Carry On

Life has been crazy, chaotic these last few weeks.  We have taken on some renovations to our home (some of which required us to stay at our parents house), celebrated the birth of my best friends baby girl, grieved the loss of my precious grandmother, Matt has been out of town for 8 nights and we've tried to keep up with all of the normal tball practice/games, church, school and doctors appointments. We've had an over heated boy puking in the car, car batteries die, special tests that require I keep urine specimens for 24 hours, blood taken and glucose drinks guzzled.  We've moved the boys into the same room, (kinda) celebrated Matt's birthday and had out of town guest stay with us.

It's been nuts!

In all of this, the doctors appointments have become fairly routine. The biggest new news that we received is that his left foot is turned in. The doctor noted it on the MRI but our perinatalogist was unable to confirm until last week.  Our guy had been breach and was sitting on his feet most of the time, so while they had looked and attempted to measure, the angle was very hard to see.  He has flipped for now and it is easier to see the angle between the foot and shin in his new position.  While the right leg looks to be normal the left is certainly clubbed. On their own, clubbed feet are not necessarily a big deal and can typically be corrected with therapy, orthopedics or surgery.  The concern in our boy is that he now has two abnormalities.  This just makes the doctors more suspicious that their might be a bigger chromosomal abnormality going on here.

BUT as always, we aren't sure!  It could just been a baby with two abnormalities.  Of course, we are hoping and believing this is the case. We hate that he will have one more battle to climb, but I know that the Lord will see us through all of the days ahead just like he has each one behind.

I read something a while back that has stuck with me from NatalieFalls.com. She has an incredible way with words and perspective that is a gift. A friend of hers is going through an uncertain pregnancy and asked for prayers and her response has not left me.

She writes:

"I held my daughter close and I poured out words that have come from the most difficult times in my life. And they are the most precious and sweetest of times in my life. It was a time when I was desperate for Christ to be my comforter. When no human could possibly offer me any comfort, my Savior was reminding me to trust in Him. Not my plans and my direction. But His perfect plan. His good and perfect plan, one that I would have never picked for myself.

 

As I told my friend I would pray for her, she's been on my mind ever since. And that test has been on my mind. It can tell her a few things about her baby, but it will never tell her all the things God knows about her baby—after all, He is her baby's creator. The one who formed her beating heart. The one who knows every soft and delicate hair on her precious head."

This is certainly not our plan and one that we would have never picked for ourselves.  But it is the Lord's plan for our family and our son. His perfect plan. And she is so right! No matter how many doctors we see or tests they run, they can never know all the things our Creator knows about our boy.  They can't tell us about his spirit, about the glory he will bring the Lord and the joy he will bring to our lives. These tests don't know our baby.  The Lord does.  We, as his family, will be privileged to know much of that ourselves.

For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

Psalm139:13-14

I pray that our souls.  That your soul. That each of our boy's souls would know His wonderful works so very well.




  

doctor, doctor

We had two more doctors appointments this week, but don't have a lot to report. 

I had to change ob's in order to deliver at Medical City and we had out first appointment this week. We are so thankful that she took our case, as it's high risk and it's not common to change doctors at 25 weeks pregnant.  She came into the room on Monday hobbling on crutches, fresh off of emergency knee surgery the previous Friday.  So either she's crazy, a very committed doctor or maybe a little of both.  Either way, we absolutely loved her.  She spent a lot of time catching up on our history and current pregnancy.  She seemed extremely concerned with keeping up with my (and Matt's) physical and mental well being, recommending spending time exercising, reading, going on dates or doing anything to get a deep breath, keep stress low and our marriage strong during this time. Since we hadn't been back to an ob since the original diagnosis (all of our doctors appointments dealt with our son's health and very little with mine) it was interesting to find out that I am at an increased risk for preeclamsia.  So I will be monitoring my weight and blood pressure at home each week and get to do some fun tests to measure the protein in my urine.  We see her again in 4 weeks and then are already bumped to appointments every 2 weeks.       

On Friday, we went to see our perinatal doctor who does the detailed sonograms every 2 weeks at this point, soon to be every week.  She also went over our MRI results in detail with us.  As we found out he does have what they are calling a microcolon.  While we are still taking it as good news, she confirmed that we really don't know how good of news it is.  We probably won't know until he is born if it is something that can actually sustain any kind of function. 

So we keep on, keeping on.  We have a brief break from doctors appointments and then they really ramp up for the remainder of this pregnancy.

We are believing and standing firm in this today...
We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.
Hebrews 6:19