one more speed bump...

We are 27 weeks now and at our appointment with Choices West yesterday we had to do our glucose tolerance test.  It was not a pleasant experience as mom is still queasy in the morning and drinking orange sugar water is not pleasant for a sick stomach.  And her veins would not cooperate, so that was another challenge.  Other than that, the appointment went well.  Heartbeat was strong.  Only a couple more pounds were gained.

Angela, the triage nurse at Choices West and our personal savior these past weeks, called this afternoon with the unfortunate news that the glucose test did come back positive.  Just one more challenge to be dealt with, but I am ready for something to work out easily for once.  It seems like one speed bump after another on this journey.  So, we are picking up a meter at Wegmans tonight, meeting with Angela to get some more information tomorrow afternoon, and meeting with a nutritionist Friday morning.  Gestational diabetes is obviously not the worse thing to be facing, but it is frustrating nonetheless.  Especially when we have been trying so hard to do the right things.  Everything for a reason though!  

No miracles yet...

We finally heard from Dr. Spadola with the MRI results today.  You cannot help but hold out that there will be some miraculous happening and someone will say, "Ooops!  We are so sorry to have worried you, but everything looks fine!"  - - even though in the back of your head you are rational enough to know that it isn't going to happen.  Hope and belief in miracles are what keep you going though!

The results were positive though.  They confirmed what they had deduced from the ultrasound.  It is a left sided hernia with the stomach and part of the intestines in the chest cavity.  The entire liver is below the diaphragm though - which is fantastic!  It is a much more serious condition when the liver is involved.  The kidneys look normal and the right lung looks fairly normal as well!  So, it wasn't "bad" news and now we know for certain what we are up against.

Next step is meeting with the surgeon to discuss what will happen after the birth and meet with the NICU people to get a tour of the unit and meet with at least one of the neonatologists.  We do not have those appointments scheduled quite yet, but hopefully that will be squared away soon.  Tomorrow morning we go back to Choices West for another check up too.

Gumdrop has been very active lately!  Mom can actually see her belly moving sometimes from all the bouncing around.  And the belly just keeps growing!  Dad compared its "getting bigger and bigger everyday" to the mall expansion the other day...  Its not usually a good thing to compare your wife to a construction project!  :-)  

We will keep you posted and let you know how things progress!  Thank you for all your love and support!

Still Waiting :-(

So we are still waiting to hear the results from the MRI. We called on Monday and again today with no luck. I guess they are pretty backed up. As soon as we know more details we will pass it along. On a more pleasant note, today was the first work day in a few months that mom did not get sick. She sure felt like it and spent several moments in the bathroom "just in case".....but maybe, just maybe we will turn the corner soon. We just heard from Patty's grandmother and learned that she was sick up through six months with all three of her children.....so maybe it runs in the family :-)

We also went looking around Target and Babies R' Us yesterday....and dad almost had a hernia...but he got through it. Be sure to ask Patty about our adventures spent talking to the sales associate about breast pumps :-P There is a lot to learn about...but I think we are on our way. 

Thanks again to all those positive comments and for all those prayers...they keep us rolling and mean more than you will ever know.

MRI

We went for our MRI this morning.  It was quicker than expected and we are hoping that they got all the information that they needed because Gumdrop decided that it was a great time to practice some cartwheels.  Mom only slightly hyperventilated once, but overall is was not as horrible an experience as she presumed it would be.  We chatted with the technician afterwards and he has never seen this defect, but they have also only recently started using MRIs to look at unborn babies.  Monday Dr. Spadola should give us a call to let us know what the radiologist found, so we will let you know then!  

Gumdrop's First Real Close-Ups

We had another appointment with Dr. Spadola today. They did another sonogram and growth looks good. We are in the 59 percentile for size. We like to be average so just about average makes us very, very happy. From what she can tell the liver has still not moved and that is very good….plus size of the right lung is within the good range.

 So we got some positive news today. While they were doing the sonogram Vince joked with them to hitting the 3D button thinking that they would not…but they did and it was just amazing. Since we don’t have a scanner, we took pictures of the printouts and posted them as you can see. Just amazing. We think it is definitely a D’Angelo nose and a Vince shaped chin….what do you think J

 Everyday we get a little closer and everyday we bond more with gumdrop. Afternoon after school is Gumdrop swim time…maybe gumdrop with be at the Olympics some day and break a record….or maybe just a belly flopper like Dad!

 Mom is still getting sick and we are praying that means a strong baby…cause something positive should come out of all the puking!

 We hope you all enjoy the pictures. We want to thank everyone that has been prying for our family. It means so much to us to have those prayers and positive thoughts. We hope to let Gumdrop thank each of you person someday. Thanks again from the bottom of our hearts.