Doctor visit today and the wait continues and Sophia is getting moved up!

So, today was a semi-successful day. We met with Dr. Purvis twice today. We met when we first got there to discuss Dr. Gonzales's recommendation BUT Dr. Purvis did not have the recommendation and full results today. He called Dr. Gonzales's office and the nurse said the Dr. Gonzales was just about done with the results/recommendation and should have it to Dr. Purvis soon. So, once Dr. Purvis gets it, he is going to call me. He isn't going to make us wait until our next appointment to tell us what Dr. Gonzales recommends. Thank goodness because our next appointment is in 2 weeks! That's right, he's backed us up to 2 weeks instead of every week appointments. He also said, at this time we will not be performing any type of intervention for Gabe. I asked him" So, that's a good thing, right?" He said, "Yes it is!" We will take ALL the good news we can!!

So, Dr. Purvis listened to Gabe's heartbeat and measured my tummy - which all looked and sounded GREAT!

Next bit of news, we had our ultrasound and saw Gabe move all around. First his hand was on his head as if to say, "woahh is me" :) He was also sitting Indian style. His personality is so ALIVE it's amazing :) He didn't seem like the sick little boy we saw two weeks ago, even with the fluid and swelling. According to the measurements, the fluid and swelling haven't gotten any worse, nor has it gotten any better. It's staying pretty much the same as it was last week. So, that's good.

Also, he's no longer breach. He's laying across my tummy, just like he should be doing at this time in the pregnancy.

I go back to the doctor on June, 12 at 3:30. I'm not sure if we will have an ultrasound at that appointment or not. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we do!

Big Sister news:

Sophia will move up to the advanced class next week at school! That's huge news.. Although, the only thing Soph really cares about is getting in the pool at school. LOL. She tells me everyday that she needs to bring her bathing soup so she can swim. They don't start swimming until June so it's very very soon! We're pretty proud of this little stinker and her climb to the advanced class :)

Since she's started at Covenant Classical School she's progressed through a total of 3 classes, including the advanced class she is about to move into, since August 2012. She's doing great!

24 weeks and taking it one day at a time...

This past weekend was full of hard work for Manu, Sophia and Daddy. They worked their butts off  cleaning the house and washing cars. Manu has decided to stay with us to help out so I can sit on my butt and take care of Gabe with as much rest as possible when I'm home. Aunt Nannie and Uncle Kip even got in on the action. LOL. Uncle Kip took Sophia with him to pick up his and Aunt Nannie's race day packets while Aunt Nannie cleaned up Sophia's toys and ran the vacuum cleaner throughout the house. Love you guys!!!

Plus, Daddy has been working some long hours in the HOT sun, so having Manu here is helpful for all of us. :)

We have been calling & getting calls from family to keep everyone informed of what is going on, the best we can anyway, and we are receiving tons of prayers for our little guy and that just warms my heart and is so awesome:) He's already touched our lives so much and he's only the size of a swollen banana :)

Here's our 24 week picture. Big sister Sophia didn't feel like taking a picture today. I think she's bored with the whole picture taking thing. :)

Well, we are still waiting on the chromosome pairing results from the microarray. I didn't get a phone call today from Birmingham. So, hopefully they will send the results to Dr. Purvis and he will have everything for our 2:30 appointment tomorrow. The plan for our appointment is for Dr. Purvis to go over all the results and the recommendation from Dr. Gonzales. All of this is contingent on whether or not he receives all the information before 2:30.

Oh, I forgot to report that Gabe's Parvo and CMV tests were normal. So no infections are plaguing our baby.

I'll post again tomorrow after our Doctor's visit. We will also have an ultrasound picture, hopefully :) We are getting an ultrasound, at the request of Mommy and Daddy because Dr. Purvis doesn't typically do ultrasounds inside a 3 week span. He said he can't get an accurate measurement of baby's growth but he will allow us to have one because we need some peace of mind and want to see our boy.

So more to follow....

23 weeks and 3 days... more test results and a doctor appointment.

