Baby Grace Update - June 30

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for your prayers as we continue through this pregnancy. I've lost track of the doctor's visits over the last month but the receptionists recognize us by face and know our names! It has been a little while since the last email and that is actually good news!

We just got back from our fourth fetal echocardiogram and things continue to look positive. It is a reality that Grace has complete heart block. On one echo, our second one, there appeared to be some connection between the upper and lower chambers of the heart but that has not been seen the last two echos. That aside, everything else seems good.

Grace is at about 1.5 pounds and is exactly the size she should be for her age. We are at 24 weeks now. Also, all other development including the heart looks good. They were concerned that this arrhythmia could cause the heart to enlarge but that has not been the case. They also were monitoring the valves closely for leakage (regurgitation they call it) and there are no indications of that either. In fact, the valves continue to look really good and are not leaking at all. The other issues they would look for if there was problems were a change in the heart rate on either the upper or lower chambers and it all is steady.

Starting at 26 weeks they were going to move us up to two visits per week (one echocardiogram and one ultrasound) but they think that keeping each at every other week alternating should be fine. If things continue to be so steady they may even move it to once a month for the rest of the pregnancy but they won't decide that until next month. The doctor was also encouraging about the possible rash that might develop after birth. In his experience most of it is not "worst case scenario." It is a minor issue that clears up without any scarring whatsoever.

On a personal note, he has seen this situation before and does not think that it should be a determining factor on us deciding if we want more children after this. Obviously the risks are higher but after going through all this with Grace we will know what we are up against. They are some indicators that taking a steroid early in the pregnancy might possibly help but there isn't enough clinical research to determine this definitively one way or another.

On another personal note, Jennifer and I celebrated our first anniversary by taking a few days at the Hotel Del Coronado. As you may have heard, we had to cancel our summer vacation plans and stay local but that is the place to be if you are going to be local!

One other thing, many of you wrote Target about their credit card practices. I want you to know that all of you who received a response received the exact same response. It comes across like a personal letter but it is actually a form letter with a person's name on the bottom. Several of you have forwarded it in addition to receiving one myself. They are all identical to the word! The only difference is someone else signs their name to it. I don't know if that is real or computer generated too. Suffice to say, this must happen enough that they have a form letter response. I hope the credit card companies make Target pay for the fraud in the future. That is the only way that they will change their practices. The cops know who stole my stuff but there is no way I'll get it back. However, this guy is a pro who has the Fitness Club/Target plan down. Because of my case they have tied him to about 8 or 10 others! He's going down! I'll give Prison Fellowship a head's up in a few months.

I will write again in a few weeks unless something changes.