Thursday's appointment and Pictures!!!!!

Thursday we met with Dr. Jenkins at The Kirklin Clinic. We thought we were going to see a geneticist to go over the findings from the amniocentesis—but when we got there we were escorted to the ultrasound room where we met Dr. Jenkins for the first time. She told us that the final report from the amniocentesis showed everything “normal”—so there wasn’t anything to talk about with regards to genetic abnormalities—praise God! So we had another pretty extensive ultrasound. First, Dr. Jenkins’ nurse did an ultrasound and measured Baby Rich’s bones, head, abdomen, etc. It was fun getting to see him again—he’s grown so much! We got to see him moving around and covering his face with his hands—I would say he might be shy, but as you will see from the pictures, he is more of an exhibitionist! We also got to see a few 4-D pictures—Rusty is convinced Baby Rich looks just like him as a baby!
After the “fun” Dr. Jenkins did another ultrasound examining his organs. She measured a lot of different parts and then focused on the heart trying to locate all the important parts. From her findings, she says the heart looks normal, but that ultrasounds are limiting and there are some things you just can’t see until after the baby is born. She showed us where the lungs were in relation to the heart and stomach. The left lung is still on the left but behind the stomach—it was nearly impossible for her to see it and she was unable to measure. The right lung is pushed all the way to the right and behind the heart. She was able to measure what she could see and for those who know about “head to lung ratio”—it wasn’t an encouraging number—but that can change and we’ve been told over and over not to let that discourage us because it is not an accurate indication of how our baby will do once he is born.
On Monday, we are going to Shands to meet Dr. Kays where his colleague Dr. Richards (who specializes in ultrasounds for CDH babies) will examine Baby Rich via ultrasound and we will have another head to lung ratio—it will be nice to have an expert second opinion (not to discredit Dr. Jenkins, she readily admitted that she doesn’t know much about LHR and that ultrasounds themselves are limiting in what you can see at any given time).
We have been reading Baby Rich stories and he got his first i-pod last night as a gift from his daddy. So now, when I am sitting down I have headphones on my tummy playing lots of different music for him—so far I can’t detect any sort of music preference! As always, Rusty and I thank you for your prayers for our baby! And as promised...the name is coming very soon. Love to all!