Finally Something Positive!

Originally posted February 4, 2009

Hello everyone. I want to begin this update by saying--DON'T STOP PRAYING! God hears our prayers and is already beginning to answer them. Thank you all for your fervency in your prayers. They mean so much to us.
We visited the maternal fetal specialist yesterday. The first prayer that was answered yesterday is that we didn't have to see the doctor who was so flippant and hurtful last time. Instead we got to see Dr. Rosnes who was very gentle, kind, and patient with us. He probably spent a good 20 minutes with us making sure we understood all the information, answering our questions, and giving us hope for the next weeks of our baby's life in my tummy.
Yeah, that's right - we're looking forward to several more weeks of this pregnancy according to Dr. Rosnes. Last month his colleague Dr. Wallace told us we shouldn't expect the baby to make it past 25 or 26 weeks. God is awesome and I will be 25 weeks on Friday. This just reminds me that doctors (especially pessimistic ones) are not in control. God is the only one in control of how long our baby lives. I admit it gives me pleasure that Dr. Wallace is turning out to be wrong.
Anyway. Dr. Rosnes took a good look at Baby's lungs on the sonogram. His lungs are small like we feared and placed back in his chest because his enlarged heart is taking up so much room in his chest. The doctor said his lung development is not super critical right now, even though they are small. Again, we will continue to monitor the situation and hope for the best. Maybe if Baby's heart continues to develop, but stops growing in size, it will give the rest of his body a chance to catch up.
The factor that will determine if we need to deliver him early, in other words, what will put baby in distress so that it's better to deliver him early rather than ride it out in my tummy is again if the fluid around his heart becomes too much and Baby begins gong into heart failure. Praise God, the fluid level around his heart has not increased since our first appointment with the specialists in December.
Baby is otherwise tracking pretty well still, though he has slipped a little in development. I'm about 24 1/2 weeks, and the baby's development is about 22 weeks. This isn't a huge change. He's only slipped about half of a week since December, but we want to pray that he will grow normally and become strong so he can live outside mommy's body whenever the time comes. That time may be soon, but the Doctor has given us hope that the baby will make it to 28 weeks and beyond. The doctor even mentioned maybe making it to 37-38 weeks. Wouldn't that be marvelous!
We're still a little skittish about busting out the paint for the nursery, but we are definitely so much more hopeful than we were after the last appointment.
Please continue to pray for us without ceasing. Pray of course for the baby's physical well-being, but also for his mommy and daddy that we have the strength and the courage to continue to face what's ahead.
We love you all! Blessings!