Two-Week Update

We have learned a lot about our baby and his disorder over the last two weeks. I am going to the doctor every Monday to listen for the heartbeat and talk to my doctor. She is also monitoring my blood pressure and weight due to an increased risk of toxemia because I'm carrying a triploid baby. So far he has had a healthy heartbeat at each visit.

We decided to name our little one Elam Reuben Joseph. Elam means "hidden", Reuben means "behold, a son", and Joseph means "He will add". I have enjoyed being able to call Elam by his name. After we had a few days to process the news of his disorder, we decided to try to enjoy our son while we still have him. No matter what happens, he is still a person and he'll always be our little boy. So we want to celebrate him. :)

We had another "follow-up" ultrasound yesterday at my request. He has grown about 2 weeks' worth in the last 2 weeks, so he was easier to see. We enjoyed getting to see him again. We got to see him move around a bit and hiccup... very cute! You can see parts of the ultrasound on youtube at this address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV0ZbMFhqK8

During the ultrasound, they discovered that Elam does have several birth defects, which are common to babies with chromosomal disorders. He has a very small chin, a hole in his heart, a cyst on the back of his brain, and he's missing one of the bones in each of his pinky fingers. None of these were surprising to hear.

We did hear something else that was surprising, however. They got some of my blood work back and it showed that I have two blood clotting disorders. While these disorders have not likely been the cause of Elam's birth defects, they can cause birth defects and pregnancy loss in future pregnancies. They told us that taking a baby aspirin and extra folic acid every day should prevent those clotting disorders from affecting my future pregnancies or my own health.

As far as how we have been emotionally over the last two weeks, we are doing well. We are heartbroken, but God has given us so much peace. It's so comforting to know He's trustworthy. Throughout this pregnancy, God has taught me so much about trusting Him to be in control, and I'm so thankful for that. It's so freeing to know that He's in control and He can be trusted with every detail of our lives.

We want to thank everyone for their support, hugs, food, time, and encouraging words. We especially want to thank everyone for their prayers, and for spreading the news to others so they could also pray. God has been taking such good care of us through all the people around us and we are so grateful for that.

One last thing. We are comfortable with talking about everything that's going on. I know that in the past, I would never have known what to say to someone who was losing their baby, and I would have probably just avoided talking to them to prevent upsetting them. So I just wanted to say that there's no pressure. We're fine to talk about what's going on. I'd actually prefer talking about it rather than avoiding the subject. But still, there's no pressure either way.

Again, thanks for everything! I'm going to try to keep updating this whenever we learn anything new. Please continue to pray for our family, and especially our little Elam. We love you all!