God and Steroids are a Good Combination

The numbers are looking good! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers this week!

I feel like we get an education every time we do another ultrasound. Here's what we know now: The numbers that we're using to measuring the size of the mass represent the mass's size in relation to the baby. Makes sense, now that I think about it. The actual size of the mass is less important than it's size in relation to the baby. If baby's growth outpaces the growth of the mass, we're keeping ahead of it and staying out of the danger zone. So, this week, the we're at 1.1, down from last week's 1.23. So, the mass hasn't necessarily shrunk, but it has at least slowed significantly (or maybe the baby had a growth spurt).

Also, we learned that fetal surgery is only a possibility until about week 26. After that, they figure a baby has a better chance if being cared for outside the womb. We are at 24 weeks, so we only have a couple weeks to go before that possibility is off the table. I'm trying to mentally cross it off the list already. Since everything looks good this week, the chances of things going down hill that quickly are very slim. It is a weight off my mind. Even though we knew that it was unlikely that Baby would need surgery in utero (even as close as he was to the danger zone), the logistics of having to travel for surgery were occupying far too much of my very limited mental energy.

We were also told that we are a little further from the danger zone than we thought. Today's doctor said that the number to watch for is actually 1.6, not 1.3. If they only knew how this is messing with my mind...

The doctor talked with us about setting up an appointment to talk with a pediatric surgeon. That should happen sometime around week 28. She also talked about meeting with NICU staff to give us an idea of what to expect if Baby ends up there after birth.

That's about it for this week. Hopefully from here on out, this blog will get really boring, with a "still looking good" report each week. :)