Feeling a bit better...

Okay Matthew, I will admit. I was thrilled to learn you are going to be a (bouncing!) baby boy, but a little overwhelmed at some of the information that goes with finding out you may only have one kidney (and if I'm honest, wondering how to turn that totally girl haven into a Little Monkey jungle).

I'm feeling a bit better today. Stress is the last thing your poor little body needs, so I'm going to do my very best to not stress so much. As you grow, you will find you are the son of the most worrisome and overprotective mother alive and you will be annoyed. I apologize now--it is just because you are so precious to me, and have been since the very possibility of you existed. But...dear friends and family have given lots of encouragement and advice, so I'll take it to heart and be thankful to God the kidney Dr. Sweeney saw was evident and doing a nice job. After reading up on this all, daddy and I realized we were so blessed they found one!

Some little pieces of notes that mommy has found encouragement in...

From your Aunt Heather's friend, who is a pediatric nephrologist at UNC---
One kidney is actually quite common. We re able to diagnose this more frequently antenatally now due to the availability of prenatal ultrasounds. A good marker of in utero renal function is amniotic fluid level. In infants it can be due to: (1) unilateral renal agenesis, (2) regression of a malformed rudimentary kidney (multicystic dysplastic ... Read Morekidney - MCDK) or (3) there can be a fusion of the 2 kidneys (i.e. horseshoe kidney or cross-fused ectopia). We manage many kiddos at UNC Pediatric Nephrology department with solitary kidneys who are all normal and healthy. Really, in essence all renal transplant patients have only 1 solitary functioning kidney (the actual transplant) in addition to their 1 or 2 non-functioning native kidneys. Some patient resources:
http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/solitarykidney/ http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.kidney.ca/page.asp?intNodeID=22142 http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.revistanefrologia.com/fileingles.asp?ID=2795
http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1472993

Remember, Matthew is "made in God's image" and is "wonderfully and fearfully made". God knew him before he "knit him in his mother's womb". Give it all to Him and know that He will handle it and you won't have to.

Don't borrow trouble with the kidney, wait and see what develops. If its only one, he'll be OK anyway and it might just prove to be two!Hmmm...boys...man are you lucky!

Hey Lori,
Just wanted to let you know my sister only has 1 kidney and all is well!!

Just wanted you to know too that when I had my u/s with the genetic doc with R that she thought there was a problem with his kidneys too. We went back 4 weeks later and it turned out every thing was fine.

A**** has left renal agenesis. She will be 2 in Jan. and so far no kidney issues. Congrats!

Trust in God's plan, He will take care of everything.

Little Monkey (for I already know that's what you are!), you are a very loved and lifted little boy!