It's A Girl!!

10/28/2008

Dear friends and family,
So many of you are anxious to hear the outcome of our appointment yesterday, so we wanted to send another update. As you might pick up from the subject line, we learned that we have a daughter, and her name is Reagan Joy Glavach. It is such an answer to prayer to us that we were able to find out. We are thrilled to have not only a name, but a face to put with that name. Our doctor yesterday was nice enough to follow up with a partial 3D portrait of our little girl, which is pasted below.

We came away from yesterday's meeting feeling about the same as we felt on Friday. We had a good meeting, but things don't necessarily look good, and we didn't learn anything definitive. Dr. Birnholz confirmed the findings from the initial ultrasound and expanded on them a bit - the omphalacele includes her intestines, bowels, and at least part of her liver; her feet are rotated at the ankles, but the leg bones look good; and the cysts are definitely present on her brain. He is most concerned about her brain - the cysts are quite large and they take up so much of a portion of her brain that it appears as though that part is underdeveloped because of them. He still thinks there is a chromosomal abnormality, but he doesn't lean as strongly toward Trisomy 18 as the geneticist did (this could be both good and bad). We think this is because her hands and heart look good, and both of those carry such a high percentage of malfunction with Trisomy 18 babies. We are encouraged by how good her heart and lungs look, as well as her face, which shows symmetry and no clefts. Her limbs also look good and the level of amniotic fluid is adequate.

We continue to pray that it's not a chromosomal problem (18 or otherwise), and that will be confirmed with the results of the amnio. He said to expect about a 7-8 day wait for those answers. We should learn then if it is chromosomal, and if so, which chromosomes are affected. If it isn't chromosomal, we will meet with the geneticist again to see if there is a syndrome of some sort that we can connect this to, so we might know how to prepare.

At this time we continue to pray for absolute healing, that it wouldn't be chromosomal, and that we could meet this little girl. We also ask for prayer as it is very difficult to wait. It was a rough day today as some of the physical and emotional wear took its toll, so we pray for rest and energy to make it through these days.

We love our Reagan Joy and thank you for the interest you have taken in her life. Thank you so much for your prayers - we are brought to tears over and over again by the outpouring of love and concern that so many have for us. Thank you.
Love,
Mar and Dan