Doctor's Visit

We just got in from the doctor's appointment with Prenatal Wellness. We saw a doctor and were able to get all of our questions answered. Our doctor was very understanding and was able to give us a little more peace about how everything will happen on Tuesday morning.

After my check up he said that I have not progressed any, so we should be on schedule for the induction on Tuesday. He did give me numbers to call if I do go into labor over the weekend, but he seems to think that we are safe to plan on Tuesday morning at this point. 

We found out a little more about delivery and the process that Mac will go through for stabilization. He said that I should get to hold him briefly while they clean him up and cut the cord. Then he will be whisked into the room next door where we can watch through the window as they get him stabilized. After he is stabilized, mom, dad, and Harlie will get their first look at him as he is taken to PCICU. The plan is PCICU unless he has any other unexpected complications. Vince will get to travel with him wherever he goes in the beginning. I am sure he will be keeping us updated and taking lots of pictures. 

I am so glad that we were able to come on down and meet with a doctor down here one more time before our induction. I am feeling much more prepared and at peace about the entire situation. 

Our focus now is to just rest and wait for Tuesday morning. Please pray for our family as we try to wait patiently for the next 4 days to pass. Please pray for a healthy baby and mom at that time. Please pray for the rest of our family as we are all under tremendous stress in this situation. Please pray for all of the doctors, nurses, residents, and interns that we encounter along the way. There are many important decisions to be made and we are praying that all of those involved we be making decisions under the Lord's anointing. We trust that God is in control and that his plan is perfect. We appreciate your continued prayers and support. We love you all! 

Waiting on Mac!

This afternoon I am appreciating the time that we have had to get better acquainted with our new surroundings. Vince and I have never spent any time in this area, so we are having to learn our way around. We have spent the last two days resting and doing a little exploration. Wednesday our mission was to find our way back to the hospital and locate a grocery store that would be close by if we needed anything. Our trip to the hospital was quite interesting. We made several additional loops around one way streets and eventually made it. We noted our errors in preparation for another practice run today. We also found out that we are one block from Target and Piggly Wiggly. I am so glad that we have somewhere so close to the house.

Today's mission was to navigate our way directly to the hospital without any additional turns or loops. We did it! We were able to drive directly from the CrossBridge house to the hospital and never made a wrong turn! This may sound like a small victory, but we felt very proud when all was said and done. We also found a better route to get home. 

Tomorrow morning we have our first Maternal Fetal Medicine appointment here in Charleston. We will be meeting with a doctor to have a final NST/BPP and discuss final plans for Tuesday. I will update after the appointment to let everyone know if anything changes. Our current plan is still to wait and see if Mac decides to make his entrance before induction on Tuesday morning. 

I am most anxious to get Harlie down here tomorrow! I miss her kisses, hugs, and constant chatter. She is very excited about meeting the girls who are staying in the house with us. Please pray for both of the families that are staying here at the house. It has been a blessing to be able to talk with them about their experiences, but it also breaks my heart to see other families dealing with sick children. Please lift them up along with our sweet baby boy. 

We Are Here!

Last night I did the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life. Getting into my car and smiling as I waved goodbye to Harlie broke my heart. We no sooner made it out of the driveway, and the sobbing began. Poor Vince. I know he is just as broken as I am, but he is the glue that God uses to hold me together at times like this. I know that we are doing what is best for her. I know that she is far better off in the upstate and that Grannie, Papa, my Wren Family, friends, and neighbors will take excellent care of her. I know that she will be loved. I know that she will be happy. I still fight the part of me that selfishly wants her here with us.

One thing I am glad of is that we made the decision to give Harlie her own special phone for calling us whenever she wanted to talk. She and I spoke about 10 or 15 times during our drive down. Yes, we had to discuss very important issues like packing lunch and going to sleep with her hair wet. I listened to her work on her homework and it did make things a little easier. Being able to answer questions and hear her doing her thing helped me realize that she is nowhere near as broken by this as I am. She is confident and amazingly understands, by the grace of God, that we do not want to be doing this. 

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful support system in place. I cannot imagine what it would be like if we did not have the family and friends we do praying and offering support from every area of our lives. 

When we arrived here we were greeted with smiles and hugs by our new "Charleston Family." Dossie and several of the house guests were here and ready to lend a hand getting our things unloaded and into our room. The house we are staying in is very nice. We are here with two other families who have children receiving treatment at MUSC. I don't want to share much about their situations because I respect their privacy. I will say though that it is amazing to be able to walk into a situation like this and be surrounded by people who know the emotions that you are feeling. We bonded immediately. I feel like I have known our new friends for years and we have only spoken for a few minutes. 

