Busy Busy Week!

Sooo, this week has been so busy!  We had unexpected visits from family and trips to hospitals and a bit of a move around in our house.

On Monday we went to Great Ormond Street Childrens Hospital for a Fetal Echo.  The Echo confirmed our consultants suspicions that our little baby does have HLHS.  It brought it home a bit, but I think we had dealt with the initial shock over the weekend, so we were able to ask the cardiologist all the questions we had thought of.
The cardiologist we met with is Dr Sullivan and he was great.  Very impartial and answered all our questions openly.  He explained the operations and process that we would enter in to once our baby is born.
We have decided that we will be going for it with our little baby.  We understand fully that once she is born she will be assessed to see how well she is.  Whilst we are being positive and hoping for the best, and for her to be well enough for surgery, we are also being realistic and understanding that should she be very poorly when she is born, we will do all we can to make sure she is not in any pain and we will let her go.
It's a sad situation to be in, but we are going to keep smiling because, it is what it is and somehow we will cope and get through whatever happens.  We have each other and our families for support.
We did talk about terminating, to be honest, at first we both thought that would be for the best, but then we didn't think we could live with the 'what if...' thoughts.  Also, when we realised that I would still have to go through labour and give birth, it seemed wrong to think that we would go through that for it to be the end and for there to be no chance.... If that makes any sense? :-)

Today we met with Mr Lumb again at our local hospital in Peterborough and told him about our decision.  He has assured us he will do all he can to support us and help us through this.  We will be getting more scans so that the little baby can be monitored and to make sure she is growing well.  He offered to scan us this afternoon!!! I was all for this (the chance to see our gorgeous baby!!) but Ian said we should wait a few weeks as we did only just see her last week so nothing much will have changed..... Spoil sport (but I do see his point!).
So we have a scan booked for mid January to have a little peek and see how she is doing.  At this point also, if Mr Lumb notices any markers for any further problems we may have amniocentesis test carried out, as we feel should there be further problems we would like to be prepared, however, the Nuchal scan we had combined with my maternal serum tests, would indicate there will be no problems (i.e. chromosomal) further to the HLHS.

Other than hospital visits we have been putting up our Christmas Tree (at last) and doing bits around the house together.  It was lovely to see my mum and sister and my little niece who traveled up from Cornwall to visit us.  We're looking forward to Christmas and I am trying to get back in to feeling excited about being pregnant. I'm sure as I get bigger and we hopefully get more reassurance about what will happen as our little one starts to get ready for her grand entrance I will begin to feel better!

Oh and we decided on a name.... The blog name kinda gives it away, but she will be called Emily Rose :-)

Thank you to everyone that has clicked the follow button and to those who are taking the time to read, I have been reading a few HLHS blogs and that is what inspired me to start our own!  I've been overwhelmed by how much hope there is when you do look, but thank you all for coming here and supporting us. xxx