23 WEEKS!!!

Had a very boring and routine appointment yesterday and it was fabulous!  The doctors all talked and think maybe baby Michael had meconium plug syndrome which basically means he made a ton of poop that outgrew his intestines so they backed up until their growth caught up.  But who knows.  Either way my midwife was very relieved with my 3rd u/s and quad test.

Our insurance denied our 20 week u/s so back to the battle field with fighting them...does it ever end?  The lady in billing said she would submit my ER/Labor and Delivery paperwork and rebill it and that should do the trick.

Mike picked up and is putting together our glider/ottoman.  I am psyched...but man it wasn't cheap.  But I can't wait to snuggle baby Michael in it.

We are still debating the homebirth/hospital birth.  The cost of the homebirth is making me not want to do it and the very rare chance that an emergency will happen...but Mike is leaning towards the hospital birth.  I am just so afraid one of the midwives I don't love will be there to deliver.  I also worry about the transfer to the hospital but know that I want to stay home until 7cm so I don't get that darn epidural again.  Ugh, and spending 2 days in a nasty hospital room is horrible, but someone else will clean up after us and bring us food...and we can check out early I would think.  Hmm, guess we'll see.  Wish my darn insurance would cover cpms. 

We can see baby Michael move in my belly now and it's just amazing!  Can't wait to meet him!  Next prenatal is in 2 weeks and my first doula meeting is in late June.  I can't believe how fast this is all going.

Praise God

Praise God!!! The geneticist first informed us that the stupid nurse misread my results...my quad actually gave me 1:10,000 odds for down's syndrome (she read the normal risk for my age column, not the my specific results)...so we decided to put off the amnio until 28 weeks...then we had our level II u/s...and the bowels AREN'T echogenic!!! So of course, we are just skipping the amnio all together!  The perinatologist said ob's typically use the wrong frequency transducer and misdiagnose echogenic bowel. She quoted my odds based on u/s and quad test as 1:15,000 or better.  I am crying tears of joy for this little boy!!! We have decided no more tests and are trusting all is well!!!

What a great day!!!

Today is the day...

Well, I have my appointments as follows today:

Intake-12:30
Geneticist-1:00-2:00
Level II ultrasound -2:00
Perinatologist/Amnio-2:30? (after u/s)

I am terrified out of my mind.  I am supposed to be on bedrest for 24-48 hours after the procedure...but that is not really possible with a 2 year old...hoping to do my best.  Where is family when you need them?

A few updates

Well my torch screen came back negative (Toxoplasmosis, rubella, cmv, herpes,).  The parvovirus one was a mail out test so we won't know about that one until next week.

Also, I am not a carrier for cystic fibrosis...which is great news.

Unfortunately that means that it wasn't something simple like an infection, or something scary but a little easier like cystic fibrosis...we are now down to finding out if it's down's syndrome.

Prayers, our amnio is Monday afternoon, and we will hopefully have some good news from the hopefully speedy FISH results (by the end of next week).

Pray for baby Michael!!!

Another Ultrasound and Update

We had another u/s this morning with the dr. in the room.  He said the bowel no longer looked dilated and the colon looked fine and the echogenicity of the bowel was actually less.  This was all great news except that he said at one point he thought he saw a "double bubble" or duodenal atresia, which is associated with down's syndrome 30% of the time.  He then spent 10 minutes looking for it again and couldn't find it.   He said it could have been something else that he saw and not to worry about it since he couldn't find it again.  But, of course, my mind is thinking maybe it's just starting to form so it's tiny or he just couldn't get a good angle.  That would put my odds at more than 1 in 3 combined with the echogenic bowel.  The specialist has my odds at 1:140 based on my quad and the echogenic bowel.  I had a torch test and parvo test today bc apparantly parvo is going around and that can cause echogenic bowel...but i won't have the results for 7-10 days.  Hoping the level 2 u/s shows no double bubble and even less echogenicity and the amnio comes back with "normal" chromosomes.  Still waiting on the cystic fibrosis results...hopefully tomorrow they will come back negative.  Trying to hold it together and face reality of what we will do if we are given devistating news.

On a bright note, we got some great pictures of our son today...think he even flipped us off in one of them.  :)

Please continue to pray for Michael.

Quad Test Results

Our Quad test came back...

