We got our Christmas miracle!!!

In many ways I can’t believe I am actually getting to type these words right now, but it is true…

WE GOT OUR CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!

At our ultrasound (u/s) this afternoon our baby was very much alive, moving around, waving to us, with a regular heart beat and a rate of 124!!! The range at this stage of pregnancy is 120 – 170 (or some say even as low as 110) and as Bob keeps reminding me it is not a grading scale, in that 170 is not better than 120. We were so relieved when the u/s tech told us the heart rate!

Our baby measured around 6 cm and the tech said it converted to measuring 13 weeks exactly (by EDD I am 12 weeks 5 days today)! The tech also told us the the placenta was high (I think she actually used the term anterior and then translated for us) and in a good place (which again was confusing based on what our tech on Monday said, but go figure). She also said that there were no signs of placenta previa.

We had to wait awhile before we got to talk with a doctor/OB and ask questions about prognosis and why we might have gotten the irregular heart beat and 65 heart rate reading on Monday. So that made us nervous for awhile, not knowing what the doctor might say about it all.

In the meantime, since another purpose of the u/s, if the baby seemed fine, was to try to get that nuchal translucency (NT) measurement, that the tech had trouble getting a clear view of last Wednesday at my 1st trimester screening, we waited and watched our little miracle move about, while she tried to find the NT and measure it. We did enjoy watching our baby wiggle around, but we also could have cared less about the NT measurement at that point, as we just wanted to ask the doctor some questions and try to understand what happened this week with our baby?!

The tech had to get a colleague to come back and try to get an NT measurement, since she was having trouble and was successful finally! For the record, our average NT measurement was 1.3 and from what we understand (depending on how it combines with the blood work results), they like for it to be at least under 3, if not more, so we were good. The genetic counselor did meet with us briefly to tell us that for my age group (I am 32) our chances of having a child with Downs before the 1st trimester screening were 1 in 421 and our chances of having a child with trisomies 18 and 13 were 1 in 752. Well, after they combined my blood work results with the NT measurement our new odds that this child will have Downs are 1 in 3093 and trisomies 18 and 13 are less than 1 in 10,000. So we were certainly pleased with those results and will not be referred to do any other further testing related to either, not that we would have agreed to do it anyway, as we feel strongly about not doing any invasive testing during pregnancy.

So finally the doctor/OB came in, this is one of the OBs in the “Fetal Diagnostics” office we were at, not in our usual OB practice that we go to. This is where you get sent for better quality/higher level ultrasounds, that our OB’s office doesn’t do. Basically he told us that everything appears to be fine with our baby and that he can’t explain how or why they got the irregular heart beat or the 65 heart rate that they did at our OB’s office on Monday. He told us that the gestational sac has a good shape, our baby is measuring two days ahead and that he has no reason to believe that anything is wrong with it. He said that heart rate isn’t the only thing they look at to determine viability and a healthy pregnancy and emphasized that we shouldn’t worry too much about the numbers, as they are now back into the appropriate range. Our tech had done another heart rate check right before the OB came in and it was down to 116, but the doctor insisted that that was still considered normal and not to worry.

The OB did recommend that we return in one week for another “viability check” as they so nicely refer to them (for the record he didn’t use that term, I think he just said a follow up, but the nurses at our main OB’s office refers to them as that). So we have an appointment scheduled for Thursday, December 27 at 8:30 a.m. When we checked in with our main OB’s office, I got to talk with the OB we had met with on Monday after the abnormal u/s. She was so happy to hear that our baby seems to be fine! She said that we didn’t need to come into the office this afternoon nor did I need to go for my 13 weeks appointment on Saturday morning. She said to wait until we see how next week’s u/s goes and then we will go from there in terms of determining when they will want to see me next. She indicated that if the heart rate was considerably lower than today (she reiterated that today’s range of 116 – 124 was good), that the OB would probably do some kind of work up on us to see if he could figure out if something was wrong. I also forgot to mention that the OB we met with after the u/s also said that if we make it to 14 – 16 weeks and still have heart concerns, he could refer us to a specialist in fetal cardiology.

One more funny story about the OB who we met with after the u/s today. At one point, I think when I was nervously asking questions trying to make sense of all of this, Bob says the OB asked me if I had any medical conditions that might contribute to pregnancy problems. Not completely understanding what he was asking me, I guess, I went on to give him our history of miscarriages and doing IVF and such. He stopped me when I got to the interstitial ectopic pregnancy and asked me how long ago it was. I said about two years ago. He replied, “I was there, at your surgery!” We thought that was interesting and kinda funny that he remembered! As we had been told by our OB who did the surgery to remove it at the time, it is extremely rare and most OB’s may see only one, if that, in their lifetime. So apparently when our OB opened me up saw it all, he called over the OB we met with today essentially saying “you gotta see this!”

After we were done with the u/s and follow up consultations this afternoon, since everything appears to be good with our baby, we decided to drive up to Evanston and get Sean, so we can start our family Christmas vacation! Bob is off work until two days after Christmas! When we arrived in Evanston my parents had a yummy deep dish pizza dinner waiting for us, which was great! Though we never really told Sean anything might be wrong with the baby this week, we also tried to down play it somewhat, until we had a better sense of what was going on. So soon after we got to my parents’ house, we decided to show him the latest pictures we got from the u/s today (which he enjoyed) and we will now start to intentionally talk more about his younger sibling again.

Well, as you can imagine I am physically and more so emotionally exhausted right now. But I knew so many of you amazing people were pulling for us, so I wanted to get on here as soon as I could to post! I even thought about using Bob’s Blackberry on the car ride too or from Evanston to share the news, but was feeling too nauseous already to do anything besides sit there, while our car was moving!

THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT, ENCOURAGEMENT, FAITH, COMMENTS, EMAILS, PHONE CALLS, POSITIVE THOUGHTS, STICKY VIBES & PRAYERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Knowing we had so many people behind us and lifting us up these past few days has meant so much to us and made this time of uncertainty so much more bearable. We are so relieved and feel so blessed right now. We still feel somewhat cautious after the week we have had. Though the OB’s can’t seem to explain what happened on Monday, with the abnormal u/s, it still scares us a bit. However, we believe that at least for now, our “overachieving embryo turned fetus” is here to stay and we couldn’t be happier or more grateful!!!

We look forward to a wonderful Christmas celebration with our families and friends in the week to come!

I wish each of you and your loved ones a very merry Christmas! For those who don’t celebrate Christmas, I wish you awesome holiday celebrations with you and your loved ones!

To quote the line from the 80’s US Olympic championship hockey team announcer…

“Do you believe in miracles?!”

I DO!!!

May God bless you and your loved ones this holiday season and always.