C - Section Date

    The c-section date is scheduled!! Baby girl will be here on July 6th at 7:30 am.  Now comes all my lists and stress trying to get everything I can control ready for when she gets here!

ONLY 12 MORE days until she is here!! I cannot wait and I am completely terrified at the same time!

35 Weeks

 
        We've had a busy week this past week.  Christopher and I met with the pediatric surgeon and the Neonatologist.  Following these doctor appointments, we received some really good information to help us develop an idea of a plan for baby girl.  She has a very long road ahead of her and there are a lot of unknowns until she gets here.  One thing we learned based on our doctors appointments this week is that our pediatric surgeon would like to do the surgery around 6 months. There are plenty of variables that could change that but for the most part, based on the conversation with the pediatric surgeon, we are aiming for her surgery to be at about 6 months. As long as she is doing well and the omphalocele is the only thing going on with her, she should be able to go home before the 6 month surgery time frame.  The pediatric surgeon did say that she might require more then one surgery to repair the omphalocele.  The additional surgery would include placing an expander inside her abdomen to make room for the organs.  This is not for sure and will be another wait and see situation because it will all be dependent on how well she is doing and how big she is when they want to do the surgery.  The pediatric surgeon will be there and examine baby girl as soon as she gets to the NICU and will be a part of rounds to see her daily at the beginning along with many other doctors. 
       Following the meeting with pediatric surgeon a couple days later we met with the Neonatologist who is the NICU doctor.  She will most likely be who we become the most familiar with during our long stay at the NICU.  She was able to confirm and reiterate a lot of what the other doctors have been saying which is that we have made it past some good hurdles however we are not out of the woods yet and still have a long road ahead of us. This also meant that there is so much unknown still until she gets here.  So much of what her outlook and  survivability will be more determinable once she is actually here and all of her doctors can assess her.  They will look at things like how her heart looks and the main concern will be her lungs.  As mentioned previously low lung development is a common problem seen with omphalocele babies, which means that she will most likely be on a ventilator for a while.  She will also need an NG or OG tube that will help feed her, but they will try and make sure it is breast milk as soon as possible.  Finally she will also have a PICC line to her in order to provide nutrients deliver medicine to her so that it is all distributed to her body quickly. Until she is digesting breastmilk and feeding (either normally or through the NG/OG tube), all nutrition will go through the PICC line  As mentioned previously the weight of the omphalocele being outside her body puts weight on her heart and will probably pull it down some making it difficult to work normally.   The neonatologist said that most likely after baby girl is delivered Christopher will be able to come over and meet her and then as long as they can stabilize her they should be able to wheel her by me on the way to the NICU and all her doctors, that way I can see her for a minute before I get sedated and fixed up so I can go back to my room.

34 Weeks

      We are so overwhelmed with emotions as it gets closer and closer to the day we meet baby girl.  Part of me is so excited for her to finally be here but the other part of me gets nervous because as long as she is in her little "home" right now she is safe and healthy.  As long as she is in her "home" I know where she is and I feel like I can protect her.

     There are not many update to report this week.  At my last MFM appointment my doctor and I discussed c - section dates.  It looks like, as long as things continue going well with her, she will be here on July 5th, 6th, or 7th.  We are definitely excited and are aware that will be here before we know it! The other piece of news we have is that we are going to see the Pediatric Surgeon tomorrow.  This is the doctor that will really give us the hypothetical "plan" for how things might happen after delivery.  This doctor will tell us when typically they would like to do surgery to repair the omphalocele and if they do it all in one surgery or in multiple surgeries.  The reason I call this her hypothetical plan is because this is will still be all contingent on how healthy she is when she is born.  Things like lung development, and other complications can change or derail any of these plans made tomorrow.  Christopher and I continue to stay positive and optimistic as we go into this huge planning day tomorrow however, we also continue to pray for our little girl because we know she is going to need all the love and help she can get as she gets bigger and gets ready to make her entrance into this world!

33 Weeks

 

        I cannot believe that we are just about 5 weeks from meeting our sweet little girl! Our MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor, aka - high risk pregnancy doctor) wants baby girl to "cook" as long as possible which means her goal is for us to have our scheduled c - section at 39 weeks.  This past week we had our weekly MFM appointment.  Baby girl was not wanting to cooperate with the non-stress test and was being her normal stubborn self kicking the monitors and then hiding from them.  That was requiring the doctors to keep me hooked up to the monitors for over half an hour to get just about 14 good minutes of heart beat recording.  When they did get those 14 minutes straight of heartbeat she had a good strong heartbeat which is wonderful!! It was a lot of fun sitting there just getting to her my sweet daughter's heartbeat! 
      The very next day we had our appointment with the Cardiologist.  The cardiologist was looking to see if we can locate the Superior Vena Cava vein (SVC) and where the vein inserts  into the heart.  Following a very long ultra sound they were able to locate the vein and see where it inserted into the heart!! Huge sigh of relief! The doctor said that baby girl actually has two SVC veins, which is unusual but not problematic.  The right sided SVC is inserted into the correct location and side of the heart.  The left sided SVC is inserted into the correct atrium but inserts in the back of the heart. Once again this is not normal but should not be problematic for baby girl in the long run.  While this is incredible news for baby girl because its a huge step towards a healthy little girl, she is still not out of the woods yet!! We will still be monitored by the cardiologist after she is born.  Due to the nature of the ompahlocele and having organs outside her body there will still be pressure on her heart pulling it down some in her chest cavity.  This means that some things that happen naturally as a newborn gets bigger, like normal holes and gaps babies are born with, may not naturally fix themselves.  None of this is a guarantee but doctors have to talk about worse case scenarios and some typical things they have seen with similar cases.  If this does happen, it may cause her to need heart surgery but none of this will be known until she is here and is getting bigger.  For now we just wait and continue to pray for a quick surgery for the omphalocele and the best health for her little heart! As of right now the other big change this means is that baby girl will be in regular NICU and not the cardiac wing.