Neural Tube Defects 1 in 900
Down's Syndrome 1 in 940 adjusted 1/140 bc of echogenic bowel
Trisomy 18 in in 9,400

So we are a little concerned with the down's syndrome statistic and will opt for the amnio.  Was really hoping for a 1 in 10,000 result.

Ultrasound tomorrow and still waiting for CF test to come back.  Perinatologist moved our appointment up to Monday at 12:40 bc of the high chance this is something bad now.

more troubling news

Well, the Dr. finally reviewed my u/s and said it doesn't look like a simple case of echogenic bowel.  He said the bowel looks distended and the colon looks echogenic as well.  He didn't really give any indication of what this could mean but does want to do another u/s to get a better look on Tuesday the 11th.  He also wants to see if it's getting better or worse.  So right now we are still waiting on our blood results (should be in sometime between the 10th and the 19th, and praying the ultrasound on Tuesday gives him a more optomistic outlook. 

On a brighter note, baby Michael has been moving and kicking like crazy.  I love this little boy so much and really hope and pray that I get to change his diapers and nurse him and watch him grow.  Loralei keeps talking to baby Michael in my belly and I don't know what this will do to her if we lose him.  She is already very confused as to why mommy just cries and yells all the time.  I wish I had some family nearby that could give her some love an attention right now bc mommy can't.

Oh and Sunday is Mother's day.  I guess this day should be super special since I have 5 babies somewhere who call me mommy, but instead I don't even want it to come.  Yesterday was also the day we got the news we lost the 2nd twin and the day of the peri appt. is the 1 year anniversary of the d&c.  I truly hate the month of May. 

Bad News

Looks like baby has an echogenic bowel which means Michael is at a high risk for having down's syndrome or cystic fibrosis, or a myriad of other problems.  Really not good news.  We had a cystic fibrosis test and a quad screen this morning for more definitive odds but won't hear for 4 days - 2 weeks.  We are also being referred to a high risk specialist but probably won't see him for several weeks.  At that time we will have a more detailed ultrasound and the option of an amnio...which I am thinking I will in fact get.  We would not consider an abortion, but not knowing is killing me.  I am so worried about my sweet little boy.  I don't feel like I can handle life anymore right now, it's all been way too much the past year.  My heart is broken.  I am praying for God to take care of my son but know the reality that things aren't looking great.

Please pray for baby Michael and his family.

Michael III

Our ultrasound yesterday went very well.  As far as we know, everything looked very healthy.  We meed with our midwife this morning for the final report.  My cervix looked "fine" as the tech said, but again, we weren't given measurements.  The tech asked us for our final guesses and we both said girl, then she said, "well, it's a baby boy," and pointed to his little boy parts.  We are in total shock.  I can't imagine my life with a son.  I always assumed Lor would have a sister or 2 like i do.  This sure is going to be different.  We did some damage around town consignment shopping yesterday and I can't believe the sea of blue in my laundry room right now.  This pregnancy has been so different.  So much less weight gain, terrible skin, terrible gas, I wonder if those are all boy pregnancy symptoms or just a coincidence.  Here are a few pictures.

A Little Scared

Yesterday afternoon, after a fabulous morning garage selling with my friend Michelle, I had a bit of spotting.  Mike and I decided just to suck it up and go to the ER.  After monitoring the baby who was moving away and had a great strong heartbeat and making sure I wasn't having contractions, they decided to do a pelvic exam.  The midwife was concerned about the size of the polyp on my cervix (I had with Loralei as well) and thought it could be my fibroid protruding out.  She called in a dr. (happened to be my fibroid OB), who also did an exam and said, no, it was just a polyp on the edge of my cervix and was no big deal and that what this lady saw and thought was more polyp is just the lip of my cervix (but it was very strange that it looked that bizarre to the midwife).  Then they said pelvic rest (because of the bleeding), and then the Dr. said how I should be being monitored for cervical length and for some mucus test because of my history of d&cs.  They didn't offer to do an ultrasound but said they would make sure the ultrasound on Tuesday included a cervical length measurement.  They also want me to see a dr. every couple visits (instead of just the midwife), and will be scheduling more ultrasounds and tests.  Now, I am terrified that something is going to happen or that Tuesday will show that my cervix is too short or open and it's too late for a cerclage (stitching cervix shut).  I wish they could have just done the ultrasound yesterday so I didn't spend my weekend on bed rest and terrified  (they also said bedrest until after the u/s).  Guess I will know more Tuesday, but as of today (19w3d) baby has no chance of living really so prayers please.