Our Baby Boy, and a BIG Prayer Request

Yesterday morning, we finally got to see our baby face to face (sort of) for the first time. As soon as the ultrasound tech put the probe to my belly, we were shocked and awed by how much the baby had changed since the little peanut-shaped object we had seen at our last sonogram twelve weeks earlier. There was a whole, human-shaped baby in there, with arms, legs, fingers, toes, and a face. A sweet, adorable face that we instantly fell hopelessly in love with...

The baby also comes complete with undeniably male genitalia, and we're thrilled to announce that our first child is a baby BOY named Benjamin Elijah! We wanted to name him after his daddy, but didn't want him to be a "junior" (Ben's name is Benjamin Franklin, believe it or not), so we'll call him Eli. We were (well, I was) a little unsure about the girl name, so it's a good thing he turned out to be a boy and saved me all the angst of trying to commit to a girl name - we've been completely sold on the boy name since before he was conceived, so it was pretty easy!

So far, Eli isn't showing any CF-related symptoms, which is encouraging news. There is a complication that occurs in about 15% of CF babies called meconium ileus (MI), which is essentially a bowel obstruction made up of meconium (which is the term for all babies' first poop, which accumulates throughout pregnancy and is usually passed within the first 24 hours of life outside the womb). That's what we're looking for on all of our ultrasounds now - an "echogenic bowel" which could indicate that an MI is developing. Some CF babies are born with some liver disease as well, though that is FAR more rare than MI. At any rate, the maternal-fetal medicine doctor that we spoke with after the ultrasound said that she saw NO signs of anything CF-related. Of course, even if he doesn't develop any of those fetal period complications, he could still very well have CF (85% of CF babies don't develop MI), but it's encouraging nonetheless, and makes us feel better about delivering with the midwives at the community hospital. If we did see that he could be developing an MI, we would have to plan on delivering at Hopkins instead, as he would probably need immediate surgery after birth to remove the obstruction and would have to be transferred there anyway.

Unfortunately, that's not the end of this sonogram story for our sweet baby boy. The reason that the doctor came in to speak with us in the first place was that the ultrasound did turn up an abnormal finding (entirely unrelated to CF). It turns out the Eli has a multicystic dysplastic left kidney. His kidney is enlarged and contains several variably sized cysts, and will most likely (90%) never be functional. The development of the cysts is a result of abnormal embryological development - it's a structural issue with the way the piping hooked up to the kidney during early development - and though the kidney could (10%) function for some unknown length of time with the cysts, the cysts won't resolve themselves or go away. Most likely, the kidney will just shrivel up (or involute) during the first five years of his life. He will have to be followed by a pediatric urologist who will monitor the bad kidney to make sure that it's not getting infected or causing any other problems, and so long as it behaves (shrivels up like it should) it can just stay in there - there's no medical need to remove it. If it does start to cause any problems, it will just need to be removed laparoscopically.

Of course, we all know that a person can live a perfectly normal life with only one kidney. We know that he's going to be OK no matter what happens with this bad kidney - whether it ever functions or not. But dangit, my baby deserves to start his life with ALL of his organs present and functioning, and so I've decided to start praying for a miracle. There is no prayer request too big for our awesome God, no matter how physically "impossible" it may seem. I know with every fiber of my being that we could go back for our next ultrasound in 6 weeks and that kidney could be miraculously healed. That may not be God's will for Eli, but we have resolved that if this is a test of faith, we're going to show God just how big our faith is by trusting Him with an "impossible" request. We're going to pray faithfully EVERY DAY over the next 6 weeks for healing for our baby boy's kidney. We're not going to just pray for the bare minimum - that his other kidney remains healthy and that nothing else goes wrong - we're swinging for the fences on this one.

I'd like to ask each and every one of you, our dear friends and family, to join us in this little "prayer crusade" of ours over the next 6 weeks. I ask that you would commit yourself to say a little prayer each morning for a healed kidney for Eli. It will only take a few seconds but we all know the tremendous impact that God's people can have when we storm the gates of heaven in prayer! Just breathe a few words in prayer for our son as you're brushing your teeth or driving to work each day - it would mean the WORLD to us if you'd join us. Thank you all for your love and support, and for your prayers for our sweet baby boy :]

And now... more cute sono pics ;]