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My partner and I met through a friend over three years ago in Seattle. After many flights, visits to different major U.S. cities, long distance phone calls, and one long cross country trip by van: we moved in together in PA.
I am a school teacher and daddy is an HVAC student and warehouse worker. I found out I was pregnant with my first child at the beginning of this school year. This was a surprise for us, but a welcome one after some thought. Our genetic screening came back as low risk, but during the 20 week anatomy scan the doctor detected an abnormality.
Our baby boy was diagnosed with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, CDH. It is a life-threatening diagnosis where the majority of the cases are not genetically linked. It is a sporadic incident that affects 1 in 2500 babies. Having a baby with CDH means that sometime in the development of the baby's diaphragm the cells stopped reproducing and left a hole. The hole in our baby's diaphragm caused its bowl, spleen, and the left lobe of its liver to move into the thorax. All these organs squished our baby's heart and lungs during development such that when it is born it cannot breathe on its own.
We anticipate that the baby can be stabilized within 24 hrs of birth so that it can endure an operation to repair the diaphragm at 8 days old. Yet, there are some cases where the baby cannot stabilize without giving the lungs and heart a break, so ECMO may be utilized. ECMO is a machine that takes all the blood out of the baby, oxygenates it, and returns it to the baby. We are praying the baby will not need this treatment.
We are currently hopeful since we are in good care at CHOP. However, there is so much unknown about the baby's ability to thrive after birth. In any event, mommy anticipates relocation to Philadelphia 10 weeks prior to due date (June 3), not having a full income for quite some time, a 2-4 month stay in the N/IICU after baby is born, all while covering household expenses, medical bills, and consequently racking up some serious credit card debt.
So, in lieu of a baby shower we would like to raise funds to help us through hard times. It appears we are asking for a lot at this time, but really more is better since we will likely use any remaining funds on existing baby registry items and a savings account for August. It's not our expectation to reach the goal of $3k at all, but we want to aim high rather than low. We would be so so so very grateful for any donation amount, no matter big or small.
Thank you all.
Love,
Kathy and Josh, but most especially baby <3
I am a school teacher and daddy is an HVAC student and warehouse worker. I found out I was pregnant with my first child at the beginning of this school year. This was a surprise for us, but a welcome one after some thought. Our genetic screening came back as low risk, but during the 20 week anatomy scan the doctor detected an abnormality.
Our baby boy was diagnosed with a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia, CDH. It is a life-threatening diagnosis where the majority of the cases are not genetically linked. It is a sporadic incident that affects 1 in 2500 babies. Having a baby with CDH means that sometime in the development of the baby's diaphragm the cells stopped reproducing and left a hole. The hole in our baby's diaphragm caused its bowl, spleen, and the left lobe of its liver to move into the thorax. All these organs squished our baby's heart and lungs during development such that when it is born it cannot breathe on its own.
We anticipate that the baby can be stabilized within 24 hrs of birth so that it can endure an operation to repair the diaphragm at 8 days old. Yet, there are some cases where the baby cannot stabilize without giving the lungs and heart a break, so ECMO may be utilized. ECMO is a machine that takes all the blood out of the baby, oxygenates it, and returns it to the baby. We are praying the baby will not need this treatment.
We are currently hopeful since we are in good care at CHOP. However, there is so much unknown about the baby's ability to thrive after birth. In any event, mommy anticipates relocation to Philadelphia 10 weeks prior to due date (June 3), not having a full income for quite some time, a 2-4 month stay in the N/IICU after baby is born, all while covering household expenses, medical bills, and consequently racking up some serious credit card debt.
So, in lieu of a baby shower we would like to raise funds to help us through hard times. It appears we are asking for a lot at this time, but really more is better since we will likely use any remaining funds on existing baby registry items and a savings account for August. It's not our expectation to reach the goal of $3k at all, but we want to aim high rather than low. We would be so so so very grateful for any donation amount, no matter big or small.
Thank you all.
Love,
Kathy and Josh, but most especially baby <3