David and I found out on December 31st, 2012 that we were expecting our second baby: due September 5, 2013. Elated doesn't begin to describe how we felt. We love being parents and felt so honored and blessed that God would entrust us with another little soul.
The pregnancy was different than Jonah's: much {much} more morning sickness. More fatigue. But, honestly, I had it pretty easy. We decided not to tell anyone until I was 12 weeks along, and keeping it between us for those first few months was tough, but such a sweet time as well. We told Jonah right away, and he's been talking about the "bay-bee" ever since.
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| {Finally} Telling Grammy and Pappa |
We had our anatomy scan ultrasound in early April, and were so happy to find out everything was going well. The ultrasound tech said the baby was "beautiful" and everything "looked perfect." When she told us that we were having ANOTHER boy, we were so excited. People asked if we had a preference, and we always replied that God knew so much better than we did what we needed. We'd love to have either! We know Jonah will love having a baby brother and I know they will have amazing adventures together. We decided to keep the name a secret, mostly for fun.
When we went in for our 22 week appointment with the midwife on Wednesday, we were a little surprised to find out the doctor had a concern about the ultrasound and needed us to come back in. Something about an amniotic band in the amniotic sac. The midwife didn't seem too concerned, so I didn't think much of it. We asked for prayers from a few friends and scheduled the follow-up ultrasound for the next morning.
Then I googled what an amniotic band meant. And that's when David and I started to become pretty worried. Apparently, it's like a string going from one part of the amniotic sac to the other and, since the baby isn't fully developed, it's easy for that tiny string to become wrapped around the baby. Severed digits and limbs aren't uncommon. With that, we asked for more prayers, prayed together {a lot}, cried {a whole lot} and buckled down to wait until morning. It was a really tough night, but we were both grateful we didn't have long to wait.
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| 20 Weeks Pregnant |
At the doctor the next morning, the ultrasound tech {a different one this time} couldn't even find the band that originally had caused such a fuss. When she finally did, she said that it was far from all his limbs and he looked great. We thanked her profusely and asked to talk with the doctor, just to make sure this concern was behind us. However, when the doctor came in, she had a whole new list of concerns. Though she wasn't as concerned about the band, she informed us that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck twice. She threw out words like "stillbirth" and said that we could be looking at delivering him as soon as possible.
The next course of action is for me to be doing kick counts every single day starting now. He has two hours to get 10 kicks. I also need to be looking for signs of labor to make sure that he is not in distress. Also, I was instructed not to allow myself to get stressed. {no problem, right?} Dr. Lawson said there are a few things on our side: (1) the umbilical cord is very long, (2) he's very active, (3) the blood flow through the cord looks great, and (4) the fluid in the amniotic sac is abundant. She's hopeful that he can wiggle himself out, but is considering hospitalizing me if he can't.
Please join us in praying for our baby. We're sharing the name, because we'd love for everyone to be praying for him by name: Gideon. It means "mighty warrior" and we pray that our little guy would fight hard during these next few weeks.
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| Baby Gideon: Our Little Warrior |
We need prayers. We have such amazing friends and we know that God has His hand over this situation. This is not a surprise to Him at all. He knits us together in the womb, and He can remove the cord from around the baby. He can ensure that Gideon is healthy and happy and goes full-term. He can give us peace during this time.
Thank you all, sweet friends. We love you and so appreciate your prayers.
5 comments:
Love you sweet friends! Praying and hoping for you! XOXO
Praying praying praying.
Waiting and hoping along with you! Keep us updated. Love y'all!!
I am prayig for you and just from my perspective sounds like the doctor is not liking that you are using a midwife and is trying to scare you. A very common doctors practice. I am praying all goes well for you. <3
Always, always, always listen to the doctor. They have been highly trained & they have their patients' best interest at heart.
Praying for little Gideon and both of you; I will make sure Kyle knows about this in case he missed it. Jean R.