Ultrasound

Well, we had our meeting with our new high risk doctors today,  and the wait time in that office is terrible. That will be fun to deal with the rest of the pregnancy. We had an ultrasound first. The tech was super friendly and explained everything to us as she looked at it and took pictures. It was nice to be informed that all of his internal organs were there and normal. She looked at of his heart for a long time, so they can have a better idea of what they are dealing with since they are our new providers.  She had some trouble with the orientation of the heart and seemed confused but we all laughed it off and made jokes about it.
Once we were done we were sent back to the waiting room to wait for the doctor. Eventually we were called back. We sat down and waited, optimistically. She came in and introduced herself, she asked what our understanding was of what was going on. We briefly explained our viewpoint. She then explained that sometimes heart defects can be secondary to other defects. We were then told that everything else looks good. We were relieved!
However, his heart is on the wrong side of his body. Instead of being on the left side, it's oriented on the right side. A mirror image, is how it was explained. A very rare anomaly.  She explained that typically this doesn't pose any immediate threats to the baby. Thankfully. We will learn more about it on June 3rd when we have another echo and meet with the cardiologists.
We are expecting to be induced at 39 weeks.

I'll update more after our June 3rd appt.

Coping

Now what? We were just delivered news that our unborn baby needs heart surgery. It's scary. We can't be the only ones. My quest began to find other mothers that have gone through what we are about to endure. I have always been one to want to educate myself as much as I can on a subject that is personal to me.

Although congestive heart defects (CHD) aren't very rare, there are so many variations of different defects that can make certain cases more rare than others. I wasn't sure if I would be able to find someone with our same diagnosis.  I searched and searched. I was able to find a group of moms on a website that have children with CHD. Although many have different diagnosis their journeys are similar. It helped to read their stories and positive outcomes, it helped me to be more optimistic. 

It also lead me here. To this blog.  I've never read as many blogs as I do now. I wanted to be a part of the coping process so I decided to write about our journey in hopes it will help ease someone's anxiety that are going through the same thing.

Not only that, but between my husband's large family and our group of friends, I figured this will be the easiest way to keep everyone updated.

Our next appointment is May 21 with our high risk doctors along with a more in-depth ultrasound to be sure there arent any other issues as sometimes CHD is associated with other defects. We then meet our new doctors.

11 weeks to go before we meet our little warrior.