Update

Sorry it has been a while since the last update. Time has seemed to slip away faster than I can keep up. First off, I hope all of you mothers out there had a wonderful Mothers Day.

The pregnancy has been progressing and the baby is still growing...albeit at a somewhat slow rate than what we would like to see, but nonetheless she is still growing. We have a doctors appointment on Tuesday this week and we should get an update on size. As of 2 weeks ago the baby was only 1 lb 10 oz, and the doctor is hoping that her weight will get up to 3 lbs by the time she is born. Also starting two weeks ago Kelsie is going into the doctors office for "stress testing". The testing that is done is to monitor the baby and make sure that everything is going ok and that the baby is not under too much stress. During the testing the heart rate and movements are monitored. This gives an indication of how the baby is doing and if she is "thriving", or developing like she should be. For example, when a baby is moving around it is expected that the heart rate will increase due to the increased activity. That is one of the things that is looked at during these appointments. The appointments are typically about 60 mins, but sometimes the baby is a stinker and won't move so the appointment can be as long as 90 mins.

As for anticipated delivery, the doctor said he would like to see the baby gain as much weight as possible and the best place to do that is in the womb. However, due to the risk of still birth he will not let Kelsie go past 39 weeks, so with the original "due date" being June 17 we are thinking around June 10th-ish. We will keep you posted as the time draws near. As always we feel richly blessed to have such a wonderful family supporting us with faith and prayers! We could not have asked to be part of a better family. Lots of love from us to all of you!!!

Doctor Appointment and DNA Results

Kelsie and I got our DNA results which showed normal gene structure and count. We had another ultra sound and have some good news to report. The baby has been growing really well the past 3 weeks. One of the symptoms of a baby with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome (WHS) is that the growth is typically very slow. At our last appointment th baby was measuring about 4 weeks smaller than she should have been. However, this week the baby was still 4 weeks smaller, which to us is great because it means she is still thriving and growing. A couple other items that we discussed were as follows:

They were able to find both Kidneys. Previously they were having a hard time finding both. The kidneys are smaller than normal, but seem to be functioning properly.

We got a good look at the cleft lip. Previously it had appeared to be a bilateral cleft lip (meaning both sides), however with what we saw yesterday we now are fairly certain that it is a unilateral cleft lip (meaning one side). At present we do not know if the baby has a cleft palette and we may not know and until the baby is here due the difficulty in seeing the palette via ultrasound.

Outside of that things seem to look "unremarkable" (doctors word, not mine). So we are just feeling extremely blessed and thankful. We have felt of your love and prayers each day and continue to realize that we are the luckiest people on earth to have such a wonderful family.

Aminocentisis

The past couple of weeks have been extremely long as we have been awaiting the results from the test to confirm the previous diagnosis. Before I get into the results we want to express our gratitude for all the love and support from each of you. We know that over the course of the past month there have been many prayers offered in our behalf and we can truly say that the Lord has buoyed us up during this time of trial. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

The results from the amniocentesis showed the the baby does NOT have Trisomy 13. However the baby does have Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. Here is a link with some information on it. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/950480-overview#showall  We feel that this is a better outcome, but we still do not know what to expect and will keep you posted as we learn more information. Kelsie and I had our blood drawn today so they can do some gene testing on us to find out if either of us happen to be a carrier of the genetic defect. We will get results and meet with a genetics doctor in 3 weeks. (I know it seems like forever away)

Again we want to thank all of you for the prayers, love & support that you have shown and continue to show for us. If you have any questions please hit reply all so we can keep everyone in the loop. We love you all & are so glad we get to call you family.