from then to now

I guess I should start with a little background information. My name is Katelyn. I am married to my high school sweet heart, VJ, and we have a beautiful son named Oliver. I am currently pregnant with our second child, a little girl, which is the main reason I started this blog. Five weeks ago we went to have our 20 week ultrasound to see how our baby was growing and to find out the gender of our newest addition. We were happy to find out that we were having a girl and immediately after our ultrasound concluded started calling family and friends to share the great news. We then went to see our OB/GYN, Dr. D, and that is where this story takes a bit of a turn. Dr. D asks us if we had been informed yet that something did not look quite right on the ultrasound. We had not. He said our little girls bowels appeared echogenic, which means that they were brighter on the ultrasound than they were supposed to be. He informed us that when they see things like that on an ultrasound it can be an indicator of health issues such as Cystic Fibrosis and Downs Syndrome among other things. He set us up with a high risk pregnancy facility to have a second opinion ultrasound, and then assured us that in most cases these readings are invalid and that we should not worry too much.(Like that is even an option for a mother) So that was day one of the wait. We were scheduled to see the high risk two days later. So in the mean time we prayed. We asked for guidance and we asked for peace. We asked our friends and family to pray. Then we went to our next appointment and saw our beautiful girl on the screen again. The doctor confirmed what the first had seen. Her bowels did seem abnormal. She told us more about what we could be dealing with, and also let us know that in the end our girl could end up being completely healthy. The only way to know for sure would be amniocentesis and neither Vj nor I were comfortable having that testing done. We had blood work done to check for infections and to see if I was a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis, and we were told to return in four weeks for another ultrasound.

So we wait more...and pray more...and research more. We celebrate Christmas, and we all laugh and enjoy spending extra time with family.I enjoy plenty of cuddle time with my husband and Oliver and I spend alot of time alternating between worrying about my baby and trying not to worry. Slowly, our next appointment approaches. People reach out to us, pray for us, write us encouraging notes. There is no way to put in to words the gratitude I feel for all the people willing to walk this path with us.

We have our next appointment. We see our girl again and she makes us laugh. She sucks her thumb. She yawns. VJ was amused when at one point he says she stuck out her tongue. We keep thinking this will be the last time we will have to do this. Surely they will say all is well and we can carry on as normal from here on out, but they dont. The doctor tells us she is growing well,which is a great sign, but her bowels still look echogenic. Unless we decided to do the amniocentesis(which we already know we will not do because there are more risks than benefits at this point) we will continue to have ultrasounds and track her growth and development until she is born, and that will be the day we will know for sure if this baby will have any health issues.

That catches you up to today. Day 36 of waiting. 109 days until my due date. I am doing my very best to remain positive. I know God has plans for my child and that His plans are better than my own. For now, I wait.