Update :)

*boring update* no pictures :) Im now 26 weeks and 3 days pregnant! So I'm getting close. I wish it would just hurry up now because I am definitely starting to get impatient because of all of this 'unknown'. (but at the same time I'm in no hurry) Pretty much all we can do is stay positive and keep our heads up. I feel baby moving around in there and its pretty awesome. I am officially starting to feel pregnant/uncomfortable but I still really can't complain a whole bunch. I have plenty of energy during the day- not sure if thats due to just me being awesome or the prednisone. haha j/k its probably the prednisone. :) My dose of that crap has been lowered a ton! I started at 40 mg, and now I'm at 15 mg! Since they have been lowering my dose by 5 mg each week, I have been doing some kind of bloodwork EVERY week. I don't mind though, Im just glad I dont have to drive down to Salt Lake for it.

So I wanted to post like a quick overview of everything. I want to keep things pretty brief.(but most likely it will go into detail)  I'll post more on baby's blog as we go to future appointments with cardiology and when he is born and what not. But I just wanted to write down a couple of things.

On Jan 4th we had the fetal echo cardiogram at Primary Childrens's. It took forever. It was just like and hour and a half of ultrasound looking at his heart and I just had to lay there the whole time. (not trying to complain. it was probably worse for Tyler and his parents because they had to sit there the whole time too..haha.) After that, they took us into a little office/cozy room and discussed their findings. It was a lot to take in, they gave us A TON of informatinon, and we are getting really good with all this heart vocabulary. :) They told us that he has a few complex cardiac defects. They gave us the option of starting a series of surgeries at birth OR taking him home and letting him pass away naturally. I was pretty shocked they gave us this option, but we are planning on doing all that we can to keep our baby boy with us. I feel awful about choosing to have him go through so many surgeries, but this little guy will be so tough when he gets through it all. He's got a lot of people rooting, cheering, and praying for him everyday. He sure stresses his mom out though. I posted about the cardiac defects in baby's blog.

So here's a rough outline of what will happen---

I will deliver at University of Utah hospital and will be given a short time to visit with my baby depending on the baby's diagnosis and stability after delivery. (Im pretty much just copying this 'roadmap for surgery' paper they gave us)

He will be admitted to the NICU, and they will start him on some meds that will prep him and his little heart for surgery. They will do the first surgery (1st state Norwood Palliation or other surgery) by 1 week of age.

They say to anticipate surgery lasting 6 hours, and we will be given periodic updates from the cardiothoracic surgery staff.

Baby's chest will remain open approx. 3 days and baby's status is most critical at this time. Baby will have breathing tubes, multiple IV medications and chest tubes. (makes me get teary eyed)

Expect several weeks in the CICU post cardiac surgery.

Baby will be transferred from the CICU to the Childrens Surgical Unit for continued medical management and coordination of feeding.

We will be educated on CPR, feeding tubes, medication and oxygen delivery. Expect a 2-4 week stay before going home.

Typical timing for stage 2 surgery= 3-6 months of age.
Typical timing for stage 3 surgery= 2-4 years of age.

I still dont know how they will go about to addressing all the heart defects. Im not sure if they can do multiple fixes at the same time or what. With the heterotaxy syndrome I talked about in the other blog-theres still a lot of unknown with that. We go back to Primary Childrens on Feb 18th, they wanted 6-8 weeks for his heart to get bigger so they could get a better look.

I feel like people are thinking "why is this happening to your baby?" "what did you do to make this happen?" I wish I knew. I would never do anything or put anything into my body that would hurt my baby, hurt Tyler, hurt my family OR hurt me. I like my body and I like being healthy! We did some genetic testing and all results came back normal. I think why is this happening to us all the time. I saw a quote on a blog (little girl has a heart defect) the quote said something like "God doesn't give a child with heart defects to a strong family, he gives them to a weak family and it MAKES them strong." I'm not saying we are a 'weak' family but with all of these things happening in our lives, I can 100% say this has brought Tyler and I closer together and closer to our Heavenly Father. I feel like a stronger person already and baby isn't even here yet! (Guessing thats a good thing since Im gonna be a mom soon) I have to say again though, I hate all this unknown. I just wish I knew exactly what was going to happen.  :)  I guess thats why we have prayer though, because its my prayers and prayers of others that are getting me by because I know they are being heard. Oh and if you didnt notice from the last post about the new blog, we are going to name our baby Daniel Mark Jones. :)