Follow up ultrasound

Before you start reading, I have to apologize about the long posts! There is so much information from each appointment!

On August 17th Jon and I headed up to Seattle for another ultrasound and to meet with Dr Jolly and a Neonatologist.

When we arrived in Seattle we were over an hour early so we did a little walking around before heading to the appointment. When we got there we found out that our appointments had started not at 11am (like we thought) but 10am! I had gotten a text reminder a few days before the appointment that hadn't included the ultrasound! We had even arrived in Seattle in time for the appointment but didn't want to be so early. They managed to squeeze us in anyway because of a cancellation.

We went to our local fair on Thursday as a memory maker with Matthew

The technician was not our favorite, she was nice, but she was too quick and didn't tell us all of what she was looking at so we didn't catch all of what we were seeing.

After the ultra sound we were shown into a room to wait for the doctor. At this point we didn't know who we were going to see but I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be Dr Jolly because of what we knew of her schedule. But to our joy it was her! She has switched days with someone else and that made it possible for us to see her. She also came in with the neonatologist that we were going to see, they decided to come in together (that was nice).

The neonatologist's name is Dr Batra and we really liked him! Right off the bat he said that he had read through all of the notes from all of our visits and that he felt like he knew us already. I was super impressed that he would take the time to read everything. He verbalized where he thought we were for making decisions once Matthew was born and he was right on.

At that point he walked us through what everything would look like at the birth and after with Matthew and what it they would normally do. He started out with worst case scenario then moved to the more positive. As we went along we asked questions and he asked questions. We are really happy with what we learned from him and how he listened to us and explained everything. He also didn't push us to make immediate decisions and even encouraged us to think about it before deciding anything.

They had camels there this year

At the beginning of the meeting Dr Jolly told us the ultrasound findings, then after talking with Dr Batra we went over them a little more. She told us that the cysts in his brain have maintained size since last time which means that with his head growth they are a lot smaller in comparison, they once again could not see the CSP, there is extra fluid in the cisterna magna (new), it does still look like he probably has horseshoe kidneys, his chin is a little on the small side still, the fluid around his right lung seems to be gone, and his right hand appears clenched.

She told us that not being able to see the CSP and with some extra fluid in the cisterna magna there are probably other brain abnormalities going on as is common with babies with Trisomy 18. She also said that his right hand now appears to be clenched which can develop as the pregnancy progresses and that is why we haven't seen it before. We were so happy to hear that the fluid around his lung seems to be gone, that is such a good development!

He is continuing to grow at a normal rate but a week behind his adjusted due date. He now weighs 2 pounds 8 ounces! His head is about a week ahead of his other measurements and his abdomen is a couple weeks behind but she said that she isn't too concerned about it.

Over all we are really happy with what we heard, it was mostly good news and we really liked what Dr Batra had to say.

For those of you that don't know about our spontaneous trip to Seattle on the 11th, I had been having some small signs that could have meant that I was heading towards (but not in) preterm labor and after consulting with a nurse we decided to have an internal exam done. We met with the midwife and she did the exam. She said that my cervix was about 50% effaced, externally 1 cm dilated (but internally closed) and my cervix was in a central location. With these findings we decided to head to Seattle for some observation. They did a 1 hour nonstress test and also did an exam. They said that my cervix had stayed the same in the hours between exams and that since I wasn't having any contractions that we could go home. They told us to come back if I had 6 contractions an hour for 3 hours and not to worry about it before then.

It was good to get that information, though it did feel a little bit like a waste of time. They said that it was good to come in and get checked just in case. Now we know what to look for.

At the end of our appointment with Dr Jolly on the 17th she said that she could check my cervix for me if I would like. I decided to go ahead with that so that I could relax if it had stayed the same. She said that it is the same or a little better and that it will fluctuate over time. That was such a relief for me! I have felt a lot better about how things are going since learning that.

We now have most of our birth plan written out and have our go bags packed and ready to go just in case he decides to come early.

Just for fun we got a little temporary color added to my hair in one of the booths at the fair (they used chalk!)