The Latest on Brigham

First, here's me at 25 weeks. I'm feeling very pregnant now. Any time I say something like that Justin looks at me funny and says with a smile, "Ummm, sweetie, you are pregnant..." (pics of Brigham at the bottom)


I had another ultrasound yesterday at the Maternal-Fetal Center at Good Sam (the hospital). They checked all the regular growth related things and said he looks fabulous. He's measuring in the 23rd percentile overall, which sounds just about right for our kids. He'll probably weigh very close to what Carrie was (6lbs, 4oz).

The real reason for this special appointment though was to re-measure the lung-to-head ratio. We last had this done at 20 weeks. It's a calculation that determines lung tissue development in relation to overall size of the baby. They said that the number 1.00 is kind of the tipping point. Below that, they are more concerned, above that, they are less concerned.

5 weeks ago, Brigham's calculation was 0.9. Yesterday it was 1.02! Apparently it's not a very large window because they doctor seemed happy about this slight difference.

Now, don't go jumping up and down celebrating just yet... The diaphragmatic hernia is still there, he'll still be sick at birth, still require surgery, still be in the NICU for a while.... But, his chances don't look totally and completely awful.

As I've been talking with some friends and family recently, I realized I haven't been as clear as I thought I was. Although we seem pretty chill about this whole thing, it's still a pretty big deal.

On average (with a huge, wide range of variances), the mortality rate of babies with this condition is 50%. Not so hot... There are so many little things that can change that number though. Most of these things we won't know until after Brigham is born. They are mostly related to how well the baby responds after birth. Some babies' systems just handle it better than others.

Our calm is really coming from the feeling that either he'll be OK eventually, but if not, we'll be OK... eventually.

Now :) Shaking off the doom and gloom feeling... Here's a couple of new pictures from the ultrasound yesterday! I know 3D pictures are a little weird and most often more creepy looking than cute, but we'll give it a shot.

*Note: anything weird and splotchy looking in the pictures is either shadow, uterus, cord, his hand etc, getting in the way.*