Julia

I'm thinking it will be nice to be able to share some things about Julia on here and for it also to be a way for friends and family to be able to keep up to date,  First of all, we just feel SO GRATEFUL to have Julia alive and well.  We don't know exactly whats in her future, but she's here!
Why do I say that??   Well, something that we didn't share with many people is that at around 19-22 weeks in my pregnancy we learned a few things 1. that she was small for her age. 2. that she had a 2 vessel cord which means that there was one artery and one vein in her umbilical cord when usually there are two arteries and one vein.  3. And this one I still don't know how exactly to explain, but that there was "notching"  in the uterine artery doppler scan which means that there were some changes to the bloods ability to move through the placenta to the baby.
      What it all boiled down to was that some of those things are markers for chromosomal disorders and that she was at high risk for not growing well in the womb.  Everything else physically looked good with the baby so concern for chromosomal disorders lessened (there is more investigation into that now)  but the plan of care moving forward was to have ultrasounds every two weeks to monitor growth and blood patterns.  I quickly convinced myself everything was fine, that she was just going to be a small baby (which was a possible outcome).  But I went every two weeks for ultrasounds where they would do the scan then I would meet with the Dr. and he would say everything looks fine, see you in two weeks.  This is exactly what I expected as I went in Thursday, Aug 15 for our 8th ultrasound.  Instead I heard "This baby is now better out than in, go directly to Rockyview Hospital right now, please do not go home first" !!!  The baby had dropped from the 10th percentile line for growth to the 3rd and there were blood flow changes.
I was shocked
I called Matt, (thank goodness we finally got cell phones - think that was coincidence???   Heavenly Father watches over us!)  Matt was just on his way home from a work conference in Mountainview that he had been at for a few days. He met me at the hospital shortly after I arrived.

I'm sure I will say more later, but this is just taking longer than I would like, but they induced me and Julia was born at 9:30 am August 16.  Things were scary, she was not breathing when she was born,  It was very stressful and emotional, but they resuscitated her then intubated her and that is how she remains.  We were hopeful they would be able to remove the breathing tube shortly but she is still not ready to breathe on her own.

We have been able to spend a lot of time with Julia, thanks to the extreme kindness and generosity of others,  including Dana Rapp who thought she would have Aiden and Emmy for a couple of hours while I had appointments but ended up having them for 2 1/2 days!

 I was able to hold Julia for the first time on Sunday! :)  I haven't been able to since because she has been having more difficulty breathing with a collapsed lung and lot of secretions.  hopefully i will be able to again soon.

There's so much to say,  I will try to write a little every day.  but really we are just so grateful that she is alive.  That I received such good care that were able to catch that she wasn't doing well inside me and get her out in time