More Appointments, More Ultrasounds, More News

Today I had another in-depth ultra-sound at maternal fetal medicine. The babies size looked good and my fluid levels were in a normal range. I didn't think to ask what those numbers were, but the important thing is that they are normal. As far as the dandy-walker in concerned, they are now calling it a dandy-walker variant. That means it is a less severe version of a dandy-walker malformation. We still don't know what that means developmentally and we wont get much more news about it until after she is born. Today, when they tried to take a look at her brain it was very difficult due to the fact that she is very low and that her skull is starting to calcify making it nearly impossible to get a good image on ultrasound. However, what they were able to look at is the two ventricles that run along either side of her brain. Sometimes the dandy-walker can cause a blockage which inhibits the spinal fluid from draining out of the brain. This is there immediate concern as it can cause issues with a normal delivery. However, the baby's ventricles were well within the normal range and there did not seem to be any sign of blockage. They scheduled another ultrasound for two weeks from today to make sure that the ventricles are still of normal size.

After the baby is born they want to schedule an MRI, because it is the only way to get an accurate picture of what is going on with the baby's brain. My cousin (who works on oncology at a large children's hospital in Texas) spoke to a pediatric neuro doctor who advised that we want to set the baby up with a special developmental pediatrician through Seattle Children's Hospital before she is born that way we can do her MRI's and any other tests through a hospital that is more equipped to deal with the special circumstances. The doctor in Texas said that he has some recommendations of people to speak to at Children's, so our next step is to get in touch with the doctor's there and get everything set up for the baby's delivery. We are hopeful that the variant will turn out to be nothing, but we are not going to take any chances. The doctor in Texas says that there is a much better chance for a positive outcome if tests and any subsequent therapy are begun immediately.

I have an ultrasound at my regular doctor's office tomorrow to check my fluid levels. (Don't ask me why they can't just get the results from the one that I had today, I don't know) and then I have a regular doctor's appointment on Friday. I believe I will have to have a referral from Dr. Tagavilla in order to get setup at Children's Hospital, so hopefully we will be able to get that all taken care of on Friday. Meanwhile, we are ready for the madness to be over and for our beautiful little girl to be here. I have been joking that by the time this is all over I could be an ultrasound tech, because I am so used to looking at them (who knows maybe I have found a new calling hehe).

I know everyone has been anxious to learn about the name of our new little girl and I can tell you that it has been narrowed down to 3 and the candidates are: Addison, Emma and Lola. Sam and I are leaning toward one in particular, but we haven't decided for sure yet. We are still taking votes (mainly because it's fun). Also, once we make a final decision we are thinking we may be mean and make everyone wait until she is officially born to find out. However, we all know that I am terrible at keeping my mouth shut, so this may not happen. Anyway, I know this was long and if you made it through the whole thing congratulations! I will post more when there is more news. Hopefully later today or tomorrow I will have some new pictures of Ella's trip to CA to post.