What Heights of Love: A Trip to UVA (And Finally the Ultrasound Photos!)

As mentioned in the "Big Announcement" post the ultrasound tech had detected a white spot on our little guy's heart during the 20-week ultrasound, so the doctor gave us the option to go to UVA to get a specialist to examine it. Mostly they were concerned about the risk of Down's and, there was no way we were going wait til the birth to make sure he was okay. Unfortunately, the soonest they would do it was at 22-weeks, and I assure you that is an eternity when you're worried about your child.

I know all of you reading this were faithful in praying for us during those incredibly long two weeks, and for that we can't thank you enough. Even though we were scared and worried we still felt the love and prayers! I can't imagine how rough it would have been on us without all your prayers and words of encouragement!

It's hard to believe it's only been a little over a week since we went to UVA to get another ultrasound for Baby Bates. Here's the (somewhat brief) story of how things went. I put Tennyson down for a nap and once my sister came over and Tom got home, we regrouped and Tom and I headed over to Charlottesville. Originally I was dreading the long ride there, thinking I would surely have an emotional break down on the way, but we both felt at peace. Arriving at UVA without incident (and with time to spare) we parked, registered at the OB ultrasound desk on the 8th floor, and waited and waited and waited for them to call my name. Okay, so I was definitely getting nervous then. Knowing all that NOT knowing was coming to an end.

The ultrasonographer finally came and got us. (I think we only sat in the waiting room for 25 minutes but again it seemed like forever!) She was nice, though lacking an interesting personality. She proceeded to measure and get photos of everything on the baby. She looked at his brain, kidneys, stomach, face, and spent lots of time trying to get photos of his heart, including the arteries. She measured his fingers, skull, arm bones, leg bones, etc. Tom and I were very quiet during these 30 minutes or so. Though she explained what she was doing we weren't sure why or if what she was seeing was good or bad. But we soon realized she was strictly there to get the proper photos and measurements and the doctor would explain everything to us.

When the doctor came in we felt much more at ease. I am just trying to set the picture (and document for memory's sake), but she was a big, black woman with some sort of Carribean accent and was as nice as she could possibly be. (Thank you Lord for giving us someone who was compassionate and sincere!) She also brought an intern with her for observation, but it was fine. She proceeded to tell me about the risk of having a Down's baby with that "marker" in the baby's heart and for someone my age (30) was about 1/658. (The risk of Down's goes up with the mother's age and has nothing to do with the father's.) If she didn't see that spot she could reduce the odds by 80%. The only way to know for sure if he had a problem was to do an amniocentisis, something I knew I was not willing to do even before we went to UVA. And once she said the risk of miscarriage with an amnio was 1/270 we all agreed it wasn't an option.

Tom later said while she was telling us all this he was thinking, "Bottom line it for me." And I was kinda thinking the same thing. I just wanted her to lay it all out and tell us what she saw. She explained the different markers for Down's: short legs/limbs growing slower than the rest of the baby, crooked pinkie finger, no/under development nasal bone, abnormal sized kidneys, club feet, a gap between the first and second toe, tongue hanging out, and issues with the pulmonary arteries in the heart. As she went over each one she then said our baby had NO issues with ANY of them, just that "spot" on his heart, which is essentially a calcium deposit. She said about 8% of people have it and it's no big deal. What an amazing feeling to have such a heavy burden suddenly lifted off us!!!

So yes, God answered our prayers, ALL our prayers! To know that we were having a healthy baby was an indescribable relief and we were renewed with joy and excitement over welcoming Baby Boy Bates into our home in just a few short months! (During those two weeks we kind of felt like we were just going through our day and couldn't think of anything but the potential problem.)

Finally here are photos from the 20-week ultrasound. Unfortunately, we didn't come home with any great photos from UVA. (In fact, my doctor's office had a much better machine than than they did.)

His sweet profile