There’s a scene from 2010: The Year We Make Contact that’s come to mind during all this. 2010 is the sequel to Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, of which the film-version by Kubrick became a classic. Towards the end of 2010, Jupiter shrinks until it implodes with a cataclysmic furor, signifying the first human encounter with an unseen Power in the universe.

So why this scene (of which only the first minute is relevant, but feel free to watch the whole clip)?

The mass in Bella is shrinking! “It’s shrinking! It’s shrinking!”

Not only has she outpaced the growth. The accursed thing has gotten smaller. As the MRI shot to the right shows, the rightccamlatest11.png lung seems to be developing unimpeded, and the left lung, while having to share space with the CCAM, refuses to just sit there like some bump on a log; the left lung is also developing. (If you’ve never read an MRI before, you’re looking at one cross-section of Bella. Her head is pointed downward, and, yes, she has fully developed arms and hands, despite the appearance of two flipper-like protrusions.)

In fact, the CCAM has diminished to such a degree that Bella’s heart has begun to make the journey of a thousand nanometers back to its proper place. Right now it’s right around midline, on its way toward just left of center.

And it would seem Bella has been able to belly up to the bar more frequently of late. Christy’s amniotic fluid level, while still high for a normal pregnancy, has decreased in a remarkable way. Best guess why the level has tapered off is that the crimping the CCAM might have done to the esophagus has diminished. The more Bella can swallow, the less the excess amniotic fluid.

All this leads the coterie of doctors to conclude that we won’t need to deliver in Houston. (phew) The fetal surgeon in Houston went even so far as to say that Bella might be asymptomatic at birth–that is, the CCAM will have no appreciable effect on her breathing such that surgery to remove the mass won’t be necessary for some weeks or months after delivery.

The one variable still in play is just when to deliver. Keeping her in utero as long as possible is good for her lungs, but waiting for Christy to go into labor before we deliver isn’t advisable in light of her amniotic fluid level (why that is I can’t remember). Since we still don’t know precisely her actual gestational age, we’re yet to discover that optimal moment for taking Bella out. Taking her earlier rather than at the onset of labor is preferable, so we’re trending toward a just-after-Christmas Debut. Other tests will follow that will help them nail down that optimal window.

The hole in Bella’s heart remains, but it also remains unproblematic in-utero. With the shrinking of the CCAM, there seems to be a proportional reduction of workload on the heart. So we may be able to postpone open heart surgery until weeks or months after delivery as well. We will know more once little Bella takes her first breath. There is still a discrepancy between the size of her head and the rest of her body-parts, but nothing that gives the doctors pause. (They’re even brazen enough to have looked at Seamus and Savannah when we bring them to ultrasound visits, and comment that we just seem to have kids with big heads.)

To say we’re encouraged is an understatement.