Showered with Love

We had an amazing time at our Shower! We are so appreciative of Mom-Mom, Aunt Michele and Ja-G! Also, special thanks to Madeline for use of her beautiful house; To Carol for her help with the amazing decorations, to Denise for making the yummy and very cute party favors and to Jamie Lynn for capturing the best photos of the day.

We couldn't have asked for a better day. The weather was great. The food was great. And the company was the greatest! It was so nice to spend time with our family and friends.

Thank you all so very much for your love and support. We are extremely grateful to have you all in our lives... Jack Dylan is too:)

The diagnosis

As most everyone is aware, we found out at our 20 week ultra sound that we are expecting a baby boy. We couldn't be more thrilled! We need a bit of testosterone in our home:) Jack Dylan is expected to arrive on August 5th, 2010. We also found out that our "little man" has a serious, rare heart disease called Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA).

Normally, in the human body, oxygen-poor (blue) blood returns to the right side of the heart from the body, then is pumped through the pulmonary artery into the lungs where it receives oxygen. Oxygen-rich (red) blood returns to the left side of the heart from the lungs, and then is pumped out to the body. This whole process ensures that the blood delivers oxygen to the body and then returns to the heart and then to the lungs to pick up more oxygen, and the process repeats. In TGA, the aorta is connected to the right side of the heart, and the pulmonary artery is connected to the left side of the heart- the exact opposite of the anatomy of a normal heart. So what happens is de-oxygenated blood continues to loop from the body to the heart to the body, never picking up any oxygen along the way and the oxygenated blood continues to loop from the lungs to the heart and back to the lungs...therefore the blood never mixes and oxygen is not delivered to the rest of his body. As long as Baby Jack is inside his mommy's belly his body is receiving all it needs in terms of oxygen and nutrients. It isn't until after he is born when the heart adapts to life outside the uterus that TGA becomes problematic.

What does this all mean? Jack has all the working parts...but in the wrong order. Jack will need surgery shortly after birth to switch the 2 main arteries of his heart to ensure that his body is receiving oxygen. We will be delivering at CHOP - one of the best children's hospitals in the nation.

Why did this happen? No one really knows. There is no known cause. It occurs in 1 out of every 10,000 babies.

But what we do know is that regardless of why this happen we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little angel, Jack Dylan.

Nesting Period

For the past few months, we have been "nesting". Remodeling, painting, cleaning... The first 6 months of the pregnancy seemed to drag - just as we were dragging to get the house in order for our new arrival. Now, with only a little more than 2 months till Jack's arrival, we are scrambling to finish old projects and get the nursery ready.