April 5th, 2012 "This heart is definitely not normal"

April 5th, 2012

Last week at our 19 week ultrasound appointment, the doctor discovered some abnormalities in his (baby cole's) heart. We were immediately rushed upstairs to another office to see a pediatric cardiac specialist. After a long time with the cardiac specialist, a lot of tears and questions, this is what we know so far:

Our baby has Complex congenital heart disease in the form of single ventricle complex, transposed great vessels and pulmonary stenosis/atrisia. How I understand it: He is missing the muscle that should separate the left and right ventricle (the bottom two sections of the heart), along small arteries/vessels that should pump blood in and out of his heart. The doctor will be able to see the heart in more detail at our appointment in 3 1/2 more weeks (because he will have grown) and be able to pinpoint exactly how small, and how displaced those arteries are. 

Baby Cole will be able to go full term (praise Jesus) and be born at Gwinnett Medical as planned. Approximately two days after he's born, he will be transported to Egleston Children's Hospital at Emory for open heart surgery. Its estimated that he will have to stay there for 30 days after surgery. At 4-6 months old, he will have his second open heart surgery, and if these two go well, he will be able to have his third surgery between age 2-6 years of age. Of course, there are percentages of positive and negative outcomes of all of these surgeries related to his heart problem, but we are choosing to be as positive and proactive as possible. 

What you can do: Pray Pray Pray. I have thought about this a lot. My prayer for our baby is that he will be healed completely, either before birth or after. This leaves room for us to ask for a miracle, as well as praying for the doctors that he will be in contact with before and after birth. Please pray for all of our doctors (now four of them) that the Lord would give them wisdom, surgical brilliance, and steady hands as they work together for our baby. 

David and I would also appreciate your prayers for peace, wisdom, and the ability to regain our joy in celebrating this MIRACLE that God has given us: Our sweet baby boy. 

January 30th, 2012

all whit and formality aside, i feel terrible all the time. i had a bit of an episode at work yesterday. I ate a cliff bar at 9am, and by 11am i felt light headed and shaky. my hands couldn't stop shaking and then my body proceeded to follow. i went to the back and found some hummus and bagel chips and made myself eat. i was guessing that my blood sugar was low but it was a little scary. the last thing i want to do is pass out at work. luckily, i have one person at work that knows i'm pregnant so she gave me a coconut water (lots of electrolights) and after about 45 minutes i started to feel normal again. i have my 12 week check up coming up where they'll do a full work up with blood tests, ect. the most frustrating thing right now is that i'm just totally exhausted all the time. david is super supportive and sweet at home, but its stressful not being able to talk about it and share the news. we were at a birthday dinner for a dear friend this weekend, surrounded by people that we love and all i kept thinking about was how fun it would it would be to tell everyone.
it will have to wait though. i AM excited that stumbled upon the maternity section at www.asos.com. they have the cutest little dresses and brightly colored maternity jeans that i will be ordering later on for sure! i also found a helpful website full of lists for everything you need from your baby registry to what clothing basics you need to stock up on for the impending bump. www.thecradle.com is great and part of www.giggle.com, where we're thinking of registering.