Getting Ready for the Long Haul

I got to spend the last couple of days visiting doctors again.  Yesterday was spent with the pediatric cardiologist doing another ultrasound on Baby Jacob's heart to make sure there weren't any changes.  Luckily there weren't.  It was interesting, though, listening to the Dr. ask me if Jacob's Downs Syndrome diagnosis was going to affect how I 'handled the baby'.  Obviously I said, "No" and informed him that we were all very excited to have the new baby at home, especially the children.  He seemed satisfied by my answer, but I couldn't help but wonder what % of people actually DO change how they are going to 'handle the baby'?  Abortion? Adoption? What do they do? And WHY IN THE WORLD should a poor, helpless,  innocent little child be punished for something that was never his fault in the first place???

Preparing for Baby Jacob and his Down syndrome diganosis

 Dr. Jensen went over what I could expect at delivery and the weeks surrounding our baby's birth. He informed me that Jacob would be taken to NICU and would probably stay for 3-5 days just for monitoring.  He didn't expect them to need to give him any medicine or stick him with needles etc.  It would just be a precaution.  He then said that soon after the birth he would want to see Jacob at his office and would most likely prescribe him some heart medicines.  The medicines wouldn't fix the heart, but it would help with his growth as the babies usually have issues with lower birthrate and growth rates.  He asked me about Jacob's due  date and I told him it would be Halloween.  He was not too happy about this because that would mean that they would normally try to do his heart surgery around what is normally flu season.  So he decided that if possible, we'd prolong Jacob's surgery until Spring when there was less chance of him being exposed to anything with his weakened immune system.   He told me he wouldn't need to see me again until after the baby was born, and I was done!

Today, I met with Dr. Zweisler.  He did the usual - measured my belly, felt for the baby, and asked me if I was "OK".  My goodness, if he looks at me with those concerned eyes and asks me if I'm "OK" one more time I might actually have to scream!!!  It's like he's waiting for me to come out of denial and totally break down right there in his office.  I guess he still has a bit more to learn about the strength of a Cady girl (Born a Cady, married to an Allred - in case you didn't know). 

He then went on to remind me that he'd see me in 2 more weeks then all of the testing would begin.  Apparently, children with Downs Syndrome have a tendency to have low birth weights, and often come with other 'issues'.  So he wanted to schedule me for weekly BPP's (Biomedical Physical Profiles) and monthly growth scans.  I researched the BPP and found this link which explains what I need to expect from the procedure: http://www.webmd.com/baby/biophysical-profile-bpp

He reminded me that the BPP's will be used to see if there are any other health issues to be addressed, and to see if the baby is in distress in any way.  Obviously, if Baby Jacob is in distress, they will take action to fix the problem.  He also told me that the growth scans will be used to see if there are any issues with Jacob's weight and growth.  So, I said goodbye to the Dr, went to the ladies in the lobby and set up my appointments.  18 of them in all over the next 10 weeks.  Ugh! That's a WHOLE LOT of time with the Doctors!!!!  Here's to hoping it all works out!