This week started out a bit stressful, heading back to work after vacation is always a little wonky, but we're feeling refreshed and ready to take on the world this week. Good thing, too, because we were headed into a busy holiday weekend and have 3 appointments to report on.
Monday (6/30) was my regular appointment with my OB, Dr. Dev. So far, my weight is up a total of 8.5 pounds and my blood pressure is fantastic. He did an ultrasound to see how Ellie is measuring. I was 30 weeks 4 days at the appointment and Ellie measured 30 weeks 1 day for him, so all is well. Ellie was breech today, which isn't too meaningful since she's still doing somersaults. We talked in length about the birth plan and decided that we'll leave the official call up to Dr. Luby (cardiologist). So that is the plan for Thursday's cardiology appointment at Children's.
Tuesday morning we had an appointment in Vandalia at Perinatal Partners. We didn't need to see the doctor this time, just needed to get lots of measurements on Ellie and make sure there were no surprises. Below are some of the pictures from this ultrasound. Seriously - the cheeks!! Ellie currently weighs 3 pounds 10 ounces, has full, puffy cheeks, and some pretty long hair that we could see on the screen. She also seems to use the umbilical cord as a lasso and hides from the paparazzi the whole time. Tuesday, she was back to the head-down position - again, somersaults. It is decided: she's at LEAST as ornery as her brothers.
She looks like Kaleb here. The "bubbles" around her mouth are actually
the umbilical cord she kept swinging around.
Another picture of her face... this time with her tongue coming out.
Again, the white bubble on the right side of her mouth is part of
the umbilical cord showing through.
She was pretty rotten and didn't want to cooperate for profile measurements this time.
Her foot - you can see some of the little bones here.
And another face picture - with more umbilical cord "bubbles".
She almost looks like she's giving us a smirk here.
Her little nose is very much like Kaleb's in this shot.
Thursday afternoon brought another appointment - this time in Dayton Children's with the cardiology team. I met with Teresa again and her ultrasound and fetal echo lasted about an hour (Ellie was back to breech, by the way... crazy kid). We talked in length about so many things... pregnancy, family, religion, baby names... it was fantastic. She also said that she never refers to a baby as a fetus... because it's an unborn child... nothing less. Ahhh... I'm so loving this woman! She only spent a fraction of the time taking measurements on Ellie's body, the rest of the time was spent looking at her heart and listening to all of the veins, arteries and valves. I'm so amazed that she can pinpoint exactly what she wants to listen to in Ellie's heart and hear just that. The technology blows my mind! Teresa explained that an echo is harder to do at this stage in pregnancy because Ellie's bones are starting to harden and sound waves don't like to penetrate through bone like they do other, softer materials. She also explained exactly how they do the echo on newborns and how clear and crisp those echos tend to be. Very cool stuff!
After a while, Dr. Luby came into the room to look over Teresa's echo and talk to me about how Ellie's doing. She said that she likes to meet up with parents at this time during the pregnancy so that she can do another check on how the A-V Canal Defect is coming along. A lot of times, as baby grows, the A-V valve in the middle of the heart starts to leak a little. Ellie's, however, is snug as can be. No leaks here! This means that Ellie is doing fantastic - so well that we do not need to meet with the cardiologist again until Ellie is here and the echo can be done directly on her. Yahoo!!
Dr. Luby asked me how I was doing with my other appointments and if I had questions for her. I explained that I was torn about where to deliver since my OB had said that no matter where I went, Ellie would need to be transported to Children's, because it's the best for baby... the doctor at Perinatal Partners said that I should deliver in Miami Valley so that Ellie could go to their NICU, if needed. I didn't know if Children's was a better place for her to be than the NICU... I know that all of my doctors have my best interest (and Ellie's) in mind, so I was very confused. I asked Dr. Luby to tell me what I should do, since she dealt with these kinds of complications every day. She said, "You will deliver at Miami Valley. I will call them and make sure that they have all of your background information so that when you call and tell them you're in labor, they'll have everything ready. I'll also make sure that I put these orders in my notes that will go to your other doctors". I thanked her for giving me her take and for taking the burden off of me in making that call. She really put my mind at ease.
