Praise God Kind-of News!

We just got home from our 30-week ultrasound. Most people (who have had babies) ask, "Why did you have to do another one?" Good question.... and one that has kept Kurt and I in prayer for the last 12 weeks.

At the 18-week ultrasound they saw an abnormality on the baby's brain - a choroid plexus cyst. The choroid plexus is the part of the brain that hydrates the rest of the brain. The reason that this can be an issue is that a CPC can also be an indication of Trisomy-18... a fatal condition also known as Edwards Syndrome (click the name to read about it). That said, it is a correlation not a causation... the cyst doesn't guarantee the condition... just that when babies have the condition, they also have the cysts.

Our doctor - when he told us about it - was fairly confident that it wasn't that condition... but offered us the maternal serum screen anyway. After a lot of thought, we turned that down with the logic of "What would we do with the information anyway?" We were also able to give a brief testimony to our doctor that we were going to trust God and pray about it.

When a CPC shows up, they (the medical professionals that be) check again at 30 weeks to make sure the cyst has resolved. But that was 12 more weeks of waiting, praying, and reminding ourselves that God is in control. For a long time, even feeling the baby move, we both had to stop and ask the Lord that our baby would be okay.

And today was 30 weeks. Kurt and I spent some time in prayer this morning, asking the Lord to comfort us no matter the results and to give us His peace - interestingly enough I'm still in Hebrews and it talks a lot about how being a Christian gives a peace to "anchor" on.
Providence is amazing - God knew I would need those words right now to get me through without being overtaken by anxiety.

The lady who did our ultrasound was awesome - answered all our questions and showed us all the little parts of our baby (no, not that part... some things have to be kept secret!). The difference between an 18-weeker and a 30-weeker was stunning! There is now a lot more baby in there!

It actually looked like a baby this time - and the little stinker was moving all over the place. Legs, arms, head, back, heart, future belly-button - we even got to see him/her practice breathing... everything was SO easy to distinguish! We saw the baby yawn, hide it's head, kick, curl up... and the ultrasound tech zoomed up on it's face enough for us to see that Baby Manz (even in ultrasound vision) definitely has mommy's lips and nose. Kurt says it has my cheeks as well, but that remains to be seen. :)

The radiologist came in after to talk to us about the results: the cyst is gone - praise God! The baby is only measuring 6-days bigger (as opposed to 14), the due date is staying the same, the amniotic fluid level is normal, and although my sugar levels have been higher, the baby isn't showing any ill-effects. :)

Furthermore, the baby's head is down, and the placenta is not too close to the cervix... and we're (excluding a massive position change on the part of the baby) set to go for delivery whenever that happens. So not only were our fears resolved, but we were able to throughly enjoy watching our little miracle on the screen. Now when I feel kicks and see bumps, I have a better idea of what part of the baby is giving all the action! Praise God all-around!

Here is a picture (courtesy of Kurt's amazing computer/scanner skills) of Baby Manz's face... enjoy!