Thoughts from Judy

Earlier this week, I found out my friend had her baby. I called her at the hospital…everything went really well and the baby is miraculously healthy. She does have jaundice but that seems so minor compared to what they thought they might being dealing with (CDH) a few months ago.



Time has really flown by the last few weeks. Bryan and I are busy trying to unpack. We really like our new home. We also recently purchased my brother’s car. We have been a one-car family since last April. It will be nice to have a second vehicle for all of the extra doctor appointments and errands. Normally buying a house and a car would have seemed like such major events, but my entire focus right now is preparing for the arrival of the baby in the spring.


This coming week, I have two more doctor appointments. One is an ultrasound scheduled for Friday. The technician was nice at my last ultrasound. However, I decided to nickname the specialist who reads the ultrasounds “Dr. Doom.” I get so anxious with each ultrasound. I’m sure I’ll be a wreck next week.


On the 28th of December we toured the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). I was hoping that the tour would somehow ease my anxieties. At least it gave me a more realistic picture of what we are facing in the spring. I imagined a room full of babies on incubators, but they have only one to two babies per room with nurses assigned to each baby. The neonatologist talked with us for a long time. It is strange how bits of a conversation can just stick with you in almost a haunting way. He kept emphasizing how babies with our condition are by far the sickest babies that they see in the NICU. The first week of life sounds so intense. He said the baby can be doing fine then he/she will unexpectedly take a turn for the worse. Just getting the baby breathing right after birth can be an incredible achievement. It sounds like there will be at least 5-10 people from the NICU in the delivery room with me in addition to the regular team of nurses and doctors. At least his comments regarding our pediatric surgeon were encouraging. I guess they don’t agree on everything, but he highly respects his surgical abilities. The neonatologist also recommends that I receive steroid shots to help the baby’s lungs develop before birth. Even though the baby should be full term, her lungs will be very premature. I nearly pass out getting blood drawn so I can just imagine how well I’ll do getting these shots. Did I forget to mention that the neonatologist was explaining how painful they can be? Of course, at this point I’m willing to do anything to improve our baby’s chance of survival.



Yesterday I spent some time with some girlfriends I know in the area. There are three of us that are pregnant right now. We ended up stopping at a shop that sells specialty cloth diapers. I couldn’t help but think that all I care about is that my baby can breathe when she is born. Then I hope she is strong enough to endure an intense surgery. And after 6 weeks of struggling between life and death in the NICU, I want to be able to bring her home to be a part of our family. I’m hoping that somehow in God’s divine plan for the universe there is room for two Mtn. Home girls to receive the same miracle in the same year, and if there isn’t, I’m hoping I will have the strength to get through the unimaginable grief. (I’m sure I’m not the only mother in the history of mankind to weep over their child.)