No News is Good News!

We seem to be in the middle of what's turning out to be a long waiting process.  Baby's heart is still high and we're still trying to figure out a drug that will make it come down.  The good news is that baby seems to be tolerating the stress of the high heart rate really well.  His hydrops hasn't seemed to increase too much and that's a good sign.  I am getting used to the constant drumming of the fetal monitor and am not as emotionally invested in every single impossibly fast beat as I was in the beginning.  The bad news is that the longer it takes to "convert" his heart rate, the more the doctors suspect that this all may be being caused by a heart issue that will still be present at birth.

 

We do a photoshoot (aka a sonogram) pretty much daily and the sonographers are starting to give me great pictures.  This was I think two days ago and we caught him smiling!  Sorry it's blurry, I took a pic of it with the ipod to post it on here. :)  Cutie, huh?  The chubbiness in his face reflects some of the swelling in his body.

He's definitely a fighter.  The doctors are steadily impressed at how well he seems to be handling the stress on his body.

 

Life at the hospital has taken on a routine.  I'm strapped to the fetal monitor all day as well as a telemetric EKG that someone in the Heart Institute on the other side of the hospital monitors around the clock.  Isn't it amazing what they can do these days?!  Sometimes it feels like I'm on house arrest, though. :)  I haven't seemed to have any symptoms from the drugs which is also a good thing.  They have started letting me unhook all the machines to go down to the cafeteria for lunch "on good behavior" I joke.

 

Jaron seems to be coping well with the load at home.  I miss home life SO much!  I miss the little tiny things like Gracen crawling into bed with me first thing in the morning or reading Harry Potter to the boys at night.  I miss the moment when Alden first gets home from school and I wrap him in a big hug.  I even miss preparing meals for my family.  That said, give me three days back home, big and pregnant, and I bet I'll be missing these "relaxing" days at the hospital.

 

No news on when I'll be able to leave the hospital yet.  We of course have to wait for baby's heart to come down and then become stabilized.  After that, they'll play with dosages to figure out the lowest dose that will sustain his heart rate before I can be sent home.  The rest of this pregnancy is sure to be laden with a lot of appointments!!

 

Jaron brought Gracen and Eli this afternoon and I snapped a few pictures to try to capture it.  We painted Gracen's nails a sparkly pink color.  She's so cute and wants me to carry her everywhere when she's here.  She's pretty independent so it's nice to know she misses me. :)  She always asks me if I've had to have any needles and when I tell her "yes" she's very concerned: "Are you okay, mommy?"

 Sweet, sweet little Eli insisted on leaving me with his buddy, Perry.  I was surprised because I know how much Perry means to him!  I love that little Eli so much!

I don't get to see Alden as much since he's in school and the evenings at home are busy.  Next week is spring break, though, so I look forward to being able to see him more.

 

Thank you everybody for your thoughts and prayers!  We have felt so supported during this last week (has it only been a week?!  I think I've aged ten years!).