Update on the lil' guy

On Monday we went to St. Marks (MFM group) and had another ultrasound. So far things are the same as before.
The CCAM is still growing at the same rate as the lil'guy is, but it is not affecting him or his growth. His est. weight is 1.7 lbs, can you believe that?

The only thing that is changing is the growth is starting to push on his esophagus. Which is making it more difficult to swallow amniotic fluid. He is getting enough, but that means i have excess fluid. Yes, even more than I already had. Another thing to add to the watching list.

Knowing things could be worse we are grateful for no change and more time spent at home.

Again thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers.
Here are some pictures from the ultrasound. I'm not one that has to have the 3D ultrasounds because really, I think they are a little creepy. However the tech turned it on while he was in a good position. Even though I still think it is a little creepy I do think it is cute, because he is mine and is inside me.

Complication

At our 20 week ultrasound they found a complication with our lil' guy.

He has a growth, known as a CCAM, on the outside of his right lung. It sits in between his lung and the ribcage.



To find out more details of what we are looking at, they sent us to the MFM of Utah at St. Marks. There we were able to get a better view of the growth and they were able to give us some scenarios for the upcoming future.

Basically there are three ways for the CCAM to develop:

a. (promising and what we are all hoping for) Around 28 weeks the growth will cease to continue to grow along with him and will stay as it is until birth. After birth we would meet with a pediatric surgeon and schedule a time for it to be removed.

b. (not a good as the first but manageable) It will continue to grow at the same rate as he is, without any fluid building up around the abdomen, heart and lungs. After birth the growth will be removed so the right lung will be able to continue developing and so it will not inhibit his breathing.

c. (trying not to think about it) It will grow at a faster rate or fluid will develop putting stress on his organs, mainly his heart, and send him into heart failure. There are two options for this: they can go in and put a shunt in and drain the fluid, however it will leave pockets that will eventually fill again. second there is an in-utero surgery that can be preformed to remove the growth. Both come with high risks and lower survival rates. Both options tend to start pre-term labor and if it cannot be stopped then the baby is delivered. Both of these options usually take place around the 28 week mark so you can see the risks there.

For now the lil' guy is doing remarkable. He measures exactly where he should be. His organs, including his heart, are all functioning perfectly normal. He is more active then Ethan or James to the point where it wakes me up already. Ethan loves to feel him kicking. He puts his hand on my stomach and waits. Then laughs and laughs when he gets kicked.

So what do we do now?

We have weekly ultrasounds with the Tech at my OB office to measure, check for fluid and make sure the heart is not under stress.

We go into the MFM office whenever we can so they can see the progress.

We keep going day by day and week by week watching for the signs of distress.

We fast and pray that everything will go as it is supposed to.

We pray for strength and rely on the prayers and support of all those we love.

We are heading to Utah for the 24th and will see the Dr at MFM on the 25th. I will keep updated as much as I can.

Thank you for the prayers and support.

A moment not captured very often

All we can figure is that Ethan got into the camera on my phone and took this shot while we slept.

I love it. I didn't even change or edit it.

Thank you Bill for these moments.

Hiking Henderson Canyon

A couple weeks ago we went with the hiking group up Henderson Canyon. We knew due to the rain clouds that there was a good chance we could get rained on but wanted to go anyway.
Needless to say it poured on us. Luckily James didn't mind at all and Ethan loves playing out in the rain.







(from my iphone again, sorry)

My Garden 7-5-2011

I'm so excited to have a garden this year that I will be posting updated pictures as regularly as I can. Here are the first pictures I took (sorry iphone again).

Cars 2

As I said before, for Ethans birthday we let him pick 4 friends and we took them all to see Cars 2 in Idaho Falls.

(Again.. taken from the iphone)

Baby Fritsch #3

Last week we had another ultrasound and the lil' guy cooperated enough to give us an awesome profile shot..




I would have to say.. He looks a lot like James.