It's been a long week...

First off, Riley has been pretty sick. On Monday, he went to the Dr. and he has bronchitis . . . so much for not getting sick in the summer! I thought when it was warm outside we'd get a break for a while. :-) The joys of being a nurse I guess. Luckily, the Dr. did prescribe some great meds, so he is on the mend, I'm guessing the nasty cough will linger for just a little while longer.

The second part of our long week started when I was 20 weeks pregnant. At the 20 week ultrasound, we found that Sam's kidneys were both mildly dilated. We were told that this finding is fairly common, especially in boys, and that we would have a follow-up ultrasound at 32 weeks to make sure that it had corrected itself. So, for the next twelve weeks I worried about it but tried to stay optimistic and hoped that it was a small glitch that would correct itself.

Fast forward to this week. . . On Monday, we went in for the 32 week ultrasound. My Dr.'s office got a new 3D ultrasound, so we got to see Sam in 3D and it was pretty neat. The ultrasound was quick, and everything looked great. . . except his kidneys. One is very mildly dilated (good news), but one was close to 3 times what is considered normal. The ultrasound tech told us that she'd let the Dr. see the Ultrasound and we'd hear more at my regular Dr. appointment on Wednesday. I, of course, was getting pretty worried.

Later that day, the nurse from my Dr.'s office called and told me that she had made an appointment for me at Maternal Fetal Medicine for Tuesday (the next day). She also informed me that the MFM specialists usually work in worst case scenario, so be prepared to be scared! After I got off the phone, I lost it. I had been nervous about the situation, but now I was totally freaked out! Riley was so great about everything (I am continually reminded how lucky I am to have him!)--he took me to dinner and a movie to try to keep my mind off of things. Also, we did our fair share of internet research that night (in typical Riley and Nicole fashion) to find out what we might be hearing at the appointment. There was quite a bit of info on the internet, as well as lots of moms on message boards wondering some of the exact same things as me.

Going into the appointment on Tuesday, I had no idea what to expect. When they called me back, I was taken into yet another ultrasound room. Despite all the worries, it is always fun to see your baby. He moved and rolled around A LOT at this appointment, apparently he wanted some privacy. The ultrasound tech did a very thorough ultrasound (despite my near fainting...LOL...the stress was getting to me!) and again, everything looked great except for the kidneys, which looked just about identical to the day before. When the specialist came in to talk to us, she showed us that the left kidney and ureter were much bigger than normal (you shouldn't even see a ureter on an ultrasound), and that she suspects a blockage somewhere between the kidney and bladder, although the blockage wasn't apparent by ultrasound. She thinks the right kidney is mildly dilated to compensate for the left, but the good news is, my amniotic fluid looks great, so the kidneys are still doing their job and, no treatment is needed until after birth! Also, she was very optimistic that no long term damage has been done to his kidneys.

The specialist was so great! Apparently, I got the nicer, less scary one. I'm so glad that we had done our research beforehand so that she couldn't really scare us (some of the things we had read online were much scarier than anything she told us!) and we already had a pretty good idea of what was coming up. Current diagnosis: fetal hydronephrosis.

Best case scenario, it will resolve itself after birth, but he will need to be on antibiotics at birth to prevent any UTI's that might result from extra fluid backed up in his system. We will also need to meet with a pediatric urologist after he's born to see if everything is working properly. If it is a blockage that doesn't clear itself up, he will probably need to have a scope to find the problem and/or a surgical procedure to fix the problem. In any case, I am SOOO glad that we have insurance. :-)

It's sad to think that my tiny little baby will need to have any type of procedure done to him, but I am so glad that everything else looks great with him, and that this is going to be a minor issue that we can deal with while he's still very little. After the mental/emotional roller coaster, I am glad to have some answers and can again feel optimistic about the situation.

Only 7 1/2 weeks until we meet our little guy! (I need to scan in some Ultrasound pics to share, I'll get around to it sometime this weekend!)