Posted in March 2009
The past few days have been crazy, but good. We left Monday afternoon and arrived in the Salt Lake City area that night. Because Matt is in the military we can get some sweet discounts, and we found a hotel that was very affordable—and it had a pool! Isaac and Matt had a great time playing in the water. And we found out that Isaac has become quite a little fish since he has turned two.
Tuesday morning we woke up at 7am, rushed to get ready, had breakfast and arrived at my good friend’s home around 8am to drop Isaac off. Matt and I then left for Primary Children’s Hospital to begin our long day.
At 9:30am we had a fetal heart echo (a fancy word for an ultrasound specifically for the heart) with the pediatric cardiologist. Between this visit and the last visit not much has changed, which is good. No signs of heart failure, and development looks normal. The first surgery to put the pulmonary artery band will happen up to a week after Eli is born. They will keep Eli in the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) during that week to monitor his levels, and then keep him in the PICU 3 to 5 days after his surgery. This surgery is a simple and fast one. They will make a chest incision, but because the heart does not need to be stopped the mortality rate is almost 0%. The doctors seem to be very hopeful. They told us that if we could have picked a heart defect with a ventricle missing Tricuspid Atresia is the one to pick.
The second surgery will be done when Eli is between 4 to 6 months old. They want him to be around 12 pounds. Matt and I do not make big babies so I am hoping that we can get him to 12 pounds sooner than later. But if the baby is not doing well, they can do the Glenn Shunt procedure as low as 8 pounds.
After our talk with the pediatric cardiologists our nurse coordinator took us on a tour of Primary Children’s Hospital. It is a bright and fun hospital, and I think Isaac will have fun looking at all the murals and especially the fish. (He is really into Nemo, or “Me-mo,” right now.) We did go into the PICU and saw little newborns that have cardiology problems. Each baby gets his/her own room, with a nurse in there 24/7. It was amazing how many machines they need. It was a little overwhelming, but I am so glad that they showed us so that we can be prepared. And we can take our camera in there—I am pretty sure Matt is already thinking about all the different pictures he can take.
We had lunch at Children’s cafeteria and then afterword headed over to University of Utah Hospital to see the high-risk delivery doctor. Children’s and the U of U are connected through a walkway, which is why I will be delivering there. (I am pretty sure when my Dad comes he will be visiting the gift shop, and clean it out of all U of U gear, just to rub it in all University of Alabama fans’ faces when he goes home. Go Ute’s! (And it is funny when going around the campus area all the signs that are up that have sayings degrading U of A. (For those who might not be college football followers in January U of U beat U of A 31 to 17 in the BCS Sugar Bowl. We McDaniel’s are big fans of the ACC—Go FSU!—and it was just awesome to see the high and mighty SEC fall!)))
Another ultrasound was done (makes number 7 for this pregnancy) and we learned a few thing. Number 1: Eli has hair! 2: Eli weigh’s around 5 ½ pounds, and number 3: he has fat rolls! We could not see his face because he was turned toward the back. And he is a little too big now to see all the cool things, like feet and hands, that are able to be seen when 4 or 5 months old.
We met with our delivery doctor around 2pm, but pretty soon into the consult she was paged and said, “Sorry someone is delivering right now, I’ll be back in 20 minutes.” And she was! (The person was having a baby with a heart condition, but since this was her 4th baby she went pretty quickly.) I really like this doctor, and every time I mention her name, everyone—including to my doctor here, 4 hours away—says she is just awesome. She works with midwives, and really tries to let the women deliver naturally. Which she says I can! So happy. I will be induced and closely watched, of course. Babies with heart conditions deliver just as well as other babies.
The plan is that we will go down to Utah around April 10th, stay there for the weekend, and possibly start the induction on the 12th or 13th. Our delivery doctor needs to look at the delivery schedule to see what is open, but one of those two dates is what we are shooting for.
She then personally took us around the delivery floor and showed us the rooms. In high risk situations the rooms in which women are put in are right next door to the NICU. Each room is connected to the NICU through a literal window—the window has shades of course. When the baby is delivered the doctor knocks on the window and passes the newborn to the NICU to be checked and monitored. Eli will probably stay in that NICU for an hour or two, then a “flight” team from Primary Children’s will take him from U of U’s NICU to Children’s PICU. (They will not really fly, just walk briskly to Children’s through the walkway.) Matt will be able to go with the team, and when I have had a few hours and able to get into a wheel chair then I can go over to see him.
And that is pretty much everything we learned. We left the hospitals a little after 3pm, and got to my friend’s house close to 4pm to pick up Isaac. (Thanks you so much for the help!) We got on I-15 at 4:30pm, and arrived in Rexburg around 7:30pm. Long, long day. But a good one. We learned a lot and we feel pretty good about everything. It is crazy that we will be having this little guy in 4 or 5 weeks!
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