"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."
~Ben Franklin

Lacie Rae & Baby Boy had their echocardiograms on Friday. We went into this appointment with 2 hopes in mind really (1) Lacie Rae's would be normal and (2) there would be no change for Baby Boy. After all, they told us after the first echo that the more he grew, the harder it would be to see his heart so they didn't expect to know anything different at this appointment.

First of all - Lacie Rae's little heart is perfect. :)

Secondly - We got the best news about Baby Boy!! Much to our surprise, he was in a cooperative mood and was actually in a perfect position for the echo. They got super clear pictures and here is what we heard:

1- His aorta and aortic valve have grown since May!! They took a measurement and it is on the low end of the chart but has actually moved into the "normal" range for his gestational age. In a nutshell, if this remains the case when he is born, the cardiologist said that he was not worried that the aortic valve would be an issue that would need to be dealt with at birth. This is huge people.....this was the largest problem with the most risky procedures to fix!!! He did say that it could become an issue later in life but ruling out risky procedures in his 1st few days of life put Jason and I on Cloud 9 for sure.

2- He does have visible coarctation but to quote the cardiologist "he's got a good lookin' arch" and my favorite quote of the day, "this little man might just surprise us all!" The narrowing is small - not as significant as he's seen in other cases and he feels that again, if all stays the same until birth, IF they need to fix it right at birth - it would quite possibly be the through the side procedure which is the least operation/least risky of all options we were given from the surgeon.

We do not see the cardiologist or surgeon again until he is born. Essentially, what we are expecting then is - we will deliver via C section, he will be taken straight to the NICU and have an ultrasound/echocardiogram done. If everything looks like it did Friday, they will hold off on starting the prostaglandin and keep a very close eye on how his heart does during those first 24 hours or so. There is a chance that the coarctation can get worse during that time - so we need to see what that does before decisions are made about what procedures are an option.

The best part about our appointment was that Dr. Ohmsteade mentioned MANY times that he was "much more encouraged" than at our 1st consultation with him and that there is a chance now that Baby Boy, also known to us now as William Wyatt, could come home with us when I am discharged.
The realist side of me is trying not to get too excited about this possibility but there are times when I have no choice but to just cry tears of joy just thinking about it......