22/23 weeks

Our 22nd week of growing baby girl wasn't exactly one that we had expected. We received a phone call from the nurse explaining to us that at our last ultrasound (at 20 weeks) they had found a cyst on the baby's umbilical cord, so they wanted us to go in for a level 2 ultrasound to check things out in better detail so we could determine if further special care would be necessary for the remainder of the pregnancy. Our follow-up ultrasound was scheduled for the morning where baby would be 22 weeks, 4 days old. When we arrived at the clinic we were informed that we had actually been MIS-informed about why we were having a second ultrasound. The cysts that were found were not actually on baby's umbilical cord, but rather they were located in her brain--a great, and even more nerve-racking surprise to us! We still aren't sure how they mixed the two locations up, but either way we were already there and the follow-up ultrasound was still necessary. Brain cysts that do not go away during pregnancy usually point to chromosomal abnormalities such as Down's Syndrome, but when we received negative results back from testing for these abnormalities over a month prior, we were not too concerned that this was the case for her. But most cysts that are found during pregnancy dissolve and disappear before baby is born without any complications. We are still awaiting the results from this past Tuesday's ultrasound, but as the tech told us, we would not have left the clinic if they had seen something still there. We are also hopeful that if they cysts were still present in her brain, that they would have contacted us in a much quicker manner. We will definitely keep you updated once we know more, and your prayers would be greatly appreciated :)

On a more positive note, having another ultrasound meant getting to see our little girl again. It was crazy how much bigger she already was after 2 1/2 weeks, and she was all about putting on a show for us! She spent the majority of the time sucking her thumb with one hand and playing with the umbilical cord in the other. She was also poking herself in the eye at one point (taking after daddy I'm guessing!) and waving to us with each of her little fingers. Everything looked perfect and she even weighed in at 1 pound 3 ounces, so she's growing right on track! So here are a few more pictures of her to enjoy, as well as another growing-belly pic!

sucking her thumb!

her little foot!

her little nose & lips!