Update on Baby C

If you remember from this post, I told you all about some concerns that we had with Baby C from our 18 week ultrasound.  If you haven't read that post, it's kind of a necessity to know what's going on here.  Yesterday was our big level 2 ultrasound in Macon where we could really see what is going on with Baby C.


We ended up getting there an hour early.  We left town SUPER early to make sure we had enough time, and we ended up getting done with lunch early, too, so we just headed straight there.  We got there about 12:30, but our appointment wasn't until 1:30.  We knew we had to actually get there at 1:00 to fill out paperwork, so we weren't actually there too too early.


They ended up getting us back about 1:15.  They took my blood pressure and weight (at that late in the afternoon AND with all of my clothes/shoes on, it still showed I have only gained 4 lbs!) and actually let me go to the bathroom!  For any pregnant woman who has had to hold her pee for an ultrasound, you know how crazy uncomfortable that can be.


The nurse then took us back to the ultrasound room and they pretty quickly started on the ultrasound.  Everyone there was SO NICE and it just made the process so much more enjoyable.  It's a pretty scary thing to be there in the first place, so it was nice to have such a sweet staff.  


The girl spent about 30 minutes looking around in there at every single part of Baby C.  One of the first things that she asked was if we knew the gender.  I told her that it was a boy, but that we wanted to check and just make sure one more time!  Sure enough, still DEFINITELY a boy.

{Yep - for SURE still a boy!}

She spent a lot of time looking at his entire body.  I mean, she was so detailed with EVERYTHING.  We saw his little feet, all of his organs, his face, and his head.  She especially spent a lot of time on his little hands and they were SO cute.  It was really funny because he kept kicking/punching her wand.  He must not have liked it or thought it was a game because no matter where she moved it, he found it and bonked it.  :)  She also spent a lot of time looking at his heart and each little chamber.  It was so neat to see it so close up and to know that it was working hard.  It was beating away at 147 bpm!

{a foot}

I didn't really ask her a lot of questions while she was working because I knew that she was looking at a lot of really important things.  I just wanted her to be able to focus on what she was doing and I would ask questions to the doctor.  One of the questions that I did ask her was if she knew how big he was.  At 18 weeks, he was 10 oz (when the average size of babies at that age is around 7 oz.)  Are you ready for this?!?!  As of yesterday, he is 1 lb 1 oz!  Do you know how much an average baby is?  About 12/13 oz!  That means he's like 5-6 oz OVER normal!  This baby is HUGE!


I did notice in the ultrasound (because she was labeling things) that the cysts were, in fact, still there.  Matt and I had talked about this at length and knew that the reality was that after only 2.5 weeks, there was a really good chance that they would still be there.  This had really prepared me mentally and I didn't freak out really at all when I saw this.

{an adorable profile with some fingers at the top}

After she was done, she took us to another room to wait for Dr. Boddy.  (Isn't that creepy?  It reminds me of Clue.  Dr. Boddy, in the library, with the candlestick - haha).  Anyway, he came in and was SUPER nice.  Immediately, he said, "I'm  just going to tell you first thing - there's nothing wrong with your baby".  Let me tell you - that was an awesome thing to hear.


He explained these cysts in detail to us.  Basically, they develop deep down in the middle of the brain where the brain creates spinal fluid.  It's responsible for creating it and holding it there until it's needed.  Any part of your body that creates/secretes fluid is susceptible to cysts.  Skin (pimples are really cysts of your sweat glands), breasts, pancreas, etc.  This part of the body is no different.  

{another shot of his feet}

Then, he started talking to us about Trisomy 18 .  This is one of the major concerns with Choriod Plexus Cysts.  Basically, he said that all babies with Trisomy 18 (it's a VERY devastating version of Trisomy) have these cysts, but not all babies with these cysts have Trisomy 18.  He talked about all of the physical characteristics of Trisomy 18 that they look for in the ultrasound.  Baby C had  NONE of these characteristics!  He said that he has NEVER missed a diagnosis of Trisomy 18 in all of the years that he's been working.  


At Southern OB, they told us that Dr. Boddy would look for Downs Syndrome and Trisomy 18, but they put the heavy emphasis on DS.  When I asked him about Downs, he looked at me and said, "What about it?  Why are you worried about that?"  I told him that that is what my doctor said was a concern when they see these cysts.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "No - your baby does not have Downs".  He then went on to explain that about 5 years ago, they thought their might be an association between babies that had these cysts and babies who have Downs Syndrome.  He explained that since then, they've really not linked the two like they originally thought in the past.  Trisomy 18 was the real concern here.  He did say that the ultrasound showed absolutely no indication that Baby C had DS and that, in the past 5 years, he's only missed one case of DS.  And that in that five years, he's seen 25,000 patients. 

{Another cute profile.  He has a Mullican nose - for sure!}

Then he went on to mention Baby C's size.  Oh boy.  I told him that I was really confused as to how he was so big when I've only gained about 3 lbs (as of this morning)!  He said that babies will get what they need and that he's doing just fine (obviously).  He said that this happens sometimes where the mother doesn't gain much (or quickly - whichever) but the baby will still be big.  He said that my dry weight (what I would weigh right now if I wasn't pregnant) is probably much less than it was when I started.  He said that if I've gained 3 lbs and you take off Baby C, all of the extra blood, the amniotic fluid, the placenta, etc, that it all would equal way more than 3 lbs right now.  Matt asked him if he had any guesses as to how big Baby C will be at birth.  He said that it's hard to tell this early, but that if he had to guess, he'd guess between 9-10 lbs.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.  Are you kidding me???  That's HUGE!!!!  I'm gonna need an epidural with this one, for sure!  ;)


All in all, we left with WONDERFUL news.  Baby C looks GREAT.  Huge, but great!  He's healthy, everything in there looks good, and we don't need to worry about anything chromosomal going on.  Honestly, with the exception of going and there being no cysts in there, this is the best news that we could have gotten.  


Thank you SO MUCH for all of your prayers for Baby C!  We definitely felt them and needed them!  Now, if you'd like to start praying that he's not the size of a toddler at birth, that might be helpful, too.  ;)