The History

We found out we were expecting baby #4 in June. We were all so excited to have a new little one join the family and we put our baby's due date of February 24th on the calendar. The kids were all thrilled when they found out it would be a new little brother and started making plans about all the fun things they would teach him and do with him. 

Right before Halloween, we learned the bad news from an ultrasound that this little baby boy would not have an easy entrance into this life. At that time we found out that he had two birth defects. One was Tetralogy of Fallot (a heart defect) and the other was Hydrocephalus (extra fluid on his brain). One or both would need surgery fairly soon after birth. The unknown factor (among many) was if these were unrelated abnormalities or if they were caused by a chromosomal defect. We switched all of our care up to Swedish in Seattle, where we started meeting with a good team of perinatal (high risk) doctors and cardiologists every couple of weeks to check on our baby's progress and to prepare for the care he would need after birth. That process was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for us, but we felt that we were in good hands.

Now, another unexpected turn of events has occurred. While visiting Utah after Christmas for a sister's wedding, my water broke. I am 32 weeks along and am now on hospital bed rest. All of our plans with our medical team in Seattle are void because the fact is that I am going to have this baby here in Utah - much sooner than we had planned. I cannot travel (or leave the hospital for that matter) until our little guy is born. The doctors hope to extend my pregnancy at least two more weeks to give our little guy more time to grow and develop (especially his heart). There are risks associated with continuing to carry a baby after the water has broken (infections, bleeding, baby squishing his cord, etc.), but at this point, those are outweighed by the risks of having him come so prematurely. It is unpredictable how long this will last though, so he could come at any time. The doctors are monitoring things very closely so that they can react quickly if they feel that either the baby or my body is not taking it well.

Once the baby is born, he will be taken directly to the NICU and evaluated there. He may need surgery immediately to help his heart work. We still are trying to figure out if he will need surgery on his brain (and his bladder and stomach, as we just found out on Thursday) right away or if we will be able to return home to Seattle and do those things up there.

Our week long trip to Utah has been extended for an unknown amount of time. The kids are thankfully able to stay with my parents, and we have siblings around to help out with them. Justin spends part of his time with the kids and part  of it visiting me in the hospital. In general, they do not allow children in the hospital to visit if they are under 14 years of age because of the swine flu. I am hoping that we will find a way around that soon. I have not given my three little cuties a hug for 3 days! But thankfully today I was brought a netbook, so I was able to talk with the kids over skype and see their cute little faces.

So life as we had planned it has changed once again and we are trying to adjust to our new circumstances. We are in a waiting game at this point and just hope and pray that when our little guy decides to come he will be okay and we will be able to begin to deal with his many challenges. We are excited to meet him and will hopefully have a name for him soon. We're not quite ready for him yet, but it looks like he will be here a lot sooner than the end of February!