On October 21st, 2016 our lives were changed forever when we got the surprise of our lives: a positive pregnancy test! I could hardly believe my eyes when I looked down and saw the digital "YES". It was simultaneously the most terrifying and exciting thing that had happened to us by far. I immediately wanted to begin working on the nursery, shopping for adorable onesies, and doing everything I could to prepare for the biggest thing to ever happen to me - something that I had dreamed about my entire life.
We created and took these announcement photos at Terra Studios on the day of our second wedding anniversary.
The next several months were a blur of [all day] sickness, extreme exhaustion, and lots of excitement.
My little nephew, Edmond, seemed pretty excited to be getting a cousin 😉
We shared the news with my family on Thanksgiving day, and had our first ultrasound the following day, November 25th. I will never forget the moment we saw this tiny, perfect little baby waving at us on the screen and how it 
finally felt real - there really was a baby in there!
That weekend as we drove to Wes' family's house for Thanksgiving with them and to share our news, we first discussed the name Maiya for a girl. I, of course, researched every origin and meaning of the name I could find and discovered that "maya" comes from the Nepali phrase for "I love you", which we thought was perfect. At around 10 weeks, the birthing center we were attending for prenatal care offered a blood test screening to find out the baby's gender and screen for possible genetic conditions, which we decided to do since we just couldn't wait to find out.
On December 12th we held an impromptu gender reveal party after having the nurse call a friend with the results so that we, too, could be surprised. We have the best friends and family who showed up on short notice to find out with us. To our elation, and nobody's surprise, there was PINK confetti in the balloon!
Apparently this is my surprised face.
Both so excited to be having a little girl 🙂
We almost immediately settled on the name Maiya Kate, giving her a form of my middle name (Katharine). The next couple of months whizzed by as we began to decorate the nursery and pick out all kinds of girly stuff!
In January we had our 18 week anatomy scan. Everything seemed to be going well and she was measuring perfectly. My midwife called me after they received the results and told me the tech had missed some of the important things that they look for at this point, specifically how many vessels were in the umbilical cord. She recommended that we get another ultrasound done just to be safe.
On February 16, 2017 our lives were changed again. We went in for the scheduled ultrasound and got to see our stubborn little girl again. She was hiding from the tech, who had the doctor come in to take a second look at a couple of things. That was my first clue that something was off, as he mostly seemed to focus on her heart. He didn't say much, but was zoomed in to her heart and taking a lot of measurements and pictures. We had an appointment later that same day with our midwife, and he told us that he would review everything and send it over to her so we could discuss it that afternoon. As soon as we left I told Wes something was wrong.
Precious little alien face 🙂
My fear was confirmed when our midwife sat us down and told us the doctor found something wrong with the baby's heart. She began to explain to us that he was 95% sure that she has Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA). I went silent and thought my heart would beat out of my chest as I sat there trying to wrap my mind around what she was telling us - that something was wrong with our baby girl. One month later, on March 16th, we had a fetal echocardiogram performed at Arkansas Childrens Hospital where this diagnosis was confirmed. I won't try to explain all of the medical details, but for those of you who are interested in exactly what this condition is, this website explains it really well. Basically, TGA is a rare congenital heart defect that means her heart doesn't pump oxygenated blood through her body because the two main arteries are switched. What this means is that as long as she is receiving oxygen from me she is fine, but as soon as she is born she will have to undergo a number of procedures and treatments. This will most likely include an injection right away that will help the hole in her heart, which all babies have at birth, to stay open, which will allow the blood to mix. Depending on how well that works she may have to have a small balloon inserted via a catheter to widen the hole and keep it open until she is strong enough for the next step. Once she is stable enough, typically with in the first week, she will have open heart surgery to correct the transposed arteries. Because of this, we are being transferred to a high risk OB in Little Rock and will deliver there at UAMS so that we will be closer to Arkansas Childrens Hospital, which she will be transferred to after birth. We are told to expect to stay there in the CVICU for anywhere up to two months, but a lot of that will depend on her condition at birth, as well as how she responds to the treatments and surgeries.
Took a nice little vacation to PCB to get away together for a bit.
Obviously, we are scared and heartbroken knowing that she will have to go through all of this and have taken some time to try and process everything. We know that she will be a stubborn little fighter, and we know that God is in control of all of this. We are so thankful that this was caught during our ultrasound, as many babies who are born with this condition are not diagnosed until after birth. Because of our early diagnosis, we are able to prepare as much as possible, and as terrifying as it is, it is comforting to know that a team of people will be there ready to give her the care she will need. We are also thankful for advanced medicine, as the surgery that she will receive is fairly new. Although this was not anywhere in our plan, we are learning to adapt and trust God. There are still a ton of unknowns and a lot that is yet to be determined, but we are giving her to God and are determined to do whatever we have to to take care of our little girl.
We are almost 30 weeks along now, so we are getting close and are very excited to meet baby Maiya and welcome her into the world! As we prepare during these final months, we ask that everyone be praying for little Maiya - that she will come out as healthy and strong as possible and that she will respond well to all of her procedures so that her recovery and hospital stay will be as easy and quick as possible. We also ask for prayers for ourselves, as we learn how to become parents, as we have an extended stay in Little Rock, and as we try to be strong for our baby, as well as for the doctors and nurses that will help care for her.
There are still many unknowns and this is just the beginning of a very long journey that lies ahead for us. The next step is an appointment tomorrow in Little Rock to have another level two ultrasound and echocardiogram performed, and we will also meet the high risk OB who will do the rest of my prenatal care and hopefully get answers to some of our questions. There were a couple of other complications with her heart that the cardiologist thought may be present at our last echo, but she wasn't able to get a good enough look to tell for sure, so we are also praying that a) they will be able to see everything clearly this time and b) that these will be ruled out and TGA will be our only concern. We would appreciate all of the prayers we can get for this, and will update once we find out.
Lastly, I just want to say thank you to everyone for your support and prayers - it means so much to us.
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