor calls you. I'm not scheduled for another appointment for 2 more weeks. First, the good news - Baby B's heart looked good, kidneys looked good, heartbeat was good. The not so good news - Baby B has a cyst on his/her brain. Most of the time cysts like this go away on their own by about 28 weeks or so and mean nothing. Baby is completely fine. From what I found online, it's just a little pocket of fluid that sort of gets "stuck" and then dissolves as baby grows. That's what we're hoping happens with Baby B. Because if that cyst doesn't go away, it can be an indication that Baby B has Trisomy 18, which is when there are three copies of chromosome 18 present rather than 2. And unlike Trisomy 21 (also known as Downs Syndrome), babies born with Trisomy 18 don't come home from the hospital. Needless to say, after getting off the phone with my doctor on Friday I was scared and I called Matt near tears. However, today we're in a much better place than we were on Friday, and here's why:

-Over 99% of the time these cysts dissolve on their own. Those are pretty good odds.

-Since finding out, we've also heard from 3 couples who went through the same thing with their children when they were pregnant. All 3 are now happy, healthy children.

-There are tons of stories online from women who were told the same thing at their 18/19/20 week ultrasounds, and then went back a month or two later and there were no cysts to be found. Their babies were just fine when they were born.

-My doctor (who, by the way, is pregnant and went through the same thing a few months ago at her ultrasound) said that she's never seen one of these cysts not go away.

So, here's the plan. The only thing that would tell us for sure if the baby does, in fact, have Trisomy 18 is an amniocentesis. That's not a test that we are willing to do, due to the risks that come with that procedure. Because regardless of what the tests show, this is our baby and we already love him/her. Finding out that we may not have much, if any, time with them when he/she is born won't change that, and we will not do anything to end this pregnancy. So we opted for two non-invasive tests to at least get a better idea of what our odds are, and what we may (but hopefuly aren't!) dealing with.

I had some bloodwork done yesterday. They'll use that to screen for the likelihood of certain conditions. I'm not sure when I'll hear the results from that. I should also hear back this week from the maternal and fetal medicine specialists (basically a high-risk doctor). I'm not sure when they'll want me to come in, but they will be doing a very in-depth ultrasound with better machines and more specially-trained technicians than the ones in my regular doctor's office. They will not only be checking to see if the cyst is still there, but will also be looking for other indicators (or lack thereof) of this condition. We are encouraged that Baby B's heart and kidneys looked good, as heart and kidney conditions are also often present in children with Trisomy 18. They will also be looking for things like clenched hands (we also didn't see his/her hands at our ultrasound last week), rounded feet, misshapen head, and various other markers. And they'll take a ton of measurements. Hopefully Baby B cooperates and shows us his/her face at this ultrasound, as a cleft lip is also an indicator - so seeing the absence of one would be awesome. Neither the blood test nor the fancy ultrasound can tell us for sure if Baby B does have an extra chromosome or not, but we can at least find out what the odds are and be able to prepare ourselves either way.

So right now it's just a waiting game. While we're still a little worried and scared, we are also trying hard to be hopeful. Because really, the odds are in our favor. Over 99% of the time things are fine. Those are fantastic odds! And there was just one cyst, and the doctor said it was small. Also good! Heart and kidney function looked good. Woo hoo! Weight was good. Awesome! But if you could join us in praying for Baby B's health and continued growth/development, that the cyst would dissolve on its own, and just for our peace of mind as we wait, we would really appreciate it. Thank you!