please pray for our baby boy

To be completely honest, we've had a tough week at our house.  I had my anatomy ultrasound performed last Friday and received a call on Monday with some unfortunate news.   Our baby boy's abdominal organs are flipped, meaning his stomach is on the right side instead of the left, etc.  We were immediately referred to a maternal/fetal specialist and we had that appointment yesterday afternoon.  He performed another ultrasound to take a closer look and give us an idea of what we may be facing. 

He confirmed that the stomach and all associated abdominal organs are flipped.  The heart is not flipped and looks good with no sign of a congenital heart defect (a huge praise!).  The blood flow going in and out of the heart was going in the correct direction.  His brain looks good with no signs of any problems there.  He also looked at his kidneys, intestines, brain stem and maybe some other things that I can't remember now.  The only other concern was that his intestines looked "whiter" than normal on ultrasound, but he said that could mean nothing or it could mean something that we would check again later.

We went into the appointment fully expecting that this one appointment would be the first of many but the doctor felt like we should have a normal pregnancy with a normal delivery.  We've been seeing a midwife and the doctor said we could still have a birth center birth as long as we planned on having the baby evaluated by a neonatologist within 24 hours of birth.  He recommended that we see him again at 32 weeks (I'm 21 weeks now) for another ultrasound to take a look again once he's a little bigger.  If nothing is suspicious, then the baby will be examined after birth to check on things that we cannot see in utero.  With this organ flipping syndrome, there is usually an issue with whether the spleen forms or not.  The spleen is the body's organ to fight infection so if he does not have one, we would be looking at a daily antibiotic for the rest of his life.  This is something that we won't know until after he his born and the baby has an ultrasound.

So here are our specific requests at this point:
1.  An uncomplicated pregnancy and delivery.
2.  That although the abdominal organs are flipped, everything is "hooked up" correctly and will not require surgery
3.  That he has a spleen!

4.  That the ultrasound at 32 weeks will not reveal any further problems

4.  Wisdom in deciding where to give birth
5.  Wisdom in financial matters...this is REALLY overwhelming to me
6.  That we would be faithful in trusting the Lord in ALL things

So we are proceeding with hope that all goes well until we have the next ultrasound at 32 weeks.  At that point, decisions will be made about how best to proceed.  We are praising God for a good appointment yesterday.  We covet your prayers!