The News

"I hate to be the one to tell you this, but your baby boy isn't doing well. He's very sick."

It's something no parent ever wants to hear a doctor say, but it's what we heard today.

Just a week and a half ago, we went in for a routine anatomy scan at our regular OB's office. There, Baby Boy looked perfect. He was wiggling and squirming around. No concerns at all. 

In fact, Dr. Griffin said, "It looks like this is going to be a normal pregnancy just like Madelyn."

What changed in a week and a half? How could things have turned upside down so fast? Here's what happened.

Dr. Griffin scheduled me for a one-time visit with a Maternal Care Specialist, Dr. Brewer, in Tupelo. It's standard. She sends all patients over 35 years old this route just to get his quick nod of approval and sign-off. We didn't expect to be there for more than 30 minutes. 

The ultrasound tech was very quiet as she scanned my belly. She left and later returned with the Dr. Brewer, who took his turn checking on Baby Boy. Then they both left. Finally, he returned with a grim look on his face. 

My heart sank and he delivered the news.

Overall, he's "structurally and anatomically perfect." Ten fingers. Ten toes. Perfect heartbeat. Normal brain waves. No deformities or abnormalities. But there's fluid all over him—and lots of it.

They call it Non-Immune Fetal Hydrops.

He has ascites (fluid around his abdomen), pleural effusions (fluid around his lungs), pericardial effusions (fluid around his heart), and edema (fluid between his scalp and skull).

After reviewing the texts and my last ultrasound, what he couldn't figure out was how, all of a sudden, this had happened. 

At my last ultrasound with Dr. Griffin, Baby Boy weighed a healthy 10 ounces. But today, he weighed 1 lb and 3 oz, so he'd gained a lot in fluid in such a short time.

Of course, we wanted to know what could be done about this, but the outlook doesn't look good.

Hydrops is a symptom of an underlying issue that could be caused by any number of things—from infection to genetic issues to who knows what (about 20% of babies wind up here). 

The most devastating part is that the mortality rate is between 75-80%.

Dr. Brewer immediately referred us to a tertiary hospital and made an appointment at the Maternal Fetal Medical Center in Jackson for tomorrow. They have more resources and can take better care of us there. 

We're in total shock and super emotional. It's not something you ever expect to happen to you. But here we are. Even in the midst of this devastating news, we'll trust the One who created this Baby Boy.