Here's my post from yesterday, I started writing before I received a phone call about one portion of the microarray results:

Well, we had to tell big sister that she couldn't go with us to this doctor's appointment. She was heartbroken but when I told her that she wont even care about doctor appointments once the baby is here, she was much happier. She hadn't looked that far down the road and honestly, it helps me to keep my focus on that far down the road.

Since I don't have any vacation time from work, we are going to the doctor on my lunch break. 

Baby brother Gabe has been kicking and punching Mommy really good the past few days :) This has reassured me that he is doing his thing in there and he is ok. As long as he keeps this up, which I believe he will. Then we will be on the road to recovery!

Something strange that has been happening with me, along the lines of pregnancy symptoms, the week before our 22 week OB/GYN appointment where the fluid and swelling was found on Gabe, I threw up my poptarts on my drive to work one morning. It was very bizarre considering I haven't been sick this entire pregnancy and I wasn't sick when I was pregnant with Sophia. Also, I've had mornings since that day where I've been extremely nauseous and feeling horrible. It has been going away by about 9:00 am. After talking to Jana about it, she said when she was pregnant with Kolbi she would have random bouts of sickness due to the way he was moving and pushing on her stomach. So, it's not unheard of, that's for sure.

One thing I wanted to share, a lady at work suggested that I hug my belly as much as possible and tell baby Gabe how much I love him!! I've been doing this every chance I get and it helps me feel connected to him. I know that probably sounds weird.. so have you met me? :) I also told Sophia that Gabe can hear her. She thought that was so cool. So she talks to my belly now. She tells her baby brother that she loves him and she gives my belly kisses :) She loves this little boy and can't wait until he's here with us. :)

 Received a phone call from Birmingham with part of the test results:
The microarray revealed a deletion on chromosome 13.  This poses a huge threat to Gabe, it could lead to stillbirth or born with a wide spectrum of malformations OR ,depending on the second half of the microarray results which tests the chromosome pairing, if the pairing is coming together right then his other chromosome 13 could kick in and baby Gabe might be OK.

This was a lot to swallow yesterday. It was very hard for me to talk to the nurse on the other end of the phone because all I want to hear is that my baby boy will be OK. I want him BORN ALIVE!

The nurse said that I will need to be tested for the chromosome 13 deletion and so will Mike. They want to know if we are carriers. This might help them determine the extend of the defect in Gabe. She also informed me that  I will be getting a call from a genetic specialist that can help Mike and I understand what is going on here.

TODAY 5/24/2013, we had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Purvis and here's the update:

Dr. Purvis said my stomach is measuring right on schedule which means that Gabe is GROWING. We heard his beautiful HEARTBEAT with the doppler and his heart is beating normal, which is good that means Gabe is not in fetal distress. We also heard him MOVING all around in my belly when he was trying to get a good read on his heart. Which brought a smile to Dr. Purvis's face and of course, mine and Mikes.  This was all great news.

The not so great news, we still have to get the rest of the results from Dr. Gonzales office and we need his recommendation on a path forward. So Dr. Purvis and Dr. Gonzales can work together for the duration of my pregnancy. Mike and I told Dr. Purvis that we are determined to do whatever means is necessary to help Gabe live and Dr. Purvis said that is his mindset too and he will be right there beside us, helping.

We asked Dr. Purvis if the swelling and fluid could dissolve on its own after the discovery of the chromosome defect and he said probably not. But there is a path forward for treating the swelling/fluid, which they have named fetal hydrops, while Gabe is in utero, they can insert a stint/shunt and drain it. Then there's always the blood transfusion if his red blood cell count is getting low. All of these treatments will be contingent on how well Gabe is doing and if he can sustain the invasive procedures.

Last and certainly least is the option for stillbirth. If this chromosome defect is so severe that Gabe can't live outside of utero by himself then the doctors will recommend that we don't perform any invasive procedures due to the fact that it might hinder his time in utero.

