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When Jen was about 16 weeks pregnant, Dalton’s bladder was enlarged in the routine scan. It was kind of dismissed and would be checked out at her next appointment a few weeks later. Being a labor and delivery nurse, Jen wanted to see her baby on the ultrasound at work and the next week she and one of her coworkers pulled the ultrasound machine in one of the rooms to look at Dalton and his bladder was still huge. This led us down the path of a high-risk OB appointment where we found out we were in fact having a BOY and that he most likely had a Lower Urinary Tract Obstruction. We were then referred to the Fetal Center at Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital.

Jen’s first appointment with the fetal center was a terrifying one with a ton of grim information. His bladder was full, there was low amniotic fluid, and there was kidney damage. We of course chose to do whatever we could to help our boy. This led to Jen having a bladder tap on Dalton that day as well as an amniocentesis. This procedure is performed with a long needle that goes into her belly, through the uterus, and into Dalton’s belly into his bladder to drain it. The next 2 days were huge. The point of the bladder tap was to see if it would refill. If it did not, then Dalton wouldn’t make it.  We went back for our follow up and the bladder was full!! They were able to place a shunt into Dalton’s bladder sticking out of his belly allowing the fluid to get out.  Jen had to be admitted to the hospital for 4 weeks to monitor fluid. At 36.2 weeks on January 2nd Dalton was born and resided in the NICU until March 30th.  

Dalton has chronic kidney damage and undergoes hemodialysis 4 days a week and will do so until he’s big enough to receive a transplant.