12/03/08

Thank you to all of you who are praying for me and my family, and to all of you who have helped or offered help. I hope I can somehow repay you all one day. I will have a lot to pay forward when this is all said and done. I went to the regular OB yesterday and my amniotic fluid has gone up by 2mm to 24.4mm. 25mm is the limit for difficulty breathing (as if breathing is easy when your 8 months pregnant anyway!) and greatly increased risk for pre-term labor. My cervix is still nice and tightly closed though so nothing imminent is coming my way. Mike and I met with the babies surgeon today, and I LOVED him. You know how you can just get a good feeling from someone? Anyway, he said there is still a chance the baby could be fine because the detection rate for the blockage through ultrasound wasn't perfect. They will do an x-ray after birth to confirm and then do surgery if necessary. I am not getting my hopes too high though because I don't think I would have this much fluid if the baby was swallowing normal. If he does need the surgery they do not have to do it right away, they can put him on IV feedings and wait for him to gain some weight (if he is a tiny preemie) or just wait until he recovers somewhat from birth if he goes to almost full term. That made me feel better, not having to hand him off right after birth to the operating table. Expected recovery is 2-3 weeks in the hospital, but if he has Down's it could take longer because they are a little slower (I imagine at everything). The other positive is that this particular surgeon doesn't use an NG tube (nose to stomach) to drain the stomach during recovery, he uses a side port in the abdomen. The great thing about that is the baby doesn't have as much difficulty transitioning to feeding when he's able because his throat isn't raw and sore from the NG tube. You can also use a pacifier to help keep the sucking reflex going while he recovers.So next step for us is the amnio on the 10th to find out if he has Down's.