Sadly, Not All Baby News is Good News

This is a hard post to write.

Baby Kurth might be in trouble, and we ask for your prayers.  Last week I had a sonogram to check on a “non-worrisome abnormality” that the doctor found during a routine sonogram at my regular visit.  They sent me to a place where they specialize in ultrasounds to get a closer look.  Apparently the abnormality is no longer “non-worrisome”.  Basically, the baby has some fluid backing up in his/her abdomen, which the doctors find alarming.  They also discovered that the umbilical cord only has one artery, as opposed to two.  The single-artery umbilical by itself is usually not a big deal, but in conjunction with other abnormalities it is a bad sign.  There are many possible reasons for the fluid, but it seems like the two most likely would be a heart defect or genetic defect (or both).  The fact that we are seeing this backup of fluid this early in the pregnancy concerns the doctors a great deal.  They want me to come back next week to take a closer look, which may give them more information as the baby develops.  This is probably a sign of things to come — that they will want to closely monitor the growth of the baby from here on out, particularly the heart and the fluid buildup.

Needless to say, we are worried.  Especially with the doctors throwing out terms like “severe chromosonal anomalies”, “trisomy 18”, “down syndrome”, and “might not make it to term”…. But since freaking out would do little good at this point, we are trying to “K-I-T” (as we tell our children) — “keep it together”.  The good news of the sonogram is that the baby is growing well and has a strong heartbeat.  No matter what happens, this baby is a blessing from God that we will cherish always.

So we are trying to distract ourselves and not think about it.  Not in denial, but just in an effort to keep our sanity.  And we are trying to focus on the good news.  Not in the way of false hopes, but remembering the great hope that we do have.  And we are so incredibly thankful for all that God has blessed us with, because it is already so much more than we could ever dream possible.

We went back and forth about whether to post this now, or wait until we know something more. But as you can see, we decided to share the news now; partly in case the news is even worse next time, and partly in case it’s really good next time.  In either case, it’s likely to get more intense.  It makes it slightly easier knowing that our friends and family are aware of what we are going through.  Please pray for our sweet baby.  And give your own babies lots of hugs and kisses.

Lastly, here are the pictures taken at that sonogram-of-doom (they’re actually very cute, I think):