Fetal Development

Brielle’s Last Ultrasound

~ lovingbrielle ~ 1 Comment

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We had our scan today and the technician was really nice. She knew this was probably our last scan and took extra time and let us watch Brielle move around. I cried my eyes out. I pretty much cried my eyes out the whole appointment. My fluid is in the mid 40’s, so it’s holding steady, which is really good. Now the bad news. Brielle isn’t growing. Since last months measurements she has not put on weight, in fact these measurements had her smaller. Dr. B said that probably wasn‘t right and she was probably around the same size as last time. Her length and bones have grown, but her weight has not. Until Dr. B saw that he was fine with us waiting another 2-3 weeks to have her, with weekly ultrasounds to make sure she was okay, of course. When he saw that her weight had not changed, he made it very clear we needed to deliver either tomorrow, Monday, or Tuesday. We’re leaning towards Monday, and I’ll call tomorrow and schedule the c-section. Then I can give everyone a time and stuff.

Another bit of good news, he is very optimistic about her brain being highly functional. She is very responsive and active still and she’s showing only good signs (weight being the only bad one). So he is optimistic. He’s doing his best to give Brielle her best chance at living and I am incredibly grateful. If her brain matter is strong enough then she has a pretty good chance. But if it’s not, the vessels in her brain may burst after birth and she may bleed out quickly or slowly, depending on the bleed.

I’m terrified and heartbroken. I do not want my sweet Brielle to leave me. But either her brain is causing a nutritional problem or my placenta isn’t giving her what she needs. I don’t want her to go and this is the moment I’ve dreaded for the past twenty weeks. I’m going to make a list of specific prayer requests that David and I have, and I’ll post that later.

David and I are going to give Brielle the best weekend we can. Right now David is making one of her favorite meals, pineapple, red pepper, chicken stir fry. She’ll be a very happy baby tonight. I’d appreciate any suggestions you may have on things we should do this weekend.

The Princess and the Pea

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For the past month Brielle hasn’t been super responsive. She’s still been active, but wasn’t responding like she used to. Since Sunday she’s been more like herself. She’s been craving certain foods again (like grapes, which mommy isn’t super crazy about) and responding to music and books again.

Today I felt well enough to go grocery shopping, which I haven’t been able to do in a while (I did it without pain and without swelling!). I bought Brielle a new book of fairy tales and when we got home I read her “The Princess and the Pea.” She liked that story! Silly girl did lots of wiggles when I read about the “fake” princesses, I guess she thought they were funny!

 

God is Healing Brielle!

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God is healing Brielle and doing great things! I woke up Monday morning and was able to get in and out of bed by myself, as well as do basic everyday things I had not been able to do previously, due to my high fluid levels. Each day I was able to do more and more and my stomach size became smaller and smaller.

Today we had an ultrasound appointment and talked to Dr. B. My fluid levels had dropped from 47 cm to 34 cm! I dropped that much fluid in four days! That is not done. When Dr. B called us back to his office to review the scans, he watched me walk into the office and just looked at me with an extremely puzzled expression. David has been laughing about it all day, because Dr. B looked completely baffled. He asked, “Have you been exercising?” I laughed, “NO.” We talked about my fluid levels and he was very happy to see them down and have talks of amnio reduction off the table. But he was thoroughly confused. The impression that I got was that polyhydramnios does not, suddenly, or rapidly decrease. And the only explanation for this rapid decrease is that Brielle’s swallowing reflex has been healed. Which means God is healing Brielle’s brain and head!

We looked over Brielle’s scans and measurements. Our last measurements she was very underweight and it looked like she would be a very small baby. She’s 5 and a half pounds today. At 36 weeks a baby should be about 6 pounds. Her legs are a week and a half ahead, meaning she has really long legs! Not too much of a surprise considering her parents are tall. Her abdomen, which had been small, had considerable growth, still behind, but not by much.

And now here is the really cool part. Tooth buds develop in a fetus in the first trimester. Brielle has not had tooth buds (meaning she would not have teeth). As we were going over her scans today, David asked what a white line was across her face, near her mouth. Dr. B in a bit of a surprised tone says, “Those are…tooth buds, she has tooth buds.” It is rare for an anencephalic baby to have teeth. Brielle has developed teeth sometime in the past week! At first I just thought that was cool, but then I started thinking how long it takes for a fetus to make tooth buds (weeks) and then how awesome God is to have given her tooth buds. Later it hit me, he wouldn’t have given her tooth buds if she wasn’t going to need them. Brielle is going to need to chew!

