No Following Suit for Us!

We have talked to nearly all of you by now, but we wanted to officially post that we are having a GIRL! We hoped to follow Scott & Kevin's pattern, and have a boy 3rd, but no such luck! We will enjoy our home full of female hormones. We are most happy that the baby is well and healthy. The longer we can keep her in, the better.

Most of you know about our complications, but just so you all know and we don't have to explain it later, we have what is called Rh sensitization. Steve has O+ blood, and I have A-. 99% of the time this is controlled by a beautiful little shot called Rhogam. Rhogam makes it so a negative blooded mother does not reject a positive blooded baby. The shot is 99.8% effective, so most people don't know what happens when it's not. For me, I had the shot too early, it wore off, and there was a blood leak between Presley and I that caused what called a sensitization. It means that I have an antibody permantly in my blood stream that will systematically kill off anything it sees as foreign. This antibody attacks the red blood cells of any baby that is a positive blood-type baby. It is not a question of IF the antibodies will kick in, it's a question of when--when my body will recognize the baby as foreign.

Three things happen when the red blood cells of the baby are killed off, a condition called anemia. First, it will thin the baby's blood. Because of this, the blood circulates faster and a simple doplar ultrasound of the brain will show how fast the baby's blood is flowing. Second, the baby will develop fluid in the cavities of its body. Third, the baby's organs will systematically swell, eventually affecting the brain causing organ and brain damage.

I will have an ultrasound at least every 3 weeks for the rest of my pregnancy, which I just LOVE! It's a comfort to see the baby. There are four levels of blood flow in the brain (A through D, D being the slowest and best), and as the blood flow quickens the ultrasounds will happen more often (every other week, every week, or every couple of days, depending on the level). Once the level hits an A they will do an amniocentesis (stick a huge needle through my belly and take some of the baby's amniotic fluid to study it). The amniocentesis will tell us how severe the anemia is and the moment it gets too bad they perform a blood transfusion through the baby's umbilical cord. The goal is to catch it before the organs start having problems.

Each pregnancy will either be the same in severity or worse. Never better. Presley was saved from a transfusion post-delivery because of a priesthood blessing. She never had to go through it. So, best case scenario for us is that the anemia never fully attacks the baby and she just has to go through the oxygen and biliruben stuff at the hospital like Presley. This is not so likely since it's the second affected child and the problem has been around since day 1 for this baby. They try and hold off on the blood transfusion as long as they can, and the doctor said that if they can get the baby to hang on until 34-35 weeks they'll just deliver her. Transfusions are safer for the mother and the baby outside of the womb.

We'll have Steve tested next week to see if he's double-positive or positive-negative on his blood type. If we luck out and he's positive-negative (aka heterozygous) we have a 25% chance of having a negative-blooded baby. What a blessing that would be! My body wouldn't react to it. If he's double-positive (homozygous) it may spell the end of the road for us. We've been VERY fortunate to have three.

We have appreciated your prayers for us. We have a lot of friends and family praying and we know that the prayers will help this baby. We live in a very fortunate time. I have ancestors who have had the same problems and they've never kept a positive blooded fetus for longer than about 6 months. Lots of stillborns. (My paternal great-grandma had a 6-month fetus die and the doctor kept it in formaldahyde in his office -- she called it her pickle baby -- I'm glad she has a better sense of humor than I). It looks like we'll never have to face that because of the medical advances that we have in this day and age. I'm also fortunate to live in Happy Valley Utah. We've been so frustrated that Steve hasn't found a new job yet, but it just may be that we're supposed to stay here for this baby. There are so many pregnancies in Utah County b/c of BYU and UVSC that the doctors here have seen a lot and they are really very good. They don't see many women with Rh sensitization, but I am thankfully not the ONLY one they've seen with it, as might be the case somewhere else. I'm getting a good education on this whole thing. It's been quite an eye-opener.

We'll keep you posted on how this baby is doing. Our next ultrasound is October 3rd.