Hearts, Lungs, and Ratios

Got a call today from the maternal fetal medicine office letting me know that the fetal echo is scheduled for next Friday, February 24th.  So almost two weeks until we can see our girl again (which is kind of weird to say since I'm toting her around constantly, feeling her move, etc).  Until then, we'll be thinking lots of happy cardiac thoughts.  Thoughts of and prayers for four perfect little chambers doing their thang.  In addition to looking for anatomical issues, we'll (I think) also be looking to make sure all that extra stuff (stomach, intestines) in her chest isn't making Bee's heart work harder than it should be.  That could lead to bad things that I don't want to go into unless it's actually happening.

This other little tidbit is something I've been debating about even sharing here, but the geeky scientist wannabe part of me was pretty excited when I heard it, so...There's a bit (maybe a lot?) of controversy about how much this means, but there's something called the lung to head ratio that can help predict how good of an outcome a CDH baby will have.  (There are also a bunch of other factors that come into play, many of which aren't apparent until baby's actually born.)  Anyway, in this case, higher numbers are a good thing, because it means there's more lung tissue, or at least more lung *space* in the chest.  This is good, because bigger lungs=easier for baby to breathe.  More or less.   So, from what I've read, anything over about 1.4 to 1.6 is great, and has something like an 85% survival rate (National average is around a 50% survival rate. Scary, I know.).  Well, according to the sweet genetic counselor who called this afternoon, Bee's number at the moment is....1.8!!!  I almost cried when she told me.  I don't know how much that number can change over the course of the pregnancy, and like I said, there's some controversy as to how much it really means.  BUT, all that being said, thank you Lord for a 1.8.  Let's pray that it stays at least that high.