Baby Almost Here!

We are still in the middle of the induction -- but no baby yet! Keep posted!

induction date

On Thursday we had another monitoring (baby looks good) and then met with our OB, Dr. Smith. We now have an induction date! They will admit Kenia to the hospital Tuesday evening and start the process. Assuming the usual progression, our little girl will be born on Wed, March 28th. We vacillate between being totally excited and also completely scared but more than anything we really can't wait to finally see and hold her.
This weekend we are back at Kenia's sisters place to enjoy some fun family time before the big event. We will definitely get a birth announcement posted as soon as she is born to let you all know how things went.

she is getting bigger

We moved into the Ronald McDonald house last Wed. It is really great to be so close to the hospital and things at the house are well organized and really designed to support families with hospitalized children.

Today we had the growth ultrasound. The great news is that she is growing! Our last measurement here (2 weeks ago) put her at 4 lbs 5 oz (1.9 kg). Today she measured 5 lbs 4 oz (2.4 kg)! The OB says she is in the 5-10 percentile range for weight.

When we met with Dr. Hanley (surgeon) he said that the survival rate is much greater for babies above 2 kg, below this they have a harder time recovering from surgery. So, we are very, very happy with her growth since this puts her above the 2kg mark...hopefully she will keep growing. Kenia will diligently continue eating for two including twice the amount of ice cream.

Now the plan is to wait till next week. According to our OB, waiting the additional week also has the added benefit (besides growth potential) of allowing her immune system to mature even further. So, we are looking at an induction next week unless she decides to come on her own.

more appointments

On Monday we had another round of appointments. The first was with Dr. Susan Hintz, the neonatologist. She spoke with us a long time about how they will stabilize the baby once she is born and what to expect from birth to surgery. She also gave us a tour of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This was once again very difficult but it is good to see and gives us an idea of what to expect.
We then had another heart rate monitoring for the baby and she looked great. Our last appointment was with the OB. The current plan is to wait till Monday when they will do another ultrasound to check if the baby is growing. If she is not growing, they will induce next week. If she is growing they will wait till the week of March 26th and induce. Either way, she will be born in the next two weeks!
The other news that we received this morning is that we now have a room at the Ronald McDonald house a few blocks from the the hospital. We will move there tomorrow.

meetings and tours

On Thursday we met with Dr. Hanley, the cardiothoracic surgeon. We learned a lot during the meeting and feel very confident in his ability to do the repair the baby will need. The surgical plan is to do an arterial switch (literally cutting the pulmonary artery and aorta and switching them), patch the VSD and fix the coarctation of the aorta. This is a big surgery, with Dr. Hanley rating this as an 8-9 on a 10 point scale of difficulty (with 10 bring the highest) but the survival rate it 97%. The good thing is that it is a one-stage repair with kids doing very well afterwards and having a good quality of life (no need for life long medication and a normal healthy activity level) if things go well.

We also meet with the social worker assigned to facilitate our stay who gave us a tour of the cardiovascular intensive care unit (CVICU) and the critical care nursery. This was the hardest part of the day to see that both units were very full. We really felt for the babies and their families and also realized we would be there soon. On the other hand, it is also a place of hope where these children are given a chance at life.

Our last stop was for checking on the baby at our bi-weekly monitoring of her heart rate and amniotic fluid levels (AFI). Both looked great. We then headed back to Kenia's sisters place. Our next appointment series will be on Monday so we are enjoying the weekend and the California sunshine till then.

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.

on our way

Today I (Kenia) head down to the bay area, Christopher will follow in two days. We figured that its best to get the "mother-ship" down there and not risk anything happening here. This week we had a growth ultrasound and they estimate her weight at 4 lbs 10 ozs...in other words she is going to be a tiny little nut. Next week we have several appointments at Stanford - we have been impressed with the level of organization they have shown in coordinating our logistics. We will post something again next week once we go through these appointments. Thanks again to everyone for all of the support you have given us - we can't stop thinking these words (thank you) because all of your efforts in helping us has meant so much to both of us.