Ultrasound Update

Our latest ultrasound was this morning. When we were taken back the technician asked if we were Dr. Heuser's patient. We said yes and then she told us our Dr. had been hovering around their office all morning waiting to see me. We thought that was funny, we later found out that she thought for sure we would have delivered and canceled the appointment but wanted to be there just in case we were.

So mixed news today. Aaron's heart is beating at 130 bpm. Up until now his heart has been pushing the small amount of blood one way towards his brain and lungs. Now his heart is struggling and not able to push blood one way and so some of it is pushing backwards. This is causing swelling under his skin (edema) and pockets of fluid have formed around his heart, brain, and lungs. This is a sign that heart failure is nearing.

Aaron gained 1 oz and is now at 281 grams approximately. We were really hoping to be at 400+. My fluid hasn't changed much since last time, still hovering between 2 and 3 and my placenta is bad but hanging in there for the time being.

We met with Dr. Heuser who said she was really hoping to deliver me today and is really sad that we weren't ready yet. We talked about the results. She said we could deliver and he would most likely make it through an induction but would be here for only a short time or we could keep going and push for those grams. If and when he makes it over 400 grams she will deliver immediately. She said it doesn't look good but nothing has looked good and so far we have surpassed all the odds and she can't explain it. We told her as long as his heart was over 100+ bpm we will keep praying and keep moving forward. She was very concerned that we may loose him in the next 3 weeks but she also said she didn't think we would be here today so forward we go. (I honestly think she was hoping we would say that and is as anxious as the rest of us to see how things play out.)

We really like Dr. Heuser and feel like she is pulling for us as much as our regular OB Dr Monte. She wanted to know how we were holding up and we told her we are doing good under the circumstances. We told her we were concerned he hadn't gained more weight but we are used to bad news and we just keep going. We asked whether or not she would be the one to deliver if things turned dramatically again and she said she would assuming she wasn't out of town for something. We also asked if our other doctor could come if he was available and she thought that it would be a great thing if he were there too (Dr. Monte if you are reading this we want you there assuming it works out with your schedule!). We really feel like we now have 2 great doctors committed to seeing us through until the end. That is really comforting.

Many people have asked us what exactly to pray for, I feel awkward and somewhat overwhelmed when answering that question. As far as I'm concerned that is between you and the Lord but if you want to know what we pray for its this: we pray for those much needed grams, we pray for his heart and mine, we pray for the doctors who watch over us, we pray for peace, but most of all we pray for faith and strength to follow the Lord's will.