Just Breathe

Sigh.......my brain is so fried I don't know how to be exact in describing the events of today. It's now all a blur...............

We got to the specialist's office at 9:45 this morning and had a very thorough ultrasound that last an hour and a half. The technician was sweet, she explained everything very clearly and answered all of our questions. We then briefly met with Dr. K. who advised we meet the pediatric cardiologist across the street at the hospital. They called the hospital and were ready for me right away. At this point I was beyond starving! And being pregnant and just getting over the sickness, I needed something to eat right now. I stopped at the coffee bar and bought a banana for $1. That's all I had time for.

Here is when Lance left to take the WA state boards but I was fine going to the cardiologist by myself. I wished him luck and he was off.

They escorted me upstairs to the Echo Lab and did a special ultrasound on the baby's heart. The two techs were so nice and apparently don't do fetal hearts very often, they kept saying how photogenic she is and "Oh wow, look at that!" That particular ultrasound took a while too but at least I didn't have to go back to Boise to see the pediatric cardiologist. He was out of the office for the day but we did receive a phone call from him a few hours later.

At this point everything was starting to hit me and I knew if I didn't eat soon I'd be in trouble. I had the echo lab call the Maternal Fetal office and tell them I needed 15 minutes to eat lunch. While I was walking to the cafeteria I met Lance in the hall, he was done with his test and came back to be with me. I was starving. I was overwhelmed. It was starting to sink in and I had to cry. So while we ate lunch I sat there and cried.

Great news, Lance passed the WA boards and is now licensed and ready for his new job!

We walked back across the street to the specialist's office and met with a genetic counselor who got our family medical history and talked about the results we had gotten so far which are:

The heart checked out perfectly and they aren't worried about it at all. The short femurs are measuring in proportion to the rest of her body so there are no abnormalities there, she's just petite. (Or as I kept saying all along, she doesn't have Down Syndrome, she has Becky Syndrome). One other thing we found out that the Twin Falls doctor didn't tell us, was that they found only two vessels leading from the cord. This was found to be false and the cord is perfect. The bowels do have a bright lining which could still be blood or mucus or stool or any number of things. There's less than 1% chance that she has any of the three - cystic fibrosis, down syndrome, or a viral infection. We did decide to proceed with one blood test which is the viral infection so that she can be treated prenatally and won't get worse if that is the case. Lance and I are hoping/thinking the bowel will just clear up on its own in due time.

Good news at last! Of the four concerns, all are ruled out and completely normal except the bright lining of the bowels. This will obviously be followed up with future ultrasounds and the CF is a routine test of all newborns with the heal prick.

We got done at 3:30. That's right, we were in the specialist's office and the hospital for 5.5 hours!!! No wonder I was so overwhelmed and completely starved! When we got to the car we just sat there and took a deep breather. Then I told Lance that even though I'm totally exhausted, I still wanted to go shopping. So he took a cat nap in the car while I spent 30 minutes at Ross' buying a few outfits for Little Miss.

Tonight I am more thankful than ever for this precious baby girl!!! She's healthy, strong, cute as a button,  and all this makes me that much more anxious to meet her and hold her. I hope the rest of my 20 weeks goes smoother than this past week!

***Thank you so much to Tim and KoLei for watching Kimball for us. Thank you so much to family and friends who've called, texted, emailed, messaged, etc. and keeping us in their prayers. We're so grateful for loving and supportive family and friends, you all mean the world to us!***