She also explained to me step-by-step exactly how they do surgery to repair Ellie's heart. While Dr. Luby is our cardiologist, she is not our surgeon... which I guess I didn't think about really... but she was great at explaining the whole process to me. I knew they'd do open-heart surgery, but I didn't know what they used to repair the septum or how they created 2 valves where only one existed. She explained in great detail how they'll sedate her, put her on a bypass machine, then go in through an incision down her sternum, peel back the pericardial tissue, and stitch a dacron patch (an artificial, very durable material) down the center of her heart to mend the atrial septum and ventricular septum. In doing this, they'll give a barrier between the 1 A-V valve in the middle, which will turn it into 2 different valves. Then she explained exactly how they stitch up each layer and take her off of bypass and how they'll check for leaks and begin taking her off of anesthesia. She'll likely be in the hospital for 7-10 days when it comes time for surgery. Again, she reiterated that Ellie will be closely monitored after birth with a regimen of medication and that, ideally, she'll be able to do this until she's 4-6 months old before needing surgery. Once we get Ellie here and we have her on medications, we'll meet with the surgeon who will guide us through this procedure in greater detail before the big surgery day arrives.
This all sounds super complicated to me, but I'm so very thankful for the men and women who devote their lives to saving the lives of others. The folks that willingly go into an O.R. and mend the tiny hearts of babies on a daily basis. This is amazing to me! Dr. Luby lightened up the mood by telling me that due to metal stitches that are needed to suture her sternum, Ellie might set off some sensitive metal detectors from time to time. Nice!
So all in all, good news all around. I know all of the prayers that are being lifted for Ellie are working. I have full faith that God is going to heal our little girl. Maybe it'll be through a miracle, maybe it'll be through the hands of talented doctors and surgeons... but I have no doubt that she'll be healed either way. So thank you all for your prayers and happy thoughts. We have 2 more months before we meet our little turkey and we couldn't be more excited (albeit a little nervous). Thank you for following along. God Bless!
After a while, Dr. Luby came into the room to look over Teresa's echo and talk to me about how Ellie's doing. She said that she likes to meet up with parents at this time during the pregnancy so that she can do another check on how the A-V Canal Defect is coming along. A lot of times, as baby grows, the A-V valve in the middle of the heart starts to leak a little. Ellie's, however, is snug as can be. No leaks here! This means that Ellie is doing fantastic - so well that we do not need to meet with the cardiologist again until Ellie is here and the echo can be done directly on her. Yahoo!!
Dr. Luby asked me how I was doing with my other appointments and if I had questions for her. I explained that I was torn about where to deliver since my OB had said that no matter where I went, Ellie would need to be transported to Children's, because it's the best for baby... the doctor at Perinatal Partners said that I should deliver in Miami Valley so that Ellie could go to their NICU, if needed. I didn't know if Children's was a better place for her to be than the NICU... I know that all of my doctors have my best interest (and Ellie's) in mind, so I was very confused. I asked Dr. Luby to tell me what I should do, since she dealt with these kinds of complications every day. She said, "You will deliver at Miami Valley. I will call them and make sure that they have all of your background information so that when you call and tell them you're in labor, they'll have everything ready. I'll also make sure that I put these orders in my notes that will go to your other doctors". I thanked her for giving me her take and for taking the burden off of me in making that call. She really put my mind at ease.
She also explained to me step-by-step exactly how they do surgery to repair Ellie's heart. While Dr. Luby is our cardiologist, she is not our surgeon... which I guess I didn't think about really... but she was great at explaining the whole process to me. I knew they'd do open-heart surgery, but I didn't know what they used to repair the septum or how they created 2 valves where only one existed. She explained in great detail how they'll sedate her, put her on a bypass machine, then go in through an incision down her sternum, peel back the pericardial tissue, and stitch a dacron patch (an artificial, very durable material) down the center of her heart to mend the atrial septum and ventricular septum. In doing this, they'll give a barrier between the 1 A-V valve in the middle, which will turn it into 2 different valves. Then she explained exactly how they stitch up each layer and take her off of bypass and how they'll check for leaks and begin taking her off of anesthesia. She'll likely be in the hospital for 7-10 days when it comes time for surgery. Again, she reiterated that Ellie will be closely monitored after birth with a regimen of medication and that, ideally, she'll be able to do this until she's 4-6 months old before needing surgery. Once we get Ellie here and we have her on medications, we'll meet with the surgeon who will guide us through this procedure in greater detail before the big surgery day arrives.
This all sounds super complicated to me, but I'm so very thankful for the men and women who devote their lives to saving the lives of others. The folks that willingly go into an O.R. and mend the tiny hearts of babies on a daily basis. This is amazing to me! Dr. Luby lightened up the mood by telling me that due to metal stitches that are needed to suture her sternum, Ellie might set off some sensitive metal detectors from time to time. Nice!
So all in all, good news all around. I know all of the prayers that are being lifted for Ellie are working. I have full faith that God is going to heal our little girl. Maybe it'll be through a miracle, maybe it'll be through the hands of talented doctors and surgeons... but I have no doubt that she'll be healed either way. So thank you all for your prayers and happy thoughts. We have 2 more months before we meet our little turkey and we couldn't be more excited (albeit a little nervous). Thank you for following along. God Bless!
