Saturday, August 14, 2010

It's a...

One boy, one girl and we couldn't be happier.  I look forward to watching Ethan grow into his role of a big brother to his little sister.  I can't wait to meet her.

Our 20wk ultrasound revealed a healthy baby girl.  She is measuring right on track.  She showed all of the necessary parts that they needed to measure but she was shy about showing her face.  She kept her hands in front of her face, no matter how much we tried to get her to move.  The tech and doctor who reviewed the scans do not believe that she has a cleft lip but they say they cannot be 100% sure.  In some shots it looked as if she does not have a cleft but in others it appeared possible.  We attempted to see our girl again with a visit to Womb with a View.  Two separate ultrasounds in one day there resulted in similar results.  Baby girl hid her face with her feet, legs, umbilical cord and then her hands.  She curled up and nuzzled her face into the placenta to sleep.  Again, in some photos it appears that everything is as it should be, while other glimpses appear that she could possibly have a unilateral, incomplete cleft lip. 

We're not sure what to do at this point.  Both Matt and I left the appointment yesterday feeling deflated and disappointed.  We wish we knew if it was something to worry about or not.  We both just want to know.  I want to know if I need to worry about the challenges a cleft lip can bring to nursing.  It brings me to tears to think about the pain teasing children can cause and how scary surgeries can be.  I don't want my girl to have to endure those.  We worried about what they couldn't see during ultrasounds with Ethan and follow up scans showed everything was fine.  I hope we'll have the same results with this little one.  In my heart though, I know, that no matter what, cleft lip or not, we will survive.  I know that it could be worse.  The most important part is that she is healthy and we already love her.

We may go back and try to see her face again or we may just wait until the day of her birth.  The day we meet her.

She is an active little one.  She kicks quickly and often.  Matt finally felt her kick for the first time last week!  It was just as exciting as the first time he felt Ethan kick.  We are really enjoying this process all over again, just like it was the first time :)




1 comment:

  1. Congratulations! Hoping for the best about the cleft lip possibility. Ethan's going to be such a great, fun big brother :)

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