Day 30

My big goal is 58 days away (32 weeks)! 

Found in my morning devotions today:
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  John 15:7
This scripture has really spoken to me because the closer I am to God and the more His word takes over my thoughts (what I mean by that is when my flesh begins to go down a path that is not of the Lord there is a prompting by the Holy Spirit and God's word can change my heart, right then.  It's amazing.) the more my desire is His will.  Lord I do desire to raise this child for You, to know You and to love You, I pray this is Your will.  Amen.

I feel so blessed today, there is a great group of mom's that I found on the internet that all have babies with "O's" and they are amazing families and these babies are fighters!  I have been in contact with them for a few months now and they really are an encouragement for me.

I received my first steroid shot today to help mature the babies lungs, it wasn't too bad really.  I guess a side effect of being in the hospital is becoming use to being poked, lol.  To be honest they have to keep a 16 gauge IV catheter in me because of my risk of bleeding and that is a big ol' needle and those hurt worse than these shots.  I refuse to think it's because the longer I am on bed rest (5 months now) the squishier I become.

Also I spoke with the Pediatric Surgeon last night and he really was a nice and informative man.  I have read a lot about "O's" (of course I am no expert) and I was hoping they used a certain type of closure method here called the paint and wait method.  They do and actually prefers it, he has seen a lot of "O" babies in the many years he has been here and he is the most pleased with the outcome of these patients with babies with giant "O's" and that is what our baby has.  As you can probably tell by the name of it the surgery is not performed right away.  They cover the "O" with a salve and wrap it in gauze and then place a pressure wrap over the defect to slowly get it to go back in.  Then it is covered with a protective cover until it grows normal skin over it.  Then it's only the pressure wrap, I believe.  This continues until the defect if flat with the abdomen, then he continues to watch it.  He said surgery usually happens close to the 2 year mark.  The reason that he waits so long is he has had the best outcome with waiting.  "O" babies tend to be small babies and they can have a thin ribcage, if you close the defect up too soon then it can actually restrict the ribcage even more.  He waits it out to allow the body to adapt and grow to it's full potential before closing it up.  I ask what life would be like in that 2 year time period.  Is swimming out of the question, etc. he said there really is no restrictions (once the skin has covered it) as long as the "O" is covered.  I was very pleased.  He also confirmed for me that the defect really doesn't have an impact on the baby as far as the baby knows everything is fine.  This again is if the "O" is an isolated occurrence.  That waiting has no effect of quality of life.  He did say that 28 weeks would be his first goal for me, I said ok, but I am going to make it to at least 32 weeks, he smiled and said great, lol. 

Thank you all for your prayers! 

I really don't mind writing but I am so not a gifted writer.  I graduated without true grammar understanding, lol.  So I am sure I will be placing commas in the wrong spot, and I know I have run on sentences, but that is how I talk and I think we should write how we talk.  My Grandmother would not agree with that, lol.  I have a math brain what can I say.  So that was just a heads up warning, lol.