New life

"What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

Ryan and I discovered what that quote truly meant yesterday. I don't want this blog to become gloom-and-doom, rather a hopeful, fun and funny account of our life. Family reads this blog, and so do so many people around the world, according to my nifty little "flag counter". I love posting photos of Aryn (and baby #2!) and making fun of the hilarious hijynks we get into.

Unfortunately, this post isn't about anything fun or funny. We'll get back to those soon, though; promise.

On January 7 I had an ultrasound. The tech said, "huh," and left to find the doctor, who was not available. They requested I come back in 2 weeks for a follow-up. The info results said I had "abnormally low" amniotic fluid (which is what baby eats and pees out) and there was no fluid in the baby's stomach. That's it. I was on "take it easy and rest as much as possible" and "drink until you're swooshing water" orders. I did both.

Yesterday was our follow-up. I was originally supposed to go to the same ultrasound tech as the January 7 appointment but my appointment was changed to the Foothills Hospital Fetal High-Risk department.

FYI, that itself is extremely daunting.

7:45am appointment. 2.5 hour ultrasound. 10 minute appointment changed our lives.

Our baby boy - yes boy! - potentially has an extremely rare (0.01% of the population) condition called Situs Inversus.

Basically, what we know is this: baby boys stomach is on the right side of his body, rather than the left side where it's supposed to be. There is no explanation as to why this happens. However, because ultrasounds can't detect the insides of the fetal body other than fluids and bones, they can only make this assumption at this point.

We will know more when he is born. He'll be in for a whirlwind of tests and checkups to see if he does, in fact, have Situs Inversus.

Definition of Situs Inversus: basically a mirror image of your internal organs. Where everything is normally left-to-right, his could potentially be right-to-left. It's extremely rare, however if that's the only issue, he can grow to be a very healthy, normal little boy with absolutely no health issues.

At our next doctor's appointment next Wednesday, we will know more from our second 2.5 hour EKG ultrasound when we find out if there are any heart defects. If there are no heart irregularities, there is no reason to believe anything else is wrong with our boy other than he is extremely unique and stubborn.

If there is something irregular about his heart, we will go to Step 3 of this whole thing: find out what else is wrong. If there are heart defects, there is a higher possibility he has a syndrome, or more issues.

Thankfully, his heart is on the correct side of his body and it's beating normally according to yesterday's ultrasound. So that is very good news. We are praying that his heart is just fine.

How do we feel about all of this? We have no idea. We're terrified and stressed. We're anxious for the future. We're worried about our boy. We are fearful of the future; yet we're excited for a potentially very healthy little boy.

Bottom line: we don't know how to feel.

I am grateful for my faith; that I know God doesn't make bad things happen, but He is definitely there for you when they do. He gives me hope, and I feel I can entrust our little guy to Him and know He's taking care of him.

Are we mad at God? Perhaps a little. I think I'm more mad at the "I knit you in your mother's womb" biblical verse. What was God smoking 6 months ago?

Ultimately, again, we don't know. We don't know what the future will hold. We don't know what's going to happen a month from now let alone 6 months from now. Our entire lives could very well change drastically. Or, everything could work out perfectly and we just have a little Mirrored Baby Boy.

And that is, quite honestly, pretty damn cool. A red head with blue eyes and a mirrored baby boy. We'll make a fortune!

Thanks for the good thoughts and prayers. We're going to need them.