Update

Today's appointment was a laboring 3 hours long...

We'll start with the good news...
Baby b continues to grow slowly enough that she is not causing harm to Summer. In fact, my risk for pre-term labor has gone waaaaay down! The cardiologist came in and checked every detail of Summer's heart for 45 minutes - everything looked good. Summer was squirming around quite a bit so she does want me to come back at 28 weeks for another fetal echocardiogram but everything looked good so far - no stress, no fluid, no signs of heart failure.

Then the doctor came in and did a level II ultrasound checking all the other details on Summer - her hands, her toes, every organ, every bone. It's amazing all the things you can see nowadays. For the most part, she looks great. She is measuring at 20 weeks which is exactly where she should be.

And the roller coaster continues....the doctor did find a pocket of fluid on Summer's brain. This could mean anything and could mean nothing all at the same time. It is a sign for several trisomies including Trisomy 18 which pretty much means she would not live past 24 hours after delivery. That's worst case scenario. There are typically other markers for Trisomy 18 - one of them is having heart issues which Summer does not have. The other ones will be assessed around 30 weeks. The pocket of fluid could be a sign of other other trisomies too but it could also be something that disappears on its own - so of course the later is the prayer request. It has nothing to do with brain function itself (ie doesn't cause brain damage) and is more indicative of a trisomy. (FYI a trisomy is when there is a 3rd chromosome in your cells where there should only be two. For example, Down syndrome is also called Trisomy 21 because individuals with Down syndrome have 3 copies of the 21st chromosome in each of their cells instead of 2.)

So...good news overall! Thanks for your prayers and your support! Keep them coming! :) While we are still riding the roller coaster, we are feeling good about where we are headed!

love jenni and paul