Baby W

We are so excited to welcome Baby W into our lives. We are expecting him on June 23, 2010! That is just a little under 5 months, and it is our 3rd wedding anniversary. We learned last week that we have quite the journey ahead of us, and I am hoping to catch our journey here.

Going into our ultrasound on Monday January 25, 2009, we were both excited. I had an uneasy feeling for a couple weeks prior to the ultrasound, but was still anxious to find out what sex our baby was. So many feelings were going through my (and Cody's) brains sitting in the waiting room. I kept thinking, just like the previous couple of weeks, "I hope he/she is healthy". I know that all parents have this feeling, and as I asked my friends/family about this, they confirmed that they were a little nervous going to their first ultrasound as well. For some reason I felt like it was more that nerves, that something was not quite right. We got called back, and our sonographer began taking pictures of our little guy. She was rather unexperienced, and we could tell that it was taking here a bit longer than it should have to find different parts of the baby. She thought that she found Baby W's "boy parts" but wasn't sure, and after 40 minutes, she went and got another sonographer. The next lady was extremely quick, and was finding the skull, heart, arms, and legs and measuring them. At one point she measured the femur bone (leg) and on the bottom of the screen I saw that it measured at 12 weeks; and I was 19 weeks pregnant. I was a little nervous and asked her if that was accurate, (of course she can't tell us anything) and she just said, "Yeah, that is what I am looking at now" and continued on. After taking measurements for about 30 minutes the radiologist came into our room. She watched the sonographer for a couple of minutes, tried to confirm if Baby W was really a boy, but wasn't positive, and then asked if she could sit down and speak with us. I can't explain the feeling that I had. Mostly because it was strangely calm. I felt as though I had been being prepared for this for a few weeks, and both Cody and I silently listened to her. She told us that there were some concerning things in the ultrasound, and that Baby W's limbs were not quite growing like they should be. She was very comforting but could not tell us any more than that.

The next morning, Tuesday, I spoke with my OBGYN, Dr. W., and we made an appointment with a perinatologist first thing Wednesday morning. Tuesday was quite a long day. Both Cody and I tried not to think of all of the possibilities that could be wrong with our precious boy, but when your mind starts going it is hard to avoid. We did our best to stay positive. I, of course, had multiple mini-breakdowns, but was comforted by my faith in God and my wonderful husband. Needless to say, that evening of sleep definitely was not perfect. We were both anxious to meet with our Doctors in the morning.

Dr. W. met us at the perinatologist's office, which I was so pleased with. We are so fortunate to have some great doctors for Baby W. I got another ultrasound from a very good sonographer, she zipped around and told us Baby W was a boy for sure! Good news...I love boys! Then Dr. R. came in and began to go through another ultrasound with us. It really is fun to see our baby squirming around and his little heart beating away.

Dr. R. began with the cranium. Baby W's head looks great, so that is good news. It measured at 19 weeks, which is perfect. The first radiologist that reviewed our ultrasound thought that Baby W had fluid on his brain, or hydrocephalus. Dr. R. looked at this area closely and said that he cannot see any fluid on his brain. This is a huge relief and we pray that it stays this way. Next he talked to us about the sutures on the side of Baby W's head, or the soft spots that infants have in order to be born through the vaginal canal. Baby W's sutures are beginning to close, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just makes a vaginal delivery not an option. Baby W's head may be too big and not able to fit, so a c-section is most likely on the horizon for us. I don't mind this at all, I know the recovery for me is longer but I just want him here and don't care how that happens!

Next, Dr. R. looked at Baby W's heart chambers, spine, lungs, ribs and abdomen. He said that everything looks great! What a blessing! Unfortunately this can change so we will be monitoring the growth of Baby W's torso every two weeks for the rest of my pregnancy. If his ribs do not continue to expand with his organs, it can be life threatening. As I said, though, Dr. R. thinks that he is growing properly right now, so that is very comforting. All of our prayers will be focused on his torso continuing to grow as it should.

Next we were able to see Baby W's arms and legs. The picture above is a 3-D ultrasound, so it looks a little different. They are developed to 12 weeks, which is behind schedule. Due to the length of his limbs, he has been diagnosed with Skeletal Dysplasia, or the more common term, Dwarfism. We will be welcoming a little person into our world! We were both shocked, but actually pleasantly surprised by the fact that Baby W is healthy in every way, just short. His fingers have not opened yet, so we are hoping that he will start stretching those out soon. His feet look as though they are developing normally, but everything is hard to measure at this point. Dr. R. diagnosed Baby W with a type of skeletal dysplasia called Achondroplasia. This is simply a shortening of the arms and legs, but proper development of the rest of the body. This can change, however. A few tears were shed, but it was a surprisingly short cry fest followed by a ton of thankful prayers for his health and the fact that he is simply small, and something more serious was not diagnosed.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions, as well as way too many things that could go wrong with our Baby W. We are still in shock, and I think that this shock will continue for quite a while. We are so happy that we were able to find out now so that we may be able to emotionally prepare for what lies ahead. We are so thankful for our faith and the blessing of knowing that although we may not have any power over this situation, our Heavenly Father does. We know that we have so many loved ones who will be praying for us and our Baby W, and want to encourage those prayers. We need all of the faith from those around us that we can get! We know that Baby W was meant to come into our family, and are so ready to have him here with us. We are not sorry for the situation that we are in, and we are still so anxious to meet our little boy! The next 20 weeks may be some of the longest of our lives, waiting and praying that our little man will come to us with a healthy torso and developed as well as he can be. I am hoping that this can be a good journal for us. There are some days that tears will be shed as I am writing the new challenges that have come our way. However, I know that there will be hundreds more days that I am speaking of the blessings that we are getting from Baby W coming to our family. I hope that you can laugh and cry with us through our joys and challenges, and we ask for your prayers on behalf of the new little man in our life, Baby W.