Two steps forward, one step back

Well, I was hoping this would be the last baby update needed and that we would be smooth sailing after today but that is unfortunately not the case. The baby herself looked great again and as we saw three weeks ago looks anatomically great! Unfortunately, most babies have a three vessel umbilical cord and our little girl only has two vessels. That in and of itself isn't a HUGE deal but it is indicitive of a possible chromosome disorder and given that we already are at a high risk, this isn't exactly the news I was wanting. 2/3 of the babies with the two vessel cord are born completely healthy, and 1/3 of the babies have some sort of heart defect/kidney defect or chromosome abnormality. From what she could tell today, the heart looked structurally correct with no apparant holes, the kidneys are structurally sound, and she confirmed that she does not have a cleft lip palate or rocker bottom feet which are two more frequent markers of the Trisomy 13/18 babies.

So all in all, we are still hoping for the best as they can still find nothing on her body that looks abnormal in any way. I am going to go to a cardiologist at Texas Children's in the next 1-2 weeks so he can hopefully definitively tell us if the heart looks like it can/will function properly. The only other issue is that she has definitely grown in the last 3 weeks but has fallen back a little in size. My regular OB wasn't too concerned with this though as she knows that my babies full term are only about 6 lb babies. If her growth continues to slow down, I may have to go on bedrest at some point b/c due to the 2 vessel cord, it can cause problems sustaining a third trimester baby. I of course will do it if I have to but am simply not able to imagine being on bedrest with the boys running around. That has nightmare written all over it!!

At this point, we are opting out of the amnio. It is getting to a point that it is too risky for us to feel comfortable and it wouldn't change our course of action anyhow. Given the issues at hand, we will have a NICU Dr at the delivery most likely anyhow and will definitely have a chromosome test done after she is here to "just know" even if she appears healthy. David and I are I think at peace with any possibility at this point but really would just love to know for sure what is going on. We are getting a lesson in patience and faith right now which was probably well needed anyhow!! :)