Now, onto the next doctor appointment. Which is Wednesday, the 29th at 2:30 to meet with Dr. Purvis and we have an ultrasound at 3:30 that day. The ultrasound is more for my peace of mind that anything else. Plus Mike told Dr. Purvis that we need a picture of our boy:) I couldn't agree more!
Also, we will be seeing Dr. Purvis weekly from here on out.....

UPDATE from the doctor....

OK,  I received the phone call we were waiting on :) All the blood work that was drawn from me came back NORMAL. Such as, the RH factor, no fetal cells, I have antibodies to parvo...

The results from the precision panel were NORMAL. This test was one of 3 samples taken during  the amniocentesis. The precision panel tests the chromosomes 13,18,21 and the sex chromosome to ensure all of those heavy hitters are NORMAL.

Now we are waiting for the results of the second sample of the amnio which is called a microray- tests to make sure ALL chromosomes are present in baby Gabe. Finally, the third sample is going to test Gabe for CMV and parvo.... both of these test results should be back by Friday or Monday at the latest.

Where do we go from here? I can't answer that... the main reason is: we still don't know the cause of the swelling and fluid. We have a doctor appointment on Friday with Dr. Purvis at 10:30. Then we will probably assess the situation again and go from there.

What we know; the fluid has to be gone from Gabe's abdomen and his red blood cell count needs to be adequate to help him sustain life. For these two items we might be looking at a possible stint to drain the fluid and/or a blood transfusion to replenish his blood supply. Needless to say, there is a ton more to follow....

I will keep praying that the fluid gets absorbed into his body and he keeps on trucking like the little hero that he is :)

We've been going going going and so has our baby boy! Baby Gabe is a strong boy:)

 A lot has happened since my last post. I'll start with the baby's room. We've decided to buy an old entertainment center (picture on the left, above) and refurbish it. Our inspiration came from pinterest, yeah - go figure :) The picture on the right is the inspiration. Ours will look similar when it's done but not exactly like that. For instance, we are going to probably paint it brown to match the picture on the right, above. We are also going to paint our crib, since it's white. So a lot to do for the baby's room. Now, there's going to be a lot  to this post so lets get going.

 This is just a sweet picture of Sophia at home one day. She wanted me to take her picture :)

 Here's Aunt Nannie, Mommy and Sophia at Carter's baptism!! I don't have any other pictures just yet because everyone still has them on their camera's. LOL... everyone has been busy busy this year!

Again, Sophia posing for the camera on the way home from school.

 Aunt Mary, Uncle Bradley and baby Adilyn had a very nice baby shower. Here's a couple pictures from that, one is Sophia helping Aunt Mary open the present that she got baby Adilyn. Another is this awesome box that  I found to wrap Adilyn's clothes. I thought that box was so cool! ha :) And the grand finale is the tasty cake with Adilyn's initials on it. It was a great shower and Aunt Mary racked up on stuff!!

                    This is Sophia on the way home from the shower. She was partied out!!

 Silly girl on a Sunday afternoon just a playing :) She said "Mommy, this doesn't look very right."

 Here we are on a normal Tuesday night... just signing paperwork for our house. Oh yeah, we are buying our house!! We've been working with the bank and the current owners to buy our house. It's been  a slow process but one that will hopefully end soon:)

 KJ had to get a bathtub because he is having an allergic reaction to something, I'm thinking it's his medicine... his topical treatment was discontinued so the vet recommended a new pill for him. Well, I'm almost positive that's what's causing his breakout on his skin. He has very sensitive skin. So, Cy and Pops found some good shampoo and conditioner for Bub to try. So here's Daddy and Soph trying it out on KJ.

                       A beautiful day after school and work. Just playing on the swing set!

                                Aunt Nannie, Uncle Kip and Papa at the Dragon Boat Races!!!

                    Sophia was dressed and ready for the dragon boat races! She was pumped up!!!

                     Sophia is packed and ready to go to the  beach!!

