Baby Maner

Meet Baby Maner

He looks like a perfect, active little guy. We love him already. He has a cute little nose, perfect little hands and feet, and is properly sized. He likes to kick and do somersaults.

However, there are some problems.

Our lives have become more complicated this week with the bad news of an ultrasound with a specialist. Originally the problems added up to 4. They switched our care to Swedish Medical Center in Seattle because of the complexity of the issues. Justin and I headed up for the day today (thank you to our ward family here who took care of the kids and dinner for us) to get an ECHO (for baby's heart) and then another ultrasound and consultation with our new perinatal doctor. Things have definitely moved toward the high-risk end of the spectrum. The day on the whole was more positive than we expected it to be, but we have a long road ahead of us.

Now the list of serious problems are down to 2.

Our little guy has Tetralogy of Fallot, TOF, or Tet. For more info on what this means, click here. The short answer is that there is a hole in his heart, along with 3 other problems inside his heart. This will require open heart surgery at probably 3-6 months of age, unless the problems get worse and they have to do it sooner. The success rate of the surgery is pretty high, which gives us quite a bit of hope.

The second issue is Hydrocephalus, or too much fluid in the baby's brain. This is more of an unknown at this point. It could decrease, or it could increase. The damage from it could range from little to none up to pretty severe brain damage. They will be monitoring both of these conditions very closely between now and February.

The biggest unknown at this point is if these are isolated defects or if the root cause is from a chromosome abnormality, in which case he may face many more issues that they can't see from the ultrasound.

At this point, we have to wait and see how our little guy handles these things. We feel more optimistic today than we did two days ago however, despite all of the unknowns. But one thing is certain. We know that God is real and that He has a plan for us and for this special boy. We pray for strength to endure what is to come and for the Spirit to guide our decision making on behalf of our baby.

This little baby has so many people that love him already. We are hoping for the best!