An added bonus was the giant Clemson Tiger paw and GO TIGERS! painted on the wall of our room. It brought smiles and laughs when Dossie uncovered it. Evidently some of the practical jokers from her church who did the painting in our room are Clemson fans and enjoyed a little extra fun in adding this piece of art to our room, which is otherwise "Charleston" themed. They had no idea that we are Tiger fans and that even my classroom decor is Clemson. Some may see this as silly, but I see it as a small way that God is reminding me that He is in control of even the most minor details of this whole situation. Can you imagine if we had walked in to a giant Gamecock on the wall? Boy, wouldn't that have been a let down... ;) I am just kidding Gamecock fans. You know I love you! I am just glad to find some lighthearted fun in the midst of such a difficult time in our life.

I am so grateful to the volunteers at CrossBridge for their support. Having a place to go and people to pray and support us down here is amazing!

This morning, as I have for the past few weeks, I cannot sleep. I am sure Mac is preparing me for his early morning times that we are going to share together. I can't wait! I look forward to those precious moments when the two of us get to snuggle up together and rock. I can't wait to hold him in my arms and touch his sweet little face. The anticipation of his arrival has been somewhat clouded with the prospect of surgery, but I know that God is in control, so I wait with anticipation for my prayers and the prayers of many of you to be answered. I wait to be able to share his story of how God healed this precious baby boy. I wait to be able to take him home and be a family of four! 

Please continue to pray for our family's spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health as we continue to walk in faith. Please pray specifically for Mac's healing and that we will be able to take our healthy baby boy home from Charleston soon so that he can meet all of you! We appreciate all of the prayers more than you know. We feel the peace of the Holy Spirit as we are lifted up by each of you. Your words of encouragement also mean so much. We love you all and are praying for you too. 

Change of Plans

As with everything in life, we are keeping things interesting at the Wilson house. Today I went for my final NST at Highlands expecting to be sent home as usual and return on Thursday for our final BPP. When Mac did a fantastic job during the NST with his movements and heart rate the doctor and nurse were impressed. When the doctor came in the room to listen one more time to his heart rate she had a change of heart. She said that his heart rate had slowed considerably and she wanted to have me head over to the hospital for about an hour of monitoring. His heart rate looked great and he was responding well, but because I have begun the process of labor the doctors said that it is time for us to head to Charleston. 

We are not wanting to go early, but respect what the doctors are telling us and want to be sure that we are doing everything possible to ensure that Mac is safe on delivery. I will be seeing my MFM specialist one more time tomorrow morning after taking Harlie to school. We will then determine if we need to leave immediately for Charleston or head down after dinner. We have already spoken with Crossbridge and have a place to stay when we arrive. We are so grateful for their flexibility. They are such a blessing. 

With all of that said, we ask for your prayers for our entire family. My parents are being thrown into action almost a week sooner than planned, and Harlie is not very excited about the fact that she is being left behind. Our plan had included her being down there with us our first few nights. We have assured her that we will find a way for her to make it down this Friday. Vince and I are struggling with leaving her behind while feeling like we are making the right decision to go ahead and get down there. We also ask that you pray most of all for Mac's healing. We believe that God has a plan for this precious baby boy and we can't wait to see what he has in store. 

I will be updating our blog as often as possible from this point forward. I will have Vince post pics as soon as we have them. Please feel free to share our link with anyone who will be praying for Mac. We need all the prayers we can get. 

We love you all and will update you soon!

The Verdict Is In!

Today we had our final appointment with our maternal fetal medicine and pediatric cardiologist. We have been anxiously awaiting this visit because there has been some confusion based on our OB visits. Being in a rotation with so many different OBs, who are not planning to deliver our baby, has become very complicated. I am now going twice a week for a biophysical profile and non stress test. At each visit I see a different doctor, and varied opinions about what our family should do. Several doctors felt that we should be down at MUSC a week or two early, while others said we would be fine to stay in the upstate and go down on August 30th. Being more emotional than usual and hearing such a varied pool of advice has really increased anxiety over the past couple of weeks.
Vince and I have been trying to make sense of this situation and figure out what to do with all of this advice. We decided to wait until today and talk with Dr. Greig and Dr. Horne. We decided that whatever they suggested would be the plan we would follow.
During the ultrasound we found out that Mac has FINALLY turned. He was breech as of last week when we had our BPP. I was concerned because if he is breech, then we will automatically have to have a c-section. This is something we are hoping to avoid. We also got a chance to see how he is measuring up. Overall, he is in the 80th percentile for size and has continued to grow consistently. He is already a whopping 7 pounds 3 ounces. Our doctors hope that his size will equate to strength as he recovers from surgery.
Dr. Horne was pleased with the growth of the left side of the heart. He said that he is not seeing any turbulence from the mitral valve which is a good sign that the valve is growing and is big enough. He also said that he is seeing good strong pumping and flow. He said it sounds good too. He told us that he is 75% sure that we are looking at the one time surgery for DORV-TGA. We were not happy to hear that the arteries did look transposed again today. He said that they are side by side which usually means transposition. We are praying that they will be able to patch directly from the aorta to the left ventricle. If they can, then we will not have to do the arterial switch procedure!
After the ultrasound, we proceeded to barrage the doctors with all of our questions. They both told us that our plan to stay in Greenville until the 30th was the best plan for our family. Dr. Horne told us that Mac's defect is not one that would require immediate action at MUSC so we would be fine to stabilize him here in Greenville, and when we BOTH are ready we could be transported TOGETHER to MUSC!!! This relieved so much stress about the possibility of delivering in Greenville.
So the plan is now official. Our bags are packed and we are planning to enjoy the next 2 1/2 weeks here at home with our family, friends, and my fantastic first graders! We will then enjoy one more weekend as a family of 3 in Charleston before Baby Mac makes his appearance on September 3rd.

