Our Baby's Heart

It's hard to put into words the thousand pieces of information we received today about our baby, so I will just try to write the main things and ask you to pray for the rest of it.

A few weeks ago after our 20 week ultrasound, I got a call from the doctor asking to speak to him about some things about the results. Naturally, when you hear your actual doctor call instead of a nurse or just an email or letter about your results, your mind races a little! I was able to see him between appointments the next day, thankfully, and hear the news in person. He came in and let me know he saw an abnormality with the baby's heart and was referring me to a pediatric cardiologist for a level 2 ultrasound and echocardiogram. He suspected that there might be an atrial septal defect, where the valve between the baby's two upper chambers of the heart doesn't close on its own. He assured me it was not a life threatening issue and if it was worst-case scenario, the baby would have an outpatient surgery through and up the leg to fix the defect and we would be on our way. I hoped for the best and secretly hoped the pictures were just bad and there really was nothing wrong. We set up the appointment for a few weeks from when I heard the news, which subsequently fell on this day, today.

As a side note, many of you know that Troy has taken a temporary position at work in which he travels during the week and is only home on weekends. When we heard that we would need to see a specialist, his manager graciously worked out a different schedule so he could be home and come to the appointment with me! God really had His hand on us to let him be home this week.

I had no idea what a level 2 ultrasound meant, but when I had one done, I understood a little better... the picture is SO much clearer! Our son is so beautifully formed... and I think he looks just like Spencer :) His little feet and hands, his eyes and lips.. we even got to see him sucking and swallowing! I'm sure I cried silent tears at least four times just watching him move.

Once they got the information they needed, I knew what was coming; I saw it myself on the screen. Baby Poorman 2 has quite a large hole between the upper chambers of his heart. It isn't an open valve issue - the valve isn't even there. The doctor explained it well, even drew us a diagram of the issue. Baby also has a small leak in his mitral valve. He will require open heart surgery before he turns 5. What we thought would be something he might outgrow or have a simple procedure to fix isn't the case. In 8 weeks we will go back to the cardiologist for another ultrasound that will determine if the issue has worsened and if surgery will be needed within the first week of life or if it looks strong enough to wait until early childhood.

We asked the doctor what kind of care he would need until surgery and she said for the most part, he will be quite normal. He will be a lot more susceptible to illness and infection because of the fluid on the lungs thanks to the leak. He may run out of breath more quickly than other children his age just because his heart and lungs are working much harder to function than normal. But we will take those issues when they come and for now, we will concentrate on deciding the best next course of action for the birthing plan. We may be able to deliver at our hospital but run the risk of having him transferred downtown to Children's anyway. We are weighing the options and will know more at our next ultrasound.

God is good! I kept thinking praises to Him for allowing our doctor to see this on the regular ultrasound and send us to find out more. I am so thankful that He has such a watchful eye over us and loves our baby even MORE than we do... which seems impossible to a mom's heart :) We pray for wisdom over the coming weeks, to know just what we should do about prenatal and birth care options and pray for a healthy and safe delivery of our precious son! God be praised - nothing slips by His care and love.

Psalm 139:14