OB Appointment

Whenever you are dealing with a serious medical condition and can walk out of a Doctor's appointment smiling, it has been a good day! We went to our OB appointment with Dr. Trylovich this afternoon and had a sono with Ginger. Ginger is great! It really is nice to have someone talk about everything they are seeing on the screen and spend so much time answering our questions by showing us with the sonogram. She spent a lot of time with us just explaining their orientation and where we are likely feeling each baby kick. All of our measurements are normal and they are still growing at the rate of a singleton. This was really great to hear and the gap between them in size is very small. Ginger was able to get some great profile pictures that we updated in the slide show.

Our nurse, Mary, took some blood for Stef's glocose test which should come back in a few days. I hate seeing blood getting drawn, so Mary and Stef got a good laugh as I almost passed out. It's just not my thing.

After all of that we were able to meet with Dr. Trylovich and she was incredible as always. When we talk about the babies or Stef you can just tell she is an incredibly good and knowledgeable OB and Doctor and it just makes us so much more confident in the care we are receiving. She can then switch gears and we are talking about other stuff like we would at happy hour kicking back and relaxing and having a great time. That's the best way I can explain it. I am going to owe all of our Doctor's and Nurse's a few rounds when this is all over so that's a good thing. She is just a really neat lady and we appreciate her so much.

The pelvic pain Stef has been having is totally normal and expected since she is measuring 33 weeks when we are actually 26 weeks. This is normal though with twins, just very uncomfortable. As long as we can plan the c-section and all goes as planned, Dr. Trylovich will definitely be there to assist in the delivery of the girls which really made our day.

We ended the appointment with talking about tomorrow which is a really big day for us at Children's in Dallas. I think we are both a bit anxious about it. Since we have a pretty solid understanding of what's going on I don't think we are anxious about the meeting with the team, but the facility itself. We may be pleasantly surprised so we are trying to stay as optimistic as possible.

There is a very nice family that will have a big day tomorrow and we would like to ask everyone to send positive thoughts and prayers their way. Kristi and Craig will deliver their baby Kaden tomorrow morning and Kaden's fight will begin. They are a sweet family who have meant so much to us during these past few months. They all need our support tomorrow and in the days that follow. You can follow their story by clicking on the blog link on the right of our page titled "Our CDH Journey with Baby Kaden".

That's all for now. We'll post after our appointment tomorrow.

Take care,
Shawn

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18 Week OB Appointment

We're back from our appointment which went really well. We weren't expecting any news, good or bad. First up was the sono, my favorite part. The girls were in there just having their own little party. They are so much fun to watch. I could actually feel them move, as she was doing the sono, which was AWESOME! She focused in on Kamryn first, and showed us the her heart/lungs, etc. We strained our eyes looking for that darn liver, but their machine is a little bit more grainy than Dr. Zyretsky's, so we didn't have any luck (Still praying that the liver will be below the diaphram and not in the chest cavity). The pictures and explanations are at the bottom of the post.

Next up, was Dr. Trylovich. We just love her. She's thorough and we NEVER feel rushed when we see her. I could talk to her all day. She reassured me that my rapid heart rate situation was normal, for as far along as I am. She told me what to keep an eye on. I feel good about it. She measured my belly. I'm 18 weeks 1 day, and my belly is measuring 22-24 weeks. We also talked about my tailbone hurting me pretty bad. She, of course, said it's normal. I find myself sitting in awkward positions, to relieve the pressure from the bone. I never had this problem carrying Hollie. I guess that's the difference between carrying one baby and twins. Well, that, and the fact that I'm 7 years older. OUCH!

We also discussed our options as far as hospitals are concerned. Through our research we have found that places like CHOP and UCSF are the best at handling CDH babies. We all agreed that we would prefer to deliver at one of these hospitals, but we have to be prepared for the possibility of Kamryn being in the hospital for many months. With Brooke being a newborn and Hollie in 2nd grade, it just doesn't seem to make sense to literally move for so many months. We talked to Dr. Trylovich about Children's here in Dallas and the care we would receive. While CHOP and UCSF would be the first choices, the difference in care doesn't seem to be enough to justify it. We may change our mind after our NICU tour, but for now we will deliver here in Dallas.

Pictures:

The babies are big enough to where you can really see detail now of what's going on.
The first picture shows Brooke on her back and you can clearly see her stomach below her diaphram and everything is normal:

When you look at Kamryn from this angle, you can't see that same black spot. Unfortunately, Kamryn wouldn't cooperate with us to get a good shot like this.

The next two pictures are looking down through them from above their head. The first picture is of Kamryn where you can easily see both the heart and the stomach next to each other in the same picture:

This next picture is of Brooke that shows how things should line up. Notice there are two seperate pictures here because you can't get a shot of the heart and stomach in the same picture. With the stomach below the heart and beneath the diaphram, you can only see one organ at a time which is how it should be.

Seeing this more clearly finally allowed us to see what the Doctor's have been able to see for a while now.

Next week is our amnio appt and more hi-res ultrasound pics that we will post. Thanks again for your continued prayers and support. We appreciate you all so much!

Stephanie

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