A Harrison update

Quick Harrison update…I’m still pregnant. Ugh! I’m very ready to meet this little guy but he is taking his sweet time. Which is actually probably a good thing. The longer he waits the more my fears turn into just being ready for him to get here. But it’s been long enough and I’m ready now, any time little guy…

Since it’s looking unlikely Harrison’s going to make his arrival in the next 14 hours, John and I will be heading into the hospital tomorrow morning at 5:15am for our scheduled c-section, which will take place at 7:30am (assuming they’re running on time, ha!). If Harrison came on his own we would have tried to avoid the c-section this time but since I've had a previous c-section the doctors don’t want to try an induction and don’t want Harrison going too far past his due date. I’m not exactly thrilled about surgery, but whatever gets this little guy in my arms works just fine for me.

The doctors don’t expect any medical issues so this should be a routine birth. Harrison will be checked by a hospital pediatrician once he’s born, which is standard, and then he’ll go to dad while they’re finishing up with my c-section. Harrison’s pediatrician will also come to the hospital to check him out within a couple of days, which is very reassuring for me. He saw us through each step of Lincoln’s diagnosis so he knows exactly what to look for. He told us Harrison will probably have a few more blood draws than he’d like, but hopefully they all show that Harrison’s heart, liver and kidneys are perfect.

The only slight glitch is that they’ll also be taking a close look at Harrison’s feet. We found out he has two club feet. John and I didn't actually know what that meant before the diagnosis. It means his feet are turned in...sit with your legs straight in front of you and then picture the soles of your feet being turned so they would touch when you put your legs together and that gives you the idea. It shouldn't be a big deal at all and will hopefully be correctable with casting. Harrison will get casts on his legs and feet when he’s between 1-2 weeks old. The casts will be changed each week to slowly turn his feet to the correct position. The process will hopefully take only 8-12 weeks but will depend on how his feet react. After that he’ll wear a brace that looks like a snowboard, but that allows his feet to turn and move. The length of time he’s in the brace will also depend on how his feet react.

I’m not going to lie, John and I were sad and angry when we found out. Obviously club foot is nothing compared to the myriad of other problems Harrison could have. Trust me, we’re painfully aware of that. But we feel we put in our time at Cincinnati Children’s. We've paid our dues with doctor’s appointments. However, we also realize we asked Lincoln to pick out his little brother. And everything we've read about club foot tells us the success of treatment is highly dependent on parents sticking with it and being consistent. So the way we figure it happened is that Lincoln knew Harrison was worried about his feet and knew his parents wouldn't take breaks from treatment. So Lincoln sent Harrison our way, and we’re definitely ok with that.

The good news is that Harrison doesn't appear to have any other health problems. Club foot can be associated with neurological disorders and some pretty bad chromosomal abnormalities but it doesn't look like Harrison has any of those. And the doctors say they think Harrison’s club feet are malformations as opposed to deformations. This means the bones in his feet look properly formed, just turned incorrectly, which should make treatment easier.

So that’s what we have going on. Just waiting to meet our sweet little rainbow baby boy. Very impatiently waiting. I have big plans to give him more kisses than he knows what to do with. We can’t wait to introduce him to everyone tomorrow!!