NOW for the big news! We are having a boy!! As if you guys didn't know that already! :) Well, we went to the doctor appointment, routine Ob/Gyn at Dr. Purvis's office. It was the Wednesday we were leaving for the beach. Well, we didn't expect anything to be wrong with our baby boy until the technician started to get very nervous and kicked everyone out of the room with the exception of me.  She said she noticed something on the ultrasound and  I would have to go to Birmingham to see a specialist... WHAT!!!!!!!! My head started to spin, like we were in a horrible nightmare! So, Mike and I met with Dr. Purvis and he told us the ultrasound showed fluid around the baby's heart and head. He also stated that the technician couldn't find the baby's kidney's on the ultrasound.... again I say, WHAT!!!!!!!!!!! That was all he could tell us without more details of our baby's condition.

When we left Dr. Purvis's office, we were in a state of shock... I mean, the baby kicks me and has always had a good heartbeat, where did this swelling and fluid come from? Well that is the million dollar question. The other thing we left with was NO PICTURE of OUR baby boy!!!

So before we left, Dr. Purvis set up an appointment for us to see a Maternal/Fetal specialist to get a level 2 ultrasound. The Doctor is Dr. Gonzales and it was for 7:00 am the next morning in Birmingham.

So that afternoon, after we left Dr. Purvis's office we hit the road for the beach to drop off Sophia and KJ. Then that night we headed back up to Birmingham for our appointment the next day.

Well on Thursday we spent two hours at Dr. Gonzales's office. We got a detailed scan and the technician FOUND Gabe's kidneys and they are functioning properly! That was great news!! The other great news is, the baby's heart is doing perfectly!!! He's pumping blood to his body at a great rate at this point.

This still doesn't explain the fluid in is abdomen, which is what this scan told us - the fluid is in his abdomen and not just around his heart. Also, no fluid around his brain. He has swelling from head to toe surrounding his whole body due to the excess fluid that is in his abdomen.

Dr. Gonzales performed an amniocentesis and Gabe did awesome!! Then one of the nurse's drew blood from me for more tests and they sent me to Quest for more bloodwork. So, it's Monday and we are waiting on all the test results to come back. We were tested for genetic causes, viral infections, and more tests.. we are expecting results to start showing up today through out this week.

The Doctor's need to know what's causing this so they can treat the cause and not just the symptoms..... our options are:
1. This could go away on its own - this is obviously the BEST option.
2. The cause is viral or an infection - there might be a medicine to treat it.
3. The Dr. would have to drain the fluid off Gabe's abdomen through a stint... if the fluid doesn't get absorbed.
4. Gabe could require a blood transfusion.
5. The cause is genetic and there may or may not be a good treatment...
The last thing that I try the hardest NOT to think about is Gabe has a 50-50 chance of living through this. The swelling is not common anymore and if we can't find the cause then we will be treating the symptoms..

I do know that this baby is strong and I believe with all my heart that he will pull through this. We are staying positive because we have baby with NO other problems in my belly!!! He's structurally perfect and I believe he just doesn't feel good right now. When we saw him in our Birmingham scan he was breach and he was facing my back; like he wanted to cuddle with his mommy because he just didn't feel good. Oh, and we got our picture :)

 So Thursday, Mike and I headed back to the beach for some rest and relaxation. Here's soph playin:)

                                                She was lovin the beach and the sand!!

                                                                  She had a blast!

                                                 Finally, she says!! I'm at the beach!!

Carter and Sophia playing in the sand! This time next year, we will see Carter, Sophia and Gabe playing in the sand.

                                            KJ was taking it easy on his beach vacation :)

 Uncle Kraigy was not expecting his picture to be taken. He has to know his wife, Aunt Hollie is going to take his picture anyway!! ha ha!

 This was pretty much my beach vacation. I didn't realize Aunt Hollie was taking my picture either.

Like all good things, our beach trip had to come to an end.. Sophia had her seat pet to keep her comfy on the drive home :)

One last thing about Gabe, I keep thinking about Dr. Purvis saying, "this baby wants to be heard!" Because his heartbeat was detected at our 5 week ultrasound and every doctor visit after that.... He might just need some help through this but I believe with all my heart that we will have this baby boy in our arms and he will pull through this... I'll post again when I get more information.