Specialist Appointment

Yesterday was my appointment with the genetic counselor and prenatal ultrasound specialist. I am relieved to say that it went very well! The first appointment was with the genetic counselor. I tried to get out of the appointment ahead of time by explaining to the receptionist that we have already received genetic counseling after Treyson was born, so I really didn't think we needed anymore. But she insisted that the specialist wanted us to have the counseling, so I just agreed to go. The genetic counselors that we went to after Treyson was born were incredible. One of them has done ground breaking research in the field of prenatal and pediatric genetics. She and her assistant had studied all of mine and Treyson's medical records in detail and gave us all the information and answer that they possibly could. Josh and I both left that appointment with a peace that even though there were still several unanswerable questions, we felt that knew all that we needed to know. It has been a little over a year since that last genetics appointment, and I've been at peace with the limited knowledge that we have. I felt that going to genetic counseling again would be a waste of time because we would hear the same information that we've heard for over a year..."We haven't been able to discover the cause....", "Your child's chromosones where all normal....", and yada, yada, yada.

I was very pleasantly surprised though. The counselor was extrememly nice, and we actually walked away from the appointment feeling like we knew a more than we did before hand. She explained that the problems that Treyson had could possibly be linked to a bad gene in either Josh or I. If both Josh and I have the same bad gene that caused Treyson's problems, then we have a 25% of reoccurence in this or any future pregnancy. That may sound like alot, but, that is our absolute highest odds, and most likely they are much lower than that. And no, they can't test Josh and I to see if we have this bad gene because there are thousands of genes and they don't know which one to test. She also said that it may have not been caused by a bad gene, it could have been caused by something as simple as an interruption in blood flow to the baby some time between 10 and 30 days after conception. I know that may not neccessarily sound like good news to any of you, but for us it was good to know. When you've been in a situation like ours where nobody can really give you any answers because no one has any answers, any news is good news. My mother in law said it perfectly, "When you find out all the things that could possibly go wrong with a baby, it is a true miracle that so many babys are born perfectly normal."

The next appointment was the ultrasound. It was a precautionary appointment, just to be on the safe side. Everything up to this point has looked just right with the baby with no reason to think otherwise. The ultrasound went great. The doctor pointed out the kidneys(which were both functioning perfectly), the stomach, and the bladder. He measured the volume of amniotic fluid and the level was great. The brain and spine looked and measured normal. The arms, legs, abdomen, and head all measured right on target.

We breathed a big sigh of relief and were simply estatic. Praise the Lord for a healthy and very active baby. The doctor then asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby. Um, yeah!! I don't think I have the patience and self-control to not know.

So the doctor took a look and said, "It's a girl."

Josh and I both said, "We knew it!"
(We though we knew it because a friend did an ultrasound for me at 15 weeks and the baby looked most definitely like a girl.)

My mother in law, who was with us was like, " Are you sure?"
(She has a knack for predicting babies and even though she hadn't said, she thought we were having a boy.)

The doctor kept looking around and paused over something and said, " I'm going to have to change my mind. It's a boy."

WHAT?! It didn't matter to Josh or I one bit whether it was a boy or a girl, but we had already gotten in to the girl mindset after my previous ultrasound. So when the doctor told us(and showed us) that it was a boy we were both SHOCKED. It felt like finding out that I was pregnant all over again!

We left the appointments very estatic about our healthy baby boy! I have to go back for another ultrasound in a month for another look at the baby's heart. I'm telling myself that the doctor is just being cautious and needs a closer look(even though Treyson's heart was perfectly fine), but truth be told I'm a tad bit nervous.
In spite of the bit of underlying worry, my spirits aren't dampened at all! Baby Boy( who has no name yet because we thought he was Baby Girl), is a healthy little wiggle worm. I thank you all so much for your prayers!

Now to find him a name....