This evening we got together with some good friends from my old small group. It was so nice to see those girls again (and their husbands) and talk about Andrew and hear what’s new with them. They are all so loving and just want to help in whatever way they can. It means the world to us. Thanks to all of you who have continued to love and support us through this. We appreciate being thought of and prayed for more than you can ever imagine.
I did want to continue to share some more about my pregnancy with Andrew. I think we left off at the second trimester, so that’s where I’ll pick back up. Most people told me that their favorite part of pregnancy was their second trimester and I would have to agree with that wholeheartedly. My appetite finally came back and I had a lot more energy than before! I enjoyed getting out in the yard and staying as active as possible. I was finally starting to look pregnant and I thoroughly enjoyed feeling our little one kick and squirm around in my belly. My next sonogram wasn’t until 20 weeks, but all my appointments went well. Things were going great and we really started to anticipate finding out the gender of our little baby. Below is a pic of me at 20 weeks. The baby bump was officially present.
Finally, our 20 week appointment rolled around and we had another sonogram! This day didn’t turn out quite how we had hoped, but it was exciting nonetheless. I had no clue how long this sonogram would take. They looked at and measured EVERYTHING! About half way through the sonogram, the sonographer found some abnormalities with our baby’s left kidney. She seemed a little anxious and basically wanted to stop the sonogram right then and there.
She said it appeared that there were cysts on the kidney and she wanted to speak with the nurse to try and get us up to see a maternal fetal specialist immediately. Of course, I start to freak out a little – not knowing what on earth was actually going on and not sure what to think. They asked us to sit in the waiting room while they figured out how to proceed. I immediately called my mother and asked her to pray – we weren’t sure what was going on and we were naturally worried.
It’s definitely a boy!
Two weeks later, we visited the maternal fetal medicine group. There is 1 main doctor, but there are a couple of others there that also help out when the main doctor is not in the office. Our first visit, we saw one of the other doctors. They did another sonogram and the doctor had the worst bedside manner I’ve ever experienced.
He basically said, “Yeah, there are cysts in the left kidney, but the other one looks fine. There’s nothing we can do right now. We’ll have to see how things are once he’s born. Come back in 4 weeks.” I asked him a few questions, which he couldn’t really answer, so we basically left that appointment with no new information.
One good thing about going to the maternal fetal specialist was that we got lots of pictures of our little guy during the pregnancy! I anticipated each visit as I would get to see Andrew and also hear about the progress with his kidney. Andrew was always very active during the sonograms – during one of them, he even flipped for us! The next couple of visits to the specialist were better as we saw the main doctor. He was much better about discussing things with us.
This doctor felt like the left kidney would most likely not function by the time Andrew was born, but was very positive as the right kidney was thriving. He even said it seemed to him as though the right kidney was “prominent,” as if it was taking over for the left kidney that was not functioning normally. That was an encouragement to me.
Despite the kidney issue, our baby boy was doing great and was even above average for weight. He was in the 75 percentile! Despite our optimism, we continued to pray that God would heal our little guy’s kidney by the time he was born. Here are some more sonograms during the second trimester.
In the midst of all this, I was also seeing a hematologist regarding my blood platelets. They were at below average levels and the doctor seemed to think it was due to pregnancy since I have had no issues or symptoms that would cause them to worry about my blood clotting. They wanted to monitor my platelet levels but weren’t overly concerned about it.
They did mention that I would most likely need to take steroids towards the end of my pregnancy to get my platelet levels up high enough so that an epidural would at least be an option for me at delivery. Most anesthesiologists will not administer an epidural unless your levels are at a certain level, which mine were not. Although I had hoped to go natural, I did want the option of an epidural in case of any emergencies that may arise during the delivery.
Despite all the different appointments, I still enjoyed pregnancy and felt so blessed that Andrew’s kidney issue didn’t appear life threatening and didn’t seem to be affecting his growth at all. We knew it could become an obstacle in the future but were still optimistic, and felt like things could certainly have been worse than they were.
