Yesterday was our weekly check up. Jaida and Gunner got to come to the ultrasound and were pretty excited to see little brother Kyler on the screen! Kyler was being cooperative and showed off his breathing movements and scored 8/8 on the checkup! We did find out that my amniotic fluid levels were a little high which is a slight concern because the increase of fluid causes increased pressure on my uterus. This increase of pressure can cause contractions and increases my chances of preterm labor. I have been instructed to keep track of my contractions(which mostly occur in the evenings right now) and kick counts to watch Kyler's movement. I am feeling pretty large now and pretty tired most evenings but nothing out of the normal for nearing the end of a pregnancy! Next Monday we head to Children's for our weekly checkup and it should be our last trip there before me make the official move down for delivery. I am a little nervous that the doctors will want me to move down earlier than planned due to the higher fluid levels but time will tell. One blessing is that I have my things ready for the school year next year and since we are nearing the end of this school year I am very close to having things in order in case I do have to end the year early.
We have continued to be blessed by friends and family offering support and donations and we really cannot put into words how thankful we are. We are so appreciative of the prayers going out for Kyler and our family. Thank you all!
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Tomorrow marks the 1 month point for us to relocate to Kansas City and 5 Weeks until induction day! We are almost there! I have been feeling good but am for sure feeling big. I am also starting to get uncomfortable depending on how low Kyler nestles himself and how much I am up and about moving. He is pretty active in the evenings and I have been experiencing Braxton Hicks Contractions so I have been trying to take it easier now! Today was check up day. We had another ultrasound to check the fluid levels watch to see if Kyler is making breathing movements. Today everything looked good, we got to see the breathing movements and it looks like his liver is still down where it should be!! We also got a few more pictures of our sweet boy! Thank you all for the continued prayers and please keep them coming!
We have now hit the point of weekly check ups! Tomorrow marks exactly 6 weeks until we get to meet our Mr. Kyler! Today he was cooperative for the ultrasound tech and we got to see hiccups and breathing motions on the screen so I did not have to go for further monitoring today! As I have mentioned, one of the best parts of all of these ultrasounds are getting to see him each time. Today his hair was clearly visible on the screen so we shall see how much hair he ends up having come delivery day! After the ultrasound I got to see my doctor here in Salina and she said that everything looked good today on the ultrasounds! Yay for no bad news! Thank you for the prayers and keep them coming, we are getting close!
Yesterday we headed back to Children's for our check up. Going down we had just a few questions we wanted to know about. First, was Kyler's liver still down where it should be? Was there an issue with his brain? Finally, what day would be our induction date? We were able to get all three questions answered! First off we have been praying that his liver stayed down and so far it is staying in the stomach and hasn't migrated north into the diaphragm! This is probably the best news we could get right now because the more things that move up, the more pressure it puts on his lungs. Secondly we wanted to know if his brain was formed correctly. This question came about after our 2nd and 3rd appointments. On our appointment on the 22nd of February the OB who looked over the ultrasound results mentioned that there was a part of the brain they couldn't see but he wasn't worried because we were already scheduled for a MRI and that it would show up on there(or not if it wasn't formed). When we got the call about the results they said the brain looked good so we stopped worrying about that part of Kyler's development. Fast forward to after our March 7th appointment and I was reading the notes the OB(the one we didn't care for) put in our file about our appointment that day and I read "prior suspicion for absence of corpus collosum could not be confirmed or denied today." Not being sure what the corpus collosum was for sure I headed to Google. I found out that it is a major nerve bundle that connects the two hemispheres of the brain. Cue freak out mode. I got pretty worked up worrying that it wasn't there and the long term effects that would have on Kyler's quality of life. I was beyond frustrated that the doctors hadn't said anything about that when they went over the results of the ultrasound and just put that in the notes. I was confused why the team didn't mention it when they went over the MRI results during our consult meeting. Mike was quite a bit more rational than I was and after I calmed down and after talking with a few people I realized that it may have just been what the OB couldn't see from the ultrasound and that Children's is so large that perhaps that doctor hadn't reviewed the MRI results. Anyhow I wanted clarification so that we knew for sure if there was another issue that we would need to address. Good news! The doctor we saw yesterday(Dr. Bennett, my favorite OB that we have met so far!) had the MRI results with him when he came to talk with us and was able to confirm that they got a measurement on the corpus collosum and it was normal along with the rest of the brain! So far we were two for two in good news with our questions and I really needed that! Our last question was if we could set the induction date and they had it scheduled and told us before we even had to ask! Three for three! So May 23 is the day Kyler will make his grand entrance and begin the fight of his life. Yesterday was the most hopeful I have felt leaving the doctors since we first found out about Kyler's condition and it was so nice to not break down bawling before or after leaving our appointment. That being said it wasn't without some worry. After we got taken back for the ultrasound(almost an hour late!) Kyler was being his usual onery and active self for the ultrasound tech. As she first started scanning he was breach and then got bothered by her pushing on his and flipped completely around to head down position. It looked like he was shaking his booty at us(something Jaida and Gunner found very funny!). At one point during the scan he was in such a funny position he looked like an Olympic high diver with his feet by his head(see example below!). The worrisome part came when they needed to watch his diaphragm for 30 minutes to see if they saw him taking practice breaths. We were not seeing any of the breathing movements and I began to worry(I'm getting good at worrying very quickly these days). I asked the tech about not seeing it and she assured me that it was ok, babies don't constantly make those movements but since they weren't able to see them on the ultrasound I would need to go over to another room to be hooked up to monitors so they could check more. We got moved over to one of the delivery recovery rooms and they put belly monitors on and after finding the heart beat(Kyler wasn't being the most cooperative), they said it would be 20 minutes to an hour. I got somewhat comfortable(I was on my back which isn't my best position these days!) and Mike settled in the recliner and before long both Mike and I had dozed off. Apparently we were both tired(Mike worked all night before the drive to KC and me, well I just like sleep!). Finally they got the readings they needed to see any everything looked good. Now we will be seen every week for biophysical profiles to keep a closer eye on his development. Thankfully we will be able to most of these with our OB here in town and will go back to Kansas City on May 1st. We also are now starting to really look at our plans for delivery and our stay in KC. Right now we will be moving down on May 18th and since the kids will be out of school we will take them with us for the five days we will be down there before being induced. We are hoping to get to do some fun things and just spend time as a family before the crazy happens! We want to thank everyone who has been keeping our family in your prayers ask that you continue to send those good vibes our way! Our prayer requests for the next little while specifically are that Kyler's liver continue to stay down and that Children's hospital will be able to lift the age ban by our delivery date so that Jaida and Gunner can come into the hospital to meet their little brother when he is born. We also would like to thank everyone who has made a donation to help us with expenses whether that be through the Go Fund Me page our friends set up or in gift cards graciously given. We are so very blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who are supporting us during this journey. I wish I had more elegant words to express our gratitude but truly from the bottom of our hearts--THANK YOU!
Now enjoy a couple more pictures(the best part of having an ultrasound each visit is we get more and more pictures of our sweet baby!) and please keep the prayers coming for our little warrior! |
Our journey with a child diagnosed with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH)
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