first appointments

Right now we are staying with Kenia's sister which is really great but it is not very close to the hospital. We are waiting to get a place closer, hopefully at the Ronald McDonald House which is a few blocks from the hospital. We had our first two days of appointments but before we describe the appointments, we have to complain about bay area traffic - it's horrible. It took us over 2 hours to get to the hospital...Kenia better not go into labor during rush hour. Anyways, here's how our first two days went:

Day 1: The Lucille Packard Children's Hospital (part of Stanford Medical Ctr) is very nice. The ultrasound told us what we already knew - she is very small - between 4-5 lbs. The accuracy of baby sizing at this point is +/- 12 ounces. Her heart rate and movement was good. We then met the high-risk OB (Dr. Jim Smith) who was very personable, took a lot of time with us and is a very good OB. The current plan is to wait till next week (we are currently at 36.5 weeks next week will make 37 weeks, technically full term, the baby is due April 2nd). They will likely do amniocentesis next week to check if the baby's lungs are mature. If they are, then an induction date will be set probably for sometime during week 38 - unless she decides to come on her own before then. They fully expect that the baby will go through labor just fine so it looks like we won't need a c-section. We then started driving back home...another 2 hours. At this point we had dinner and passed out.

Day 2: Wake up, drive two hours. Our only appointment is an echocardiogram. First we started with a great technician. Then Dr. Silverman came in - he is a pediatric cardiologist and specializes in fetal echocardiography. He was great! He is an excellent doctor and is gregarious with a good sense of humor. They were able to get the best images of her heart that we have seen so far! This is really amazing especially considering that imaging her is more difficult now because her ribs are more ossified and cast shadows when trying to view the heart. Needless to say we were very impressed. The echo didn't show anything new and confirmed what has been our understanding of her condition so far - double outlet right ventricle, large VSD and a coartation. He also told us they just did surgery yesterday on another baby with a similar condition who weighed only 2.4 lbs! This baby is doing just fine so far. Amazing.

Today we have the day off and are trying to catch up on things and rest. Tomorrow we go back for another full day. Overall, after our initial appointments, seeing everything and meeting the doctors we are very satisfied and happy that we traveled down here.