Precious Moments

Each night bedtime is a special time at our house. Unlike many families we choose to  snuggle our girl to sleep at night. Those times lying there after bedtime prayers are often filled with some of the best conversations with her. I had to share last night's conversation if for no other reason than to help myself remember. 

One of the biggest struggles I am having as we prepare for our trip to MUSC is leaving Harlie behind. I know that this is the best situation for her, and I am so grateful that my parents are turning their lives upside down to be there for her when she needs them most. I know that my WES family will take extra good care of her at school, and she will be able to continue her life as much like normal as possible. I just think of the little things like our times talking at bedtime and it breaks my heart. 

Last night as we were lying there I told her that I sure was going to miss these times while we were in Charleston. She told me that she was going to miss it to. I reminded her that Grannie would be taking over my snuggling duties. She said, "If I change my sheets I think Papa will like my bed." I asked her were she was going to sleep, and she replied, "I will sleep in your bed with Grannie. It won't smell like you guys though." Our daughter has a nose like no other. She is always telling us about the smells she connects with places and people. We talked for a few minutes about our plan for her to be traveling down for the important days like the day he is born and his surgery. We then talked a little abut her weekend visits after surgery. She seemed to be ok with a few days here and a few days there.

Then she said, "Mommy I am nervous." I was expecting her to tell me that she didn't want us to leave her and that she was nervous about staying here with Grannie and Papa. I was not prepared for what she said next. "I am nervous that I won't get to see and hold my baby brother. I want to see him and hold him." 

I reminded her that we are going to do everything in our power to see to it that she gets to see Mac as soon as he is born and that we will do our best to get the nurses to let her hold him. We reminded her that it is out of our control because the nurses have to do what is best for Mac.

As much as I try to prepare her and ensure that she is comfortable with the arrangements we are making, she never ceases to amaze me with the things that matter most to her. I am so proud of the young lady that she is. Mac is blessed to have a big sister who is already in love with him. A big sister who prays for his healing multiple times throughout the day every day. Vince and I are so blessed to have such a thoughtful caring little lady. 

I love that beautiful girl! 

Harlie's Ears

On the heels of yesterday's wonderful news I must ask you to lift up our sweet girl in prayer. This morning she had an ENT appointment to follow up on a ruptured eardrum this spring. Dr. Brown said her right ear looked, "Happy, Happy, Happy." The left ear though was not. He said that at some point Harlie's left eardrum had been infected by a specific bacteria that eats away at the eardrum. He told us that the hole was so large that it probably would not heal in it's own. He told us we would need to schedule an appointment with their ear specialist to talk about repairing the damage. After sharing with him about our very unpredictable fall schedule, he was kind enough to go and talk with the specialist to see If he could go ahead and see us today. To my surprise the specialist came right to our room so that we were able to take care of the planning in one quick visit. 

Dr. Rampey took a look at her ear and said that 45% of her left eardrum is missing. He told us that surgery was necessary and that he would have his scheduler call me ASAP to get her in before we have to go to MUSC. The blessing in all of this is that the hole is on the back of her eardrum. This was a good thing because he said that he could do the surgery within the ear canal. Otherwise they would have had to lift the ear from the back and then reattach it. The only incision they have to make now is a small one just above her hairline to take a small bit of tissue for the patch they will be pacing on the eardrum.  

Please pray for Harlie. She is handling the news like a champ. We explained that she will be asleep the whole time, and that we will be there when she wakes up. She seems to be a little nervous but otherwise she hasn't let it get her down. We a blessed to have such an amazing daughter!