Charlie's Happy Heart: Positivity to the max!

Halfway through the summer already?! We can't believe it. Things have been SO busy for all of July, and mostly it's because of the news most of you already know - I'm pregnant with #2! :) We are super excited, and super scared. Get ready for full, painful, honest disclosure.

We went into this whole adventure with a 'plan' (which, admittedly, we knew could change). Because Charlie's DCM is genetic, our plan was to have a genetic test called a CVS done, get the results and go from there. If the fetus has the same genetic makeup as Charlie, we'd terminate this pregnancy and start again. I've always been 'pro-choice' (despite hating that term), and had no issue with having an abortion. However, once I was actually pregnant and started to show at 7 weeks, my mind changed. Matt and I were no longer to even consider the option of termination because, even though Charlie's DCM was hell to deal with, we still wanted this child. I'm sure, has I been 16 or in university, even without the DCM genetics being known, I could have had an abortion and recovered from it. While married and when raising a child who has done just fine, thankyouverymuch, despite his DCM, we just couldn't. I know I have friends who think they would've made a different decision, and this would be the point of STILL being pro-choice. Everyone can make their own decision, and this is the one that's right for us, right now.

Once that decision was made, it had a domino effect on everything else. Suddenly, the 1-in-100 chance of miscarriage from the CVS was unacceptable to a baby we were going to keep (can you imagine going through that only to miscarry, only to find out that the child was fine? GEEZ.). We can still get an amino, but why would we? We can do the genetics at birth and find out then. It doesn't change the plan at all for the newborn, so we are avoiding all risks. We'll have a fetal heart echo (science = amazing) at 20 and 28 weeks, and that should be enough to give us a diagnosis. So, well sit on pins and needles until then, and then again once this baby is born. We are very, very happy with our decisions.

I think it's a girl (apologies to my possible future son if you're reading this. Thought you were a girl.).

The rest of the summer holds more adventures for us. Today, we went to the zoo, and we're off to Winnipeg for a week in August. We are enjoying this time at home (the 'calm before the storm), so to speak, and are excited for what the future might hold. :)