One in a million!

I was born bald. So are most of the babies in my family. This child for sure has her Daddy's DNA. Already we see her hair floating arround her head on the ultrasound.  If only that little black and white photo could tell us what color her curls will become.... but some things will just have to be a surprise.

Speaking of surprises we got so many happy  ones today. The first was getting to see her do that tapping thing with her feet and ankles. They feel like little tickles in my belly and to see her doing them on camera for me was so cool. Its almost like she hears some celestial music she just can't resist keeping rythm to.  Maybe she'll be a drummer like her father? Or maybe she'll just love music as much as I do.  But regardless, its extra special to us to see those particular muscles do their jobs.

Also, they got a good Ultrasound (US) image of her noggin. The partial view of the corpus collosum they saw on the MRI was confirmed by a total view on US today. Her brain is perfectly formed.   Her body is still running a small average. She weighs 2.4 lbs and measures 26 weeks vs. 28 weeks.

As for what the doc read in the report from the MRI about her lack of hindbrain herniation...he said "That is very good. Very, very good. Very, very, very good!" Then he smiled! :)



They took another look at her lesion, got a semi-decent view and seemed to agree with the MRI that is was sacral. It runs the full length of the sacrum but does not appear to cross the lumbar threshold.  This is good. Only 4% of babies with Myelomeningocele (evangeline's type of SB) have a sacral only lesion.  The doctor, who was happy and excited, pulled out a medical text book and showed us a little graph about babies with Myelomeningocele. In addition to showing that only 4% have sacral lesions it showed that of the ones with sacral lesions, 100% walked.  86% walked without the use of assistive devices like crutches and walkers. Only 14% had hydro and required shunts.  Although no stats were mentioned in the book about this he did say that many babies with sacral only lesions can go pee-pee on their own!

Her daddy did the math on the way out the hospital (I love being married to a human calculator).  Considering that 1 in 2,500 babies are born with Myelomeningocele and only 4% of those babies have sacral lesions.... Our baby is about 1 in a million.  But hey. I knew that already. ;)

Evangeline Grace: Kickin' SB's butt one little toe tap at a time!