Cousin Jillian!

A precious baby girl just joined our Allred clan...Jillian Lee Allred. She was born on January 31st and we had the pleasure of bringing in big sissy, Randi Kay, to see her today. Danyel looked awesome and was doing so well for just having a c-section. The little boys were very excited and Jace was so cute about it. He was sure he needed to hold her! I guess he's just getting geared up for his baby sis to arrive. Their family is so excited and what a joy a new baby brings!!! I was able to hold her and it just makes our Madison's upcoming birth much more anticipated now.

Madison Grace Allred

We have officially decided our baby girl's name: Madison Grace Allred. It has been our girl name since we were pregnant with Jace and there is no other name we're fond of. She already seems like a "Maddie" to me and we wanted to have a middle name that had reverence. When we were in Seattle for our last appointment, we toured the NICU and there was a room all decorated on the outside with a sign that read "MADITUDE" and we found out later, the little girl's name was Madeline and her parents called her Maddie. She has been through so much and is quite the fighter- something we hope for in our baby. So, it just fits since we were already planning on Maddie if she were a girl. My mom wrote a poem for her and I'd like to share it. As most of you probably know, my mom and I share a very special relationship and this is her first granddaughter...

For my "Maddie" by: Nany Stewart

I know a little miracle, whose growing strong inside
Her mother's womb protects her from the world outside

Her tiny heart is broken and when the time is right
Modern medicine will fix it, and all will be alright

I know this precious angel, I love her with all my heart
You see, she belongs to my angel with such a loving heart

So as you go about your day's routine
Please pray for both my angel's and keep them in your dreams.

Thumbs up! It's all going to be ok!

If you look closely, our baby girl was trying to tell us something. Even though we didn't know at the time, she knew of her special heart condition. She's giving us a thumbs up! What a precious little life we are expecting...we are especially grateful for her and anxiously await her arrival in April.

It's A Girl!

Our appointment in Seattle on January 8th: We learned that our baby was healthy, developing on track, all except the heart. I was 26 weeks pregnant and we had not found out at this point what we were having but had decided that if our baby had a heart defect, we would want to know what the sex was. (Bryan and I enjoy the surprise after 40 long weeks!) We got a very clear view of HER and were simply in awe that we were expecting a baby girl. This was one of our highlights of this appointment as well as a couple of smiles from her...she's very beautiful! After meeting with our new team of doctors and sitting through an ultrasound and fetal echocardiogram, the news that our baby had a CHD (Congenital Heart Disease) was imminent. Our Cardiologist, Dr. Meg Vernon, sat down with us and completely drew out a normal heart and then our baby girl's heart. We learned a lot of new terms and got an overview of how complex our hearts are...we take so much for granted when ours develops normally and functions without any problems. Her diagnosis was Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome and Pulmonary Atresia. We spent over 2 hours with the doctors discussing the nature of our baby's CHD. We developed a "plan" for delivery, being induced between 38-40 weeks in Seattle at the U of W with a transfer of our baby girl to Children's Hospital following delivery. The doctors have prepared us for about a month's stay after her birth and because of her complex heart disease, she will require surgery within the first few days of life. We do have options but won't know until she's here- I'm due April 14th, so sometime in the beginning of April this will all happen, I assume. For now, my pregnancy is treated normally and she is doing wonderful...as long as she's in utero! My placenta does the work for her heart that she can't do on her own (get the blood to the lungs for oxygenation), but as soon as she's born, she will be monitored very closely and they'll begin the process of fixing her heart. We've learned that CHD is the most common birth defect, 1 in 100 babies (about 1%), there are many degrees of CHD, and this may or may not be passed down genetically. We have no history of CHD in our families and our doctors will run tests after she's born to determine whether this was genetic or not. We've also learned that the surgeries she may have, Children's performs about 1x a month and this method has been around for 20-30 years. In fact, our Perinatologist, Dr. Cheng, told us she has a patient who's expecting her first baby, in her mid-20's and was a Hypoplastic Heart baby herself. We learned that once our baby girl has the surgeries she needs, she should be like any other child. She'll just see a Cardiologist the rest of her life and take medication. The doctors gave us a lot of hope in their findings and they feel very positive about what we can do about our baby's heart condition. The rest of her heart is intact and functions normally, it's just the right ventricle and pulmonary valve at this time that is not.

Bryan and I are doing really good for the circumstances, we have faith that everything will be ok and confidence in our baby girl that she'll be a fighter through all of this. We know that God is with us and will be there every step of the way. We are so blessed with our family and friends and have all of the support we need to get through this. We're just staying optimistic and hoping and praying for the best outcome for her. I have already become so attached to this baby because of knowing of her condition and feeling incredibly grateful for her. This is our baby and I wouldn't trade this for anything. God has given us a special child to love and take care of that will help us grow and refine us to who He wants us to be. We pray every night for her and as Jace says it, "pease fix our baby grils heart, Amen." Comfort sustains us right now, knowing that Heaven is being stormed with prayers for our little one from all of our family and friends.

