The Beginning of our Journey

Here’s what’s been going on in our lives…

11.15.08 – What an exciting day! Sky, Alyssa, Sofia and I went to the doctor for the initial ultrasound. This is one of those important days that every pregnant woman anticipates. After the “horrible” first trimester [when you are always tired and throwing up] the day of the ultrasound makes you feel so good and you'll know it was all worth it. It is so nice to finally get to see the baby moving inside you and find out whether it is a girl or a boy. I think everyone gets more attached to their baby after they get to see him/her growing inside of you.
As soon as the ultrasound started we immediately saw that it was a BOY! How exciting… The nurse started measuring the baby to make sure his growth was normal. After measuring him for about 20 minutes she told me to go walk around and come back in 10 minutes and that she was having trouble with the measurement. I asked her if anything was wrong and she said, “I just take the pictures and measure the baby so I don't know.” After she said that I was a little confused, was she saying that b/c something was wrong or b/c she really just takes the pics, measures the baby but doesn’t know if everything is okay. I went walking and came back and the nurse was accompanied by another nurse, she said she went to get help to see if she can get the measurements. I was like okay, do whatever you need to. They measured him for about 30 more minutes, at this time I knew something had to be wrong b/c the ultrasound didn’t take that long when I was having my daughters. I asked them many times what was going on, and they kept saying “We just take the pics and measurements, if there’s anything wrong I’m sure the doctor will tell you.” We left and went to celebrate the fact that we are having a boy finally! We called our family and friends to tell them the big news, and everyone was so excited, already asking and giving us ideas for names :)

11.18.08 – When I woke up to check my phone the next day I had a voicemail from Midwife K from the ob/gyn’s office to call her a.s.a.p. and that she has to talk to me about the results from the ultrasound. This was odd because I've never received an urgent call from a doctor or midwife with my first two pregnancies so I knew something bad was up. The Midwife K said that the baby was measuring 2 weeks bigger than he is supposed to but that’s not a problem and what she’s concerned about. She said the baby’s abdominal organs look like they are in his chest and that she would like for me to see a High Risk Maternity Doctor/Perinatologist. I asked her for more details on what was going on but she said she didn’t know the medical term and she wasn’t sure on what was in his chest. They made my appointment for 11/20. I kept researching online on what the baby could have and to see what I did wrong for him to be going through this and nothing made sense. I cried and cried and nothing Sky could say or do to help me worked. I was completely devastated that my baby was going through something and I couldn’t understand why and what it was.

11.20.08 – Finally the day came that I was anxiously waiting for- I wanted some answers and even though they weren’t the answers I wanted I found out what was going on. During my appointment Dr. H (the perinatologist) did another ultrasound to confirm what the first ultrasound said was right. He explained to me that the baby’s diaphragm (what divides the chest and abdominal organs) had a hole. This happens for no specific reason to 1 in 2,200 pregnancies. Since the diaphragm isn’t completely closed any abdominal organs can go through this hole and go up into his chest. The baby was diagnosed with CDH – Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. Our little boy has a hole on the left side of his diaphragm in which his stomach and parts of his intestines went up through and are now on his chest. That was the horrible news but not actually the “main problem” b/c the stomach and intestines can be lowered to where they have to be with surgery after he is born. The main problem is that since his organs moved into his chest and pushed his heart to the right, the organs are taking up the space where his lungs need to grow. If the lungs don’t fully grow the baby wont be able to survive outside of the belly. The baby’s lungs have too much pressure on them right now so we wont know if he'll be able to survive outside the belly until he is born and the organs are shifted back into place with surgery. They did an amniocentesis to see if the baby also had any genetic problems.

11.24.08 – Dr. H called saying that we have good news and that the baby has no genetic problems. Right now he's giving the baby a 60% chance of survival. Which I guess is better than the predicted 20% or 50% but knowing that I have a baby inside of me growing everyday and that as soon as he is born he might die is just not what a pregnant woman wants to hear, know, or experience. I still don’t understand why this has to happen to us.

12.08.08 – I had my bi-weekly appointment at the regular ob/gyn. The baby’s heart sounded perfect and I had my glucose test.

12.09.08 – They called me from the ob/gyn saying that I passed the glucose, so no diabetes :) and that the baby is just measuring two weeks bigger b/c he’s a big baby. I guess thats all the good news we'll get for now.