Thank God for Ultrasound

I have a ton to write about our day at UCSF today but will just hit the highlights.  I also have movers coming in a little less then 11 hours and have at least twice that many hours worth of work to get ready for them.

- Maddie is progressing perfectly.  51% height/weight.  Still isolated CDH.  All organs look as good as can be expected.  Liver still down.  Right lung and heart are growing and still appear to be unaffected by the intrusion of stomach and intestine in her chest cavity.

- No Polyhydramnios. Totally normal fluid levels - i just have a big belly.  Praise God!

- Met with the NICU social worker who answered almost all of our logistical questions about living in the NICU.  She even gave us a sticker that helps reduce the cost of parking.

- Drank a Jamba Juice - Yum.

- Met with a Child Specialist to discuss options for Dillan while Maddie is a patient.  In addition to a supervised playroom, they have some great activities for siblings.  they are also available to help us with parenting advice, explains things to him and provide family counseling.  Huge God Send!

- Delivery is scheduled for 10AM on Tuesday July 5th.  So as long as I don't go into spontaneous labor before then, that is when Maddie will make her grand entrance. 

- Had a late lunch with an amazing family.  Their 2 year old is a CDH miracle and spending time with him was such an encouragement and joy for Luke and me.  More on this next week.

Pictures!!!!  Shes beautiful. 

More later.  We'll probably be offline (at least from our home computer) until mid-week but I'll write more about our lunch with M's family then and post some pictures of our new house!

Starting the Polyhydramnios Dance

Went in to see Dr. Walker this morning and learned that I have gained 4 pounds and grown 4 centimeters in just 2 weeks.  Which means I have finally caught up and gained enough weight this pregnancy.

But that is a huge jump in weight and size.  Nothing to be alarmed about but our best guess right now is that we have a little bit of Polyhydramnios going on, fairly normal for CDH babies. 

Babies in the womb process amniotic fluid by drinking it and then peeing it out continuously.  But because Maddie's stomach is all compressed in her chest cavity, it doesn't work correctly.  My body is expecting her to process it at a rate faster then she is able to, which is causing the amino fluids to build at a slow and steady rate.

The standard of care for Polyhudramnios is to watch and wait.  The danger over the next few months is that amino fluids will build up to the point that my membranes will rupture and send us into preterm labor.  Other dangers include stressing out Maddie, lowering or elevating both of our blood pressures, and other more complicated things.  I don't expect any of the more complicated things to be an issue since my pregnancy is being monitored so closely. 

If we run into any of these complications, we'll keep you updated and let you know what they are doing to take good care of us.  In the meantime, please pray that we can just watch and wait and this won't be an issue.