Pluggin along

Well, I hit 28 weeks yesterday.  I feel like this pregnancy is going so slow.  I know its because of all of the anxiety and worry that I have.  Guess it just makes each day go that much slower.  Thank goodness for Jake.  He has been so entertaining lately and everyday just surprises me with something new.  So I have just put all of my focus and energy into him for now.  There is not much to do for Austin but sit and wait and wait and wait. Jake is super excited for his little brother's arrival now.  He even kissed Austin (my belly) goodbye today when he was leaving.

I spoke with a doctor last week out of Duke (North Carolina).  I had read about her through one of the blogs that I follow and learned that this particular doctor is the only one in the United States performing cord blood infusions on babies with hydrocephalus.  You see, the umbilical cord contains many, many stem cells that act as the building blocks for a babies development.  If you take the umbilical cord after birth and freeze it (or bank it) and then reintroduce the stem cells to a baby later on, the hope is that these cells can assist in helping to build back some of the necessary cells that a baby/child needs, but was unable to get in utero.  So for a hydrocephalus baby like Austin, this type of infusion could be extremely helpful.

At any rate, we spoke in length.  She has done 32 infusions on hydrocephalus babies in the past four years.  Of course she doesn't have any statistics yet to say that is it helping, but her impression is that it is.  She suggests performing the infusions at 1 month of age, 2 months of age and 6 months of age.  These procedures are not considered necessary in standard care and therefore not covered by insurance though and will be very expensive.  But Kevin and I both decided that we wanted to do it no matter what and looks like we'll just have to take out a loan to pay for it!  We don't want to regret not doing something that could end up helping Austin in the long run.  There is no risk to Austin, as he really is in essence receiving his own blood cells back and the procedure usually takes about 15-20 minutes through an IV.   We just hope and pray that Austin will be strong enough at one month old, to take the 10 hour drive down to North Carolina.

Other than that, nothing really new to report.   I go on the 14th for my follow up echocardiogram, another ultrasound, and for an appointment with my new OB.  Gonna be a very busy day!!!