Let's Start at the Very Beginning...

On September 15th, Katy and Andy found out that Baby Jacob has a life-threatening condition called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). CDH is a very serious condition in which a hole in the diaphragm allows abdominal organs to move into the chest restricting lung development. In Jacob's case, his liver is also squishing his heart and displacing other organs. CDH occurs in about 1 out of every 3,000 pregnancies and has a mortality rate of 50%. To make matters more complicated, Jacob has Right-Sided CDH which only occurs in about 10% of CDH cases and is typically more severe. They are so blessed to have found this out when they did, or Baby Jacob would have surely died at birth.

They will be delivering at UW Hospital in Seattle and later transferred to Seattle Children’s. Thank you to everyone who has already begun praying, and everyone who will now. Baby Jacob is blessed to have all of you thinking and praying for him.

Seattle Children's Hospital

Update from Andy!
Oct 4, 2011 -On Thursday we meet with one of the Pediatric Surgeons and a case counselor from Seattle Children's Hospital. They gave us more details into what events we can expect to take place on Jacob's birth day. They answered more of our questions, even if some of them weren't quite black and white. Especially how much contact they will allow us to have with Jacob.  
The counselor took us on a tour of the NICU wing of the hospital. Katy and I felt prepared to enter the NICU, but upon entering it was difficult to hold in the emotions. It really put us in the "this is going to be where Jacob is for the first weeks/months of his life." mindset. It was wonderful to tour the hospital, but quite an emotional roller coaster for us. It's hard to believe such a large facility is dedicated to sick children. 
So what's next? We continue to be in the waiting stage to see what Jacob presents doctors with. The Peds Surgeon seems confident in the success of the surgery, and states that Pulmonary Hypertension is more of the underlying complication with CDH babies, which we already knew. Being that Jacob's outcome is still uncertian, we were told to expect to be at Childrens for at least 6 weeks to 4 months! Yet another eyeopener today. We expected we were in for the long haul (2 months), but weren't prepared for the possibility of 4 months...120+ days! Next Wednesday we go back to UW for more appointments with more doctors.

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