Getting the News

We first learned of our baby's possible heart condition on a follow-up ultrasound on January 2, 2008. I was 25 weeks pregnant and was only going for this appointment to check my "low-lying" placenta (which I was more concerned about) and get better pictures/measurements of the baby's heart. At my 20 week ultrasound, the baby was in a breach position and the tech had trouble getting a good view. During the ultrasound, the tech told us my placenta had moved (yeah!) but as she started measuring the heart, the room became very quiet. Bryan and I had the boys with us, which was a good distractor of what news we were about to get. She worked at getting the views she needed for at least 20 minutes before telling us that she needed to go and get the radiologist, Dr. Brandt. Bryan and I were both very nervous at this point and knew that something was wrong, although we had no idea...just that it involved the heart. When Dr. Brandt arrived, she began conducting the ultrasound and she was talking quietly with the tech, using their medical lingo. They wouldn't give us much information, except that our baby's right ventricle was not symmetrical to the left ventricle and they suspected that there COULD be a heart defect. Dr. Brandt then went and met with my dr/midwife, Sherry Russell, who arranged an appointment at Deaconess in Spokane with a perinatologist in 13 days to do a follow-up. At this point, my mind was racing and my emotions were shot...although still trying to hold on to the hope that Moses Lake had made a mistake and when we saw a specialist, they'd say "false alarm". We left the Moses Lake Clinic that day hearing two new terms we'd never heard before. The possible heart conditions our baby may have were: Pulmonary Atresia and Right-Sided Cardiac Hypoplasia. Little did we know at this time that Moses Lake was right on with their "possible findings" and our life was going to change.
We only shared the news with our parents that evening and were leaning on the hope that there was a mistake in the findings. I stayed up most of that night researching on the internet which was helpful in some ways but most of the information was very hard to swallow. I found that Children's Hospital in Seattle treated our "possible condition" on a regular basis so I was determined that we needed to go there first. I called my Dr. the next morning and insisted that we get an appointment over in Seattle. I could not bear to wait almost 2 weeks not knowing. She got us connected with Children's Hospital and U of W Prenatal Diagnosis and Treatment Program and we had an appointment scheduled for 1/8/08, 6 days later. These 6 days were probably our hardest...not knowing what could be was very scary. We did a lot of praying and hoping that all was going to be ok.

The Blog

This blog was set-up to share the latest news and events of our upcoming arrival, and for us to keep our family and friends updated on our baby's birth and the months after. Thanks to my dear friend and cousin, Carly, for setting it up for us and teaching me the ways of blogging. Since we have so many friends and family members to keep updated on our heart baby, we thought this would be the easiest way for them to get the most accurate and recent news during our stays in Seattle at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center.

Before setting up the blog, we had emailed our family and friends the news about our baby girl. Here are a couple of those letters...

1/7/2008
Hi there,
We've talked to some of you since last Tues. but thought I'd give you an update on our baby. Last Tuesday (at 25 weeks) we had our 2nd ultrasound in Moses Lake to follow up on finding clearer pictures of the baby's heart. After a very stressful ultrasound exam, they were unable to get what they wanted and referred us onto Spokane. The radiologist did not make a diagnosis of the findings, but did not rule out a heart abnormality and named the possibility of: hyposplastic heart syndrome or pulmonary artesia. So the last week has been very stressful for us. We were lucky enough to get into Children's Hospital in Seattle tomorrow 1/8/08 for an appointment. They'll be doing a fetal echocardiogram, ultrasound, and we'll meet with a Perinatologist. No more wait until the 15th for Spokane! We're very anxious to get over there, having one of the best facilities in the nation figure out if our little one has a heart defect or if Moses Lake was just "extra precautious" on its' heart findings with our last 2 ultrasounds. We have been hesitant on telling anyone yet because we may get over there and there is nothing to worry about (this is what we're praying for!) Please keep our little one in your thoughts and prayers...as well as Bryan and I. We're trying to prepare for whatever news we may be given tomorrow and we're fortunate that if there is a problem, we have the support of a wonderful family and friends. Thanks for your love and support.
Our Love,
Katie & Bryan

1/9/2008
Dear Friends & family,
To update most of you as well as give some of you our news, Bryan and I had our appointments at Children's Hospital in Seattle yesterday. Our 26 week BABY GIRL's!!!! (still can't believe it, always thought I was destined for boys) diagnosis is a Congenital Heart Defect called Pulmonary Atresia and Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome. Basically this means that the right side of her heart did not form/develop correctly. The parts are there, just small and not functioning correctly. This is a rare CHD (Congenital Heart Defect) and they don't know why it happens, developing sometime in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy when the heart was forming. She is doing very well, right on track everywhere else except her heart. We are confident in "the plan" we have set with Children's and U of W for my delivery in April. I'm due April 14th, but will have her between 38-40 weeks to start the process of her heart surgeries, all over in Seattle. The team of doctors we have met with already are incredible, and we're very confident in what they are going to do for her. Bryan and I are doing fine, we have faith that everything will be ok and confidence in our baby girl that she'll be a fighter through all of this. We know that God is with us and will be there every step of the way. What we need right now are your prayers. Prayers for her and a small miracle to fix her little heart. Our unborn baby has the broken heart but we feel like ours has shattered into a million pieces. Please know that we are thankful for all of your support and we were very strong yesterday, due to all of the love and good wishes we received from you.
Our love,
Katie, Bryan, and baby girl