Update on Baby G

After visiting both Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Duke Children's Hospital in the month of September we have decided to give birth and have Baby G's surgery at CHOP. Both hospitals are amazing and we are truly blessed to have had the opportunity to visit both and to have the option to decide. Although CHOP is a little bit further away from home and from our family in North Carolina we felt that give our circumstances this was the best place for us to welcome our new little man into the world.

We will give birth in CHOPs Special Delivery Unit which is quite impressive. This unit is brand new and just opened in June of this year. The SDU is the best place in the world for our little man to be born. On our last visit to CHOP we were able to tour the unit with one of the high-risk midwives that works there. We are very encouraged that we will be able to have the natural normal delivery that we hope for. We will deliver in one of two very special rooms that are accessible to an infant stabilization room. Once delivered, Baby G will be handed through a window into this room, and Rolf will be able to watch through the window the entire time he is being worked on. Once he is moved to CICU, I will be able to walk down the hallway to visit him. The SDU was designed to allow parents to be close to their babies that need special care. We are so thankful for the SDU and it played a major part in our decision to go to CHOP.

So far we have had 2 appointments at CHOP. Our first appointment was for a fetal echo to confirm diagnosis and the second was a level 2 ultrasound that looked at the baby in detail. It was a very long ultrasound but in the end very rewarding because we were able to take home several 3D pics of our little man.

Our plan currently is to head up to Philadelphia around 37 weeks and be there until we bring our little boy home. We are very blessed to have great insure that will be covering all of our medical bills and will be helping to cover other costs that we will have being away from home. We will be living in a hotel that is within walking distances to the hospital for our entire stay in Philadelphia. From what the doctors have told us so far we will not be induced early unless something changes with my blood pressure but they will not let us go past our due date of November 21st. We are praying that we go into labor naturally and that things go well for delivery. We have been attending Birthworks birth classes and are really building up our bag of tricks for delivery day.

We asked for continued prayers for us as we prepare to head up to Philadelphia for what could potentially be a very long time. We are busy nesting and preparing our home and especially the nursery for the baby but the days are getting short and there is still a lot to be done. We also ask for prayers for the doctors and nurses at CHOP that will be caring for us and for Baby G. They have an amazing staff there and we know that we will be in great hands because ultimately we are in His hands and there is no better place to be.