our baby

we went to UCSF yesterday for our first appointment since the gastroschisis diagnosis. the ultrasound was an hour long (as was expected) and he was moving around like crazy! he's getting bigger now and i can feel him move and kick more frequently, but he's still too small to kick with enough force for anyone else to feel. it was weird to see him kick and feel it at the same time. our ultrasound tech was amazing. i loved her. she kept talking about how cute his little face is - and we agree. the pictures don't do him justice, but he's very cute. and we got to see him yawn - it was so sweet. and then he fell asleep, which was adorable. i could just stare at him in there all day (except for the fact that the ultrasound starts to get uncomfortable).

they were able to show us his bowels and i knew before she told us what they were. that was the only part that was a little sad for me, i just want him to be absolutely perfect and to see the evidence that he isn't perfect was just sad. they did check the bowels and said that there is blood flow all through the bowels which is a very good sign (no bowel death). besides that we didn't get any information that we didn't expect to get in terms of the baby and how he's progressing. the ultrasound doctor said that everything looked "as expected". and i learned that no news is good news with gastroschisis.

after our ultrasound (and a picnic in the car) we had an appointment with a pediatric surgeon (Dr. Hirose) and a perinatologist and they talked to us about the baby's surgery and the delivery. i'll deliver (and have the rest of my ultrasound appointments) at Kaiser San Francisco and the fetal surgery team from UCSF (Dr. Hirose and his team) will be there to get the intestines back inside. they want to shoot for delivery at 36 weeks, but before they decide to induce me they'll do an amniocentesis to see if his lungs are developed. i was born at 34 weeks and didn't have lung problems, so i don't imagine our little guy to have any at 36 weeks, but we'll see how that goes. they told me that i'd go to Kaiser SF every 4 weeks for ultrasounds before delivery. so i'll go down for another ultrasound at around 24 weeks (which is only 3 weeks from now, but they want me to do it then because it's the last week i can decide if i want to terminate), then 28, 32, and finally 36. they said that if they start asking me to come for ultrasounds more frequently then there's some concern about the baby. it's weird that i only have like 15 weeks left. it's weird to be able to count down (or essentially be able to count down). they want me to deliver vaginally, which i was concerned about, but they assured me that there is no problem for a gastroschisis baby to be delivered vaginally, and they want me to do it vaginally because it's better for the baby. so, even though i'm a little scared i want to do anything that they say is better for the baby.