#ourtaquito-- Winnie the warrior

 Hi All,

I had my weekly ultrasound for them to check my doppler and fluid levels. My doppler levels are still a little elevated but we are still planning to induce in May. We have scheduled our date to be induced as long as my levels do not rise any higher, we will stick to the plan. We will be going in the night of May 10th to start the inducing process and deliver on the 11th. I will be about 38 weeks when Winnie makes her arrival. We also had a followup meeting with our medical team to create a birth plan so everyone who works with us is on the same page. Our team is very supportive and helpful in helping us feel as prepared as we can for delivery. 

We have a mix of emotions as we near our delivery date. At the start of this we did not think we would even make it this far. It goes to show how much of a fighter our girl is. Though we do not know what the future holds, we cannot not wait to meet our Winnie. We are so grateful for all the love and support we have received from family and friends, words can never describe how much it means to us.

I will continue to get weekly ultrasounds until the week of May 10th, which will be here before we know it!

Much love,

A, C, & W

#ourtaquito--Winnie the warrior

 Weekly ultrasound update--

I had my weekly ultrasound done on Monday. Fluid levels are still normal but my doppler levels were elevated. If you are like us then you have no idea what this means. The umbilical artery doppler measures the amount of resistance in the placenta by comparing how much flow occurs during contraction and relaxation of my circulation. What this means for me--- right now it is okay but they will compare it to numbers I get next week. If my levels keep rising I might have to deliver earlier than expected. Praying my levels don't rise, I want to keep baby girl safe in my belly as long as I can and give her a chance to keep growing.

Our Winnie girl is the wiggle Queen, especially during ultrasounds but this time she sat still for a little bit so we could get some pictures!

We think she has Cory's lips..We've got a mini Cory 💕

Much Love,

A, C, & W

#ourtaquito--Winnie the Warrior

 Hi All,

We had our second fetal echo and medical meeting last Friday. I wish I could be giving better news but we were overwhelmed with so much new information that we are still trying to digest. I will try my best to convey what we learned. Winnie's heart is more complex than we thought. She still has the thicker walls on the right ventricle, hole, and a narrowing aortic valve. The hole is causing oxygenated and deoxygenated blood to mix, not making it to its proper channels and the narrowing of her valve will cause turbulence for the blood getting to the lungs. If we decide to intervene after birth she would would have to be taken to the NICU immediately and started on an intensive medication through an IV to try and get the blood to go where its supposed to go.  They would then wait to make sure she's stable and then move onto a different intervention. This intervention would mean she could be in the NICU for several months. Though every trisomy 18 baby is different, the last baby they did this treatment with was in the NICU for 8-9 months. Aside from her heart our little girl has some cards stacked up against her because of  trisomy 18. Her small size, she is 2 lbs 10 oz and projected to weigh 3.5 lbs when she is born, impacts her body regulation. She will have difficulty regulating her temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar, and calorie intake. Another symptom of trisomy 18 is having a small lower jaw and they are seeing this on the ultrasounds. The reason having a small lower jaw is an issue is because her tongue will still be average size but will be enlarged because her jaw is smaller. This causes issues with her ability to eat and breathe. Trisomy 18 also causes severe cognitive delays and effects the base of the brain which controls automatic responses. Her brain could forget to tell her to breath and she could have episodes of holding her breath. 

The other part of our meeting was discussing the different paths we can take when she is born. The team really listened to us and what we value and our priorities when it comes to proving the best quality of life for our Winnie girl. The two different options are comfort care or intervention care. For intervention care, as I mentioned she would be taken to the NICU as soon as she is born to get started on the medication for her heart. Right now we don't know what other interventions she might need and we wont know until she is born. The other option is comfort care. Comfort care means they would take Winnie's lead and provide what she needs but in a noninvasive way, this could be giving oxygen or feeding her. There is a possibility of still being able to bring her home on comfort care and we would work with an outpatient team who would come to us once of twice a week to evaluate her.

To say the least it was a very overwhelming day for us. There is still a possibility that she could pass away in utero or during delivery. We will never know how much time we will get with her but we are so hopeful that we will be able to meet her and hopefully have family meet her as well. I wish I could keep her safe in my belly forever but we also just want to meet and be with our Winnie girl.

The plan is to still induce me at 37 weeks which is the first week of May. We do not have an exact day scheduled yet but plan to have it picked by this week.

We appreciate the continued support and prayers from our family and friends.

A 3D of our sweet sweet Winnie

Much Love,

A, C, & W

#ourtaquito--Winnie the Warrior

 Mini Update

Hi All,

I had an ultrasound on Thursday, my placenta and fluid levels are all good. This is good because the longer she can stay in me the more she can grow. As long as my fluid levels and placenta continue to stay good, I will get induced at 37 weeks which would be the first week of May. She was wiggling around a bunch during the ultra sound but we were able to get some more ultrasounds pictures.  

Our girl 

Her tiny foot

Thank you for your continued support and prayers. I will try and have the updates posted by Sunday since our appointments are usually later in the week. We have another fetal echo next week and we will be meeting with the medical team to give us insight on what delivery day will look like. 

Much Love,

A, C, & W