Update on Baby June

So, life has just calmed down to a reasonable enough pace for me to post a quick update on Tuesday's appointment. First of all, thank you to all who prayed for me. I was actually the calmest I have been for any of my OB visits in this pregnancy. I felt very relaxed and at peace the entire time, even as the tech did measurement after measurement of the baby's brain and heart. It crossed my mind that I didn't remember them doing it in that much detail before. But I think I was so naive in my previous three pregnancies, although I was happy everything looked good, I spent a lot of those ultrasounds just day-dreaming about how cute my baby was, without a lot of concern for potential complications. This time I paid close attention to everything they were checking and although I was calm, I was still on the alert for any hint of a problem. She saw that the baby's bowel is still appearing prominent, but I was blessed to have the same tech as last time, and she told me that it didn't appear as noticeable as it was last time. Still, it appeared different from the norm, so it's something we will keep watching as long as it continues to show up.

The Dr. I saw was very reassuring, and he explained more details about cystic fibrosis, and confirmed that the chance of our baby having it is small. He also went ahead and ordered the test for me to have the blood test to see if I'm a carrier. I'll have those results back in two weeks. If it were to come back positive, then my husband would also be tested. (we would both have to test positive for it to show up in one of our children.) I feel relieved that we will get some information in the next couple of weeks. The Dr. also mentioned that besides CF, the finding could also indicate a problem with the baby's anus that could require a surgery following birth. Of course we don't want our newborn to have to go through a surgery, but my perspective has been changed enough through losing our daughter, that I feel like all of these possibilities are manageable compared with the thought of losing our son. If we get the privilege of parenting him, I know we will be able to deal with any complications that could come up. The Dr. also said that his first guess would be that the baby could be born without any issues at all, so of course that's our hope.

Going into this pregnancy, I really hoped for it to be textbook and uneventful. So far that hasn't been the case at all, but I know God has a plan in all of this, and our faith is definitely being strengthened in the process! We appreciate your continued prayers for our sweet little boy!