Marine Wife.
Crazy.
Mother extraordinaire.
But most of the time I just go by Laurie :)
And no there is no club I want you to join.
At this time I am 37weeks pregnant with our second daughter, and let me tell you I'm just done being pregnant. She can come along anytime now, seriously kid, Mama's ready!
But, obviously, this blog isn't about my journey through pregnancy. It's a little late to start that blog, ha ha. No, this blog will really start once the new baby, whom we have dubbed BG2 (Baby Girl 2), is born.
When I was 20weeks preggo (January 2013) the hubby and I went in for the routine anatomy scan. The ultrasound tech was a nice conversational woman who actually explained what we were seeing up on that black and white screen, because lets all be honest sometimes we look at that thing and cannot tell baby's butt from their head. She wrote down the gender in a sealed envelope for us because we were determined to keep the gender a secret this time around. Side Note: We made it a whole 50hours before we ripped that envelope open, ha ha.
As is routine, at the end of the ultrasound the tech has to go let the radiologist know they're done. Usually they're gone for a few minutes maximum. Our tech was gone for about 20 minutes. Hubby and I sat patiently, guessing whether it was a boy or girl and then changing our minds, discussing what colors/theme we wanted in the nursery if it was a boy or girl. After about 10 minutes we started getting antsy. We both brushed it off as the OB clinic had been really busy when we were in the waiting room so we just figured there was a lot going on. After another few minutes my hubby was the first to say it, "You don't think it's taking so long because something is wrong, do you?" The thought quickly roused me from the turquoise/grey nursery dream I had been in...I was guessing boy at the moment.
Wrong? What could possibly be wrong? Our first daughter's pregnancy had gone picture perfect. No morning sickness. Minimal weight gain. She came 2 weeks early, and so fast that I didn't even need drugs during labor. This pregnancy hadn't been as enjoyable from the beginning, but still, nothing could actually be 'wrong', could it? I brushed it off and said something along the lines of "they're just really busy, they'll be back soon", but inside my mind has started swimming in scenarios and none of them are good.
FINALLY the tech comes back in and she's followed by the radiologist on duty. My heart sinks. The radiologist explains to us that something does not look right with BG2's left foot. At that time (20weeks) BG2's left foot was turned slightly inward and might be considered a club foot. It wasn't drastic but it was something that had caught the eye of the tech, and they wanted to do a follow up with the high risk doc in a few weeks. I could tell she was trying to sugar coat the whole situation, which I understood because she doesn't know mine or my hubby's personality. She doesn't know we are very realistic people and would rather her just tell us point blank what's going on. So my hubby shows her who we really are and asks, "Will the baby be able to walk? Or will she be disabled her whole life?" BOOM! My exact thoughts, but apparently my mouth hadn't caught up to my brain process as fast as his did. The radiologist explains there is no way to possibly know the severity until BG2 is born. I think at this point both mine and hubby's heads are swimming with scenarios so we just thanked the radiologist and the tech and walked out dazed and confused. We had walked into that ultrasound room happy go lucky talking about gender, names and nursery colors and we were walking out wondering if our child would ever be able to walk or run or play sports.
The next 8 weeks suck. The high risk doc wanted to wait to see baby because she wanted the foot to be more developed. She didn't want it to be guess work to see if the foot was club or not. She wanted it to be black or white. Yes or no. And even though those 8 weeks SUCKED, I understood and appreciated why she wanted to wait. I tried not to, but I went online everyday searching for websites about club feet. There is a broad spectrum. Some scare the bejeesus out of you with pictures of crazily contorted feet, to the point where they don't even look like human feet, but then others show children running, laughing and playing as if they never had the abnormality in the first place.
28weeks and we're again sitting in an ultrasound room but this time with the high risk doc at the naval hospital. She explains to us that although the referral says she's only to take a closer look at the foot she is going to do an extensive full body scan of the baby. There are other physical abnormalities that can be associated with club foot and she wants to rule any of those out. She was great. She walked us through each body part and why it looked absolutely perfect. Baby's brain looked perfectly developed, skull was perfectly shaped, facial bones were where they should be; arms, hands fingers...perfect, perfect perfect. Then we got to the feet. She said hip joints, femurs and tibia/fibula looked good but once she got the ankle of the left foot she had to confirm the original diagnosis. Hubby and I had already prepared ourselves for it. We had read a lot about club feet online and sometimes if its slight it will correct itself in-utero, but like I said earlier we aren't the rosy colored glasses types. We would both rather prepare for the worst and if the outcome is better than expected then great, but if not then we're not devastated. She zoomed in and showed us exactly why they were diagnosing BG2 with a club foot, instead of just confirming the diagnosis and sending us on our way. She showed us where the foot and ankle turned inward. She did throw us a bit of a curve ball when she looked at the right foot. She said it *might* also be club, but not as severe as the left. But she also assured us that it could just be how BG2 had her ankle squished funny in my belly. She explained that she would rather put in our file that both feet need to be examined after birth so as to not ignore a potential problem. Again, with hubby and I being very realistic people we agreed with her and greatly appreciated her thoroughness.
So once we left the high risk doc's office hubby and I were still a little dumbfounded. 8 weeks ago we had walked into the ultrasound room with not a care in the world. We walked out not knowing whether our child would ever walk. We left the second ultrasound a little more educated, but there was, and still is, a lot that is unknown to us. We've assured ourselves that unless her left foot is in the crazy .000001%, any abnormality can be corrected with some form of therapy. But for now it's all a waiting game. Waiting for her to actually get here, but also waiting to see what the next few months and years will have in store for us.