David and I are overwhelmed with joy and excitement! Brielle is not completely healed, yet, but she is well on her way. God is doing great and amazing things with her! Things that are not done. I have prayed that God would do this in a way that would bring him the most glory and praise, this week was not the week for full healing, because it wasn’t the right moment. We eagerly await the right moment and in the meantime are incredibly thankful and awe struck of God and his work. He has heard our cries and has stepped in and begun healing her. We have an awesome God!! And we believe God will heal Brielle!

David and I will not stop praying for healing until she is completely healed. We are also giving prayers of thanks and praise. Please join us in thanking God for the miracles he is performing with our baby and asking him to continue healing her. I am humbled and deeply, greatly, thankful that I serve such an amazing and merciful God!

(We will need to request the picture with her teeth because we did not receive that one. The images we did receive were blurry because she is getting so big and because she was wiggling all over the place! Once we have it, we will post it.)

Brielle is 31 Weeks!

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Friday was the beginning of Brielle’s 31st week! We took her out for hibachi and she liked it! She liked the soup they served and she jumped during the big fire part of the show. We’ve been watching the Harry Potter series, so we continued with another movie after dinner. She’s not really into Harry Potter, she liked the first one, but the rest she doesn’t really enjoy. I think its because the first one had a lot of music.

Saturday our friends John and Courtney came down to visit for the weekend. We went to Bahama Breeze for dinner and I gave Brielle a pineapple drink. She really liked that! There was a lot of jumping and dancing. She did not like conch fritters or jerk chicken. Dad said she was like Papa, he didn’t like conch fritters either. We watched a crazy movie that night and we were all laughing hysterically. Brielle loved that, she loved hearing us laugh, and was so happy the whole night. She kept dancing and doing her happy wiggles. I actually had a hard time settling her down so that I could sleep. Silly girl!

Sunday morning she was a sleepy head, until she smelled bacon! Then she perked right up and kept kicking me like, “Why aren’t we eating yet?” She loved her breakfast. Strawberries, orange juice (she’s been craving that), bacon, and biscuits with winter white honey from Savannah Bee company. Oh she was so happy. Brielle had a good day. She took a nap for the rest of the day. Only waking up to enjoy food again. She is her father’s daughter.

I was exhausted Monday, so while I had planned on having a picnic, flying a kite, and playing mini golf with Brielle. It didn’t all happen. We went to a used book store and were very happy to see they had a huge children’s section. So we bought Brielle nine new books. After that, we went out to play mini golf that evening after dinner. Brielle curled up on my right side and slept the entire time. We had a great time, but it was exhausting. There were a lot of stairs and I seriously underestimated what I was able to still do. David helped me walk around though and get up and down the stairs. He also placed my ball every time for me and let me use his when I hit my ball into the water. He’s such a great husband.

We decided to test her vision Monday night, by shining a light on my tummy. She really did not like that and ran away from the light. She’d been sleeping so she was not a happy camper. We wont be doing that test again. But she can see! This is huge! It means she’s exhibiting all five senses, which is one of the things that doctors say anencephalic babies can’t do.

That night David read her Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss. That didn’t go over well. She actually tried to hide from the book. First she kicked me really hard, and then she burrowed as deep into me as she could. And just kept on trying until I stopped David from reading. David was relieved as well, he didn’t like that book either! So he read her Beauty and the Beast. She really liked that book! She came back out of her hiding place and snuggled back up on my right side. She did a few happy kicks and she just felt happy.

Brielle was very happy and very active all weekend. I’m glad she had fun. She’s been very sleepy since Monday. I think we wore her out. It certainly wore Mommy out!

Prayer Requests

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I have a very specific prayer request. We are going to push for MRI’s and imaging to check on the health of Brielle’s brain. Please pray that not only will we be connected to the right doctors for this, but also that insurance will approve it. It is not normal to have these babies treated, so our insurance may tell us no. Please pray that they say yes. We so badly want to give Brielle her best chance.