Update from today’s appointment

I hope that you and your families had a very merry Christmas! We had a very nice celebrations with our families on Christmas Eve and Christmas day and I am happy to report that both days were uneventful in relation to any problems related to our baby/pregnancy. Sean had a blast spending time with his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and also of course really enjoyed all of the presents he received from our families, us and especially from Santa!

Today I am 13 weeks 5 days pregnant and glad to be able to report that I am still indeed pregnant with a fetus that appears to be measuring on track, if not ahead, (between 13 weeks 5 days and 14 weeks 4 days, depending on which measurement you go by)! The CRL was 6.98cm. Our baby’s heart rate was also back in the “normal” range today at 126! That said, it is still definitely irregular, which seems to be the most concerning thing for our doctors. I will explain more about this in a moment. We were able to get our blood tests results today and they were negative! The OB had ordered tests to see if three of the most common auto antibodies, that can cause fetal heart block, were circulating in my blood. The three antibodies were: SSA, SSB and RNP. So we are relieved that as of now those antibodies are not in my blood and thus not being transferred to our baby’s blood either.

So getting back to the irregular heart beat… the OB that we met with today, who is more of a specialist than our regular OB, but still not a cardiac specialist, told us that the cause of the irregularity could be structural, electrical or both. He printed out a reading of the heart beat and rate, displaying the irregularity to compare to a picture in one of his medical books and to share with the cardiologist. Beyond that, he really couldn’t tell us much. He does think we should see a pediatric cardiologist ASAP and even made a phone call to assist us in getting the appointment scheduled for next week. So Wednesday, January 2 at 1:30 p.m. we will have a fetal echocardiogram, meet with the cardiologist and hopefully learn more about what might be wrong with our baby’s heart and what it’s prognosis may be.

As an aside, the u/s tech did do a transvaginal u/s, in addition to the abdominal one, to check if they could come up with any explanation for Saturday’s bleeding episode. However, they didn’t find anything of note. The OB did mention the placenta was lying low, but that it could and likely would move around more as we get closer to our due date. The placenta’s location continues to be confusing to us, as it seems that just about every other appointment we are told it is high and the alternating appointments that it is low?! Go figure.

So that’s our latest update. We are more encouraged today than we were on Saturday or Monday, since we know that our miracle baby/overachieving fetus is measuring on track and that it’s heart rate is back in the normal range (120-170) at 126. However, we are concerned about the irregularity and what that might mean for our baby both in utero and if and when it were to make it full term, or whatever point in the pregnancy it might be born, as it relates to our child’s quality of life. We remain cautiously optimistic.

Bob’s mom watched Sean for us this morning, we we appreciated! After I picked him up, I told him briefly and in terms I think he was able to understand about the appointment. I explained that our baby was growing like it was suppose to and moving around a lot when we got to see the video of inside mommy’s tummy. However, I also told him that the doctors think that there is something wrong with the baby’s heart. I made the sound of a “normal” heart beat, like a horse racing fast on a track and then made the sound of an “irregular” heart beat, with a ba-bum sound, instead of a bum-bum-bum sound. He thought my sound demonstrations were funny, but I think I got my point across. He didn’t ask many questions, but did seem to get what I saying on some level. When we got home I also showed him the latest pictures the u/s tech had printed out for us of the baby, which Sean asks to see after each doctor appointment.

Thank you for your continued support, encouragement, positive thoughts and prayers! We really have no idea what is going to happen with our baby. Our mood has become very neutral about the whole thing, if that makes sense. We are not extremely happy or sad, just trying to be patient and see what each new day and week brings. We still believe where there is life there is hope and that every day and week that it continues to grow and develop gives it a better chance of survival. I will check in after our appointment on Wednesday, if not before. Between now and then we are hoping and praying that things remain uneventful with this pregnancy (in terms of no more bleeding and such). If I don’t check in again this year, I wish you and your loved ones HAPPY NEW YEAR!