National Blood Donor Month

January is already drawing to a close but we couldn’t let it go by without letting you know that this is National Blood Donor Month!  The American Red Cross needs to collect 22,000 units of blood each weekday and about 15,000 units of blood each weekend to meet patient needs.  That is a lot of blood and our baby girl will be one of those patients with needs!  Donation is slower in the winter but the need is still just as high.

We have decided not to do the directed donation program but please donate blood and encourage others to do so!  Just know that one of the lives you could be saving is our little girl's.  To find a donation opportunity near you, please go to: http://www.redcrossblood.org/make-donation

In other news, my bff had her second baby earlier this week a few days overdue – a girl and she is doing very well!  They were all able to come home from the hospital less than 24 hours after delivery.  My bff is such an inspiration and we are all so happy for her and her growing family!  I think that I had forgotten how little and fragile newborns are but we are only getting more excited for the arrival of our little one!  Our older daughter didn't get to meet the little one but she will soon.  We are hoping that she reacts well.  In the past she has just checked out babies and moved along like she has places to go and other people to see :)  We shall see how she reacts this time...

Everything is going well with us.  We are trying to fit in a lot of activities and home improvements now while we have the chance.  With so much going on, I have started to feel the third trimester slowdown but overall I am doing well and feeling good.  March will be here before we know it.  Check back next week for an update on our next round of appointments at U of M on Friday, February 3rd and remember that no news is good news!

Happy Due Date (& Other News)

Today is my bff’s due date and her little one has yet to make his/her appearance. We don’t blame him/her, it is cold out here! We are all excited to meet the little one soon!

We had another uneventful ob appointment and everything on paper "looks good." So really, there is no news. We are eagerly awaiting our next appointment at U of M on February 3rd to meet with the team and discuss some of the details our birth plan – ie induction vs. natural.

Finally, Dr. Bove has been was appointed chair of the University of Michigan’s Department of Cardiac Surgery. Great news for all the heart babies and warriors out there! Here is the link:

Edward Bove, M.D, appointed chair of new U-M Department of Cardiac Surgery University of Michigan Health System

Video of Hope - Anna's Story

I just had to share this video.  It had me bawling my eyes out by the end.  Anna has an underdeveloped right side of the heart, which is the opposite of our baby.  Thanks to Anna for sharing her story and to Heart Mom, Jenny, for sharing this video with me.  Enjoy!

Update on Appointments

Yesterday we had an OB appointment and another echo (ultrasound of the heart).  The OB appointment went well but reminded me why I always make my appointments in the morning :)  I got confirmation that my sugars were good and I gained weight over the holidays.  At least this year I have an excuse (thanks for all the good food family).

The good news out of the echo is that there really isn’t anything new to report.  Everything looks like it did at our last echo and there was nothing new to see.  It was the world’s longest echo though.  They didn’t even do all the body measurements and it took longer than any other echo that we have had (including the one which measured nearly every bone in our little girl’s body and her heart to diagnose her condition).  After we had been having the echo for about an hour, the tech said there was another machine that is really good to use with the heart and that we would move over to that.  Ugh!  Why weren’t we at that machine to start with?!?

Anyway, with the new machine and the doctor, things moved along.  There were no changes in her heart condition and she appears to be growing and developing as expected.  We even saw our little one yawn.  She is a cutie! 

Now we still have to get our hot little hands on a copy of the CD from the echo to take over to U of M for our next appointment in early February.  We had to fill out the paperwork to get the CD, so we will see if it actually works.  We are glad that the remainder of our echos will be over at U of M.

Hopefully there will not be many updates over the next few weeks.  We have an OB appointment in two weeks and then our next round of appointments over at U of M two weeks after that.  March will be here before we know it.

But in the meantime, we are looking forward to birth of my bff's baby here in the next few weeks!  Cannot wait to meet him or her!!!

Happy New Year!

We hope that you had a Merry Christmas and are having a Happy New Year!  We certainly had a great, warm Christmas and are now working on getting back to things in this New Year.  While we have many challenges ahead of us, we are looking forward to meeting our little girl in a few short months.

In accordance with my doctor’s office, we have been going with the no news is good news policy.  There really isn’t much to report, so sorry that there have not been any updates.  I am officially in the third trimester (no matter what way you measure it).  I did have an appointment with my ob before Christmas and things were fine – my weight, my blood pressure, the baby’s heartbeat.  They did do a blood drawn (and gave me a huge bruise on my arm) to test for gestational diabetes and in accordance with the policy above, I have not heard from them.  I usually like to follow-up because the confirmation always makes me feel better.  With the holidays and traveling, I have not been able to do so.

Coming up next we have another echo this week that will be here at our local hospital.  Hopefully there will not be any major news to come out of that.  We expect that things will look the same and hope that there will not be anything new and unexpected. 

We hope that this post finds you and your family well and that you have a blessed and happy 2012! 

FAQs

We have gotten a lot of questions (which is great) and we thought that we would post some of the most common questions with answers here so that everyone can be in the know.  If you see a question here you asked, don’t worry!  It means that many other people also wanted to know this.  If you have some other questions for us, please feel free to ask.  Sometime the questions people ask help us to get more information!

                      

Q:  Does the baby’s heart condition have any effect on the pregnancy?

A:  Nope.  I do have to see the high risk obs at U of M because one of them will deliver our baby girl.  But while our baby girl is in the womb she is perfectly safe, growing and developing well.  Since the heart functions differently while you are in the womb (because you are not breathing with your lungs), her heart condition does not do anything to affect her or me.  I do not have any extra restrictions on me, even though husband keeps joking he wants to put me on bed rest.  It is important that she is full term though.  If she comes early, she will have a more difficult start to life.  It is a good thing that the majority of babies in my family are big!

Q:  Do the doctors have any idea why her heart did not develop?

A:  Unfortunately, they have no idea as there is no know cause.  It can really happen to any one.

Q:  Are you more likely to have another baby with a heart condition?

A:  There is an increased risk for us to have another child with a left-sided heart problem.  The chances are estimated to be around 5-9%, which are increased from the general population but not extremely high.

Q:  Is there anything I can do to help?

A:  We appreciate your prayers and support, which helps us more than you know.  Of course, once our baby girl arrives, we will need some extra help, but you can still help now.  Please donate blood and encourage others to do so as well!  You could be helping our little baby girl with your donation!

December 17, 2009

I remember this day like it was yesterday.  It was the day we had our anatomy scan with our older daughter.  I thought of it as a late birthday present and an early Christmas.  My husband and I always agreed that we would find out the gender ahead of time because we are planners and cannot wait the extra 20 weeks!  So I was very excited when the day finally rolled around.

I wore blue because I was convinced that we were having a boy.  I had felt so good throughout my pregnancy like my sister who had just delivered her son while two of my good friends had suffered through harsh bouts of morning sickness while pregnant with their daughters.  Well, it was a good thing a brought my pink sweater with me because we found out that we were having a girl.  I don’t even remember the tech saying everything looked “normal”.  I just took this for granted.  A lot changes in two years and we have learned not to take so much for granted.  Every day is truly a gift to be treasured and we love our growing family!