Happy Monday!!!

Great news!!!!—we have a confirmed appointment at Shands for July 31st! I got the call just as I was walking into my consultation with the pediatric surgeon at UAB/Children’s. The consultation went well—I was armed with about sixty (60) questions. I let the doctor speak first—listening to everything he had to tell us. It wasn’t specific to our baby (although he had looked over our records) but more of a consult on CDH itself and what happens when the baby is born and general information on the surgery and stuff like that. He answered most of my questions—the ones that pertained to pediatrics—and then some of my prenatal questions. He was very nice and seems more than capable. After our consultation we were given a tour of the NICU and saw a CDH baby who had just had her hernia surgery. We all commented on how big and healthy she looked! She wasn’t on ECMO (there weren’t any babies on ECMO at that time) although we did get to see an ECMO machine in person—very large machine, a little intimidating.
Seeing everything in person, it is hard to imagine “living” at the hospital for a few months. It sort of made everything seem very real. All in all, the consultation is our first big step in determining the best place for me to deliver. I do feel confident that our baby will be in good hands if I “have to” deliver here (like if I went into labor early and stuff like that). We do feel like we have a grasp on how it could possibly be here and so we are anxious to visit Shands and compare the two. I have heard a lot of people say that we’ll just have a feeling about where the “right” place is for us—so we are praying that will be the case.
My next appointment is my regular OB appointment on July 25th—so there is really nothing exciting going on until then—except working on a name for Baby Rich!!!! We go back to the Kirklin Clinic next Thursday for another ultrasound and possibly to meet with the geneticist about our amniocentesis results (the more in depth ones). Then off to Shands the following Tuesday. I do feel that there is now some sort of order to all this—at least I can look at my calendar now and see progress! Thank you for your continued prayers and support. Feel free to post any name suggestions!