Prayers For My First Unborn Child

forbabymonte - 11:08pm Feb 2, 2012 EST

On January 23rd, 2012, I was 27 weeks pregnant, my husband and I walked into the doctors office, expecting a normal ultrasound of our baby boy. Everything was going fine, until she wanted to see the heart. She was having trouble finding all 4 chambers.

Concerned, they sent me to the hospital to have a fetal echo done. The ultrasound tech was also having problems finding all 4 chambers. While I was laying there, belly exposed, I didn't want to believe anything was wrong. They really didn't tell me what was going on or what they were seeing, but I knew something was up.
The tech decided he was gonna send the pictures to a specialist for his input.

A couple days later, around 8am, I got a phone call from this specialist. He wanted me in his office, which is 2 hours away from my house, immediately. He wanted to do a fetal echo himself. So, my husband and I called into work and raced to his office.

We were in the ultrasound room for an hour and a half, scared and confused. Sure enough, the worst was expected.
The doctor explained to us, our baby boy has a 3 chambered heart. An uncommon heart defect. I will have to give birth at the Seattle Childrens Hospital. Which requires me to be out 2-4 weeks before my due date and stay for at least 2 months after birth.

Because of his defect, within the first week of life, he will have open heart surgery and 2 more surgeries later on in life (6 months old and 5 years old). They can't do a permanent fix until he can get a heart transplant when he about 25 years old. The chance of him living past the first surgery is 75%. Not 100%, but better than nothing.

I'm writing this so hopefully my story gets out there and I can get some help and loads of prayers. My husband cant come to Seattle with me because we cant afford to take so much time off without pay. Once I go into labor, he will have to drop everything he is doing and race out.

My name is Laura Matt, my husband, Michael Matt and our baby's name is Monte Wade Matt. We live in Flathead County, Montana.

I hope March of Dimes can help us in any way possible and I hope you will pray for Monte.