Look at this cute little face! As a mom, of course, I'm biased. But this little jellybean looks just like it's brother and sister from what we can tell so far. Isn't technology great - that we can sneak a peak at our unborn baby in such detail??
I say "it's" because we do not know the gender of Baby Lachance #3 a.k.a. "jellybean." Like our daughter, Emery, and our son, Samuel, we have chosen to be surprised at birth. (There just aren't too many surprises in the world anymore and this is one of the very best)...
Anyhow, now that you've been introduced to the cute little face seen here, let me start by saying I'm writing this blog to more or less let our family and friends (that don't know yet) know the situation with our little person. I went back and forth, contemplating whether I needed to write anything at all, whether anyone cared to know the details, whether I should wait until later, etc. etc. etc. Finally my brain voted "in favor" of writing...if nothing else it's good therapy, so they say.
We have had a fairly uneventful pregnancy and everything is well with the function of the pregnancy itself (besides the fact that I am definitely ginormous and feeling slightly more like a small hippopotamus than ever before). Just before Christmastime, however, we had our anatomy ultrasound that revealed what our doctor thought looked like a hernia in the baby's diaphragm. We were sent to a maternal fetal medicine center for a more thorough ultrasound and they confirmed what our doctor had found. We were then officially diagnosed with a "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia" or CDH and referred to a specialty clinic.
So, since January we have been working with a team of specialists to figure out what exactly the baby has, what needs to be done, and just keeping tabs on all the details. So here they are....
Baby has a hole in the left side of its diaphragm that has allowed some of organs of the abdomen to come up into the chest cavity. This has pushed the heart toward the right side of the body and has not allowed room for the lungs to fully develop. After looking closely at the heart, it looks to be okay (they will do more ultrasounds after birth just to confirm). There is lung development, which is good, however it is estimated to only be around 30-40% of what it should be. The stomach and some intestines are definitely all the way up in the chest, but only about 12% of the liver. It gets really serious when the liver is "up." So, we are bummed that any of it is in the wrong place, but feel lucky that only a small portion of it is up there. Given all of that data, the doctors have placed us in the "middle of the pack" as far as severity. We have seen varying data on survival rates of babies with CDH, but it looks like the majority of sources site 50-70%. Another great thing that we have going for us is the fact that there do not appear to be any other defects present. We can't be 100% positive until birth, but from ultrasounds, MRIs, blood testing, etc. the CDH appears to be an isolated defect.
Sooo....what does all of this mean?
We have a c-section scheduled for April 1st, which is at about 38 1/2 weeks gestation. The doctors elected for a planned surgery so that they can have everything and everyone in place and ready to go once the baby arrives. This will make it easier on the baby and ensure that the appropriate medical staff is there. (I'm sure they'd also rather have a good night's sleep than us waking them up at 2 a.m. by going into spontaneous labor!)
Once baby arrives the doctors will assess everything very quickly and determine exactly what kind of breathing support baby will need. There are varying levels of ventilators and if need be, a fancy schmancy machine/process called ECMO, which will completely bypass the heart and lungs. They will also keep a close watch on the heart, since it can be stressed too greatly by the lung's poor functioning. Jellybean will need surgery, of course, to repair the hole in the diaphragm and put all of the organs back where they belong. This will be done once the baby is stable - usually about 5-7 days the doctors tell us. After that it really just depends on how this kiddo does. We can expect to be in the NICU anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.
Needless to say, all of this has been quite a lot for us to digest these last few months. We are optimistic though, and know that we are in the right place at the right time for such a situation as this. The doctors we are working with are highly skilled and experienced, and the facilities are some of the best in the world. We have great faith in our Almighty Healer and have the peace that
no matter what the outcome, everything will be alright!! Please pray for our little jellybean though, for big brother and sister and the changes and disruption of their "normal" lives, and for Jason and I to have strength through all of this. We know that many parents go through much, much worse but no parent wants to see their babies suffer. We will keep everyone updated as we can, and I'll write more information as we know more. Right now it's just a lot of waiting!
If you'd like to read more about CDH there are a couple of links below that have good information.
http://childrens.memorialhermann.org/services/congenital-diaphragmatic-hernia/
http://www.cherubs-cdh.org/
Well....tomorrow is the day! We go to the hospital at 8am and surgery is scheduled for 10am. 
