Wow

Holy moly, where has the time gone? My baby is going to be a month old on Saturday and it's been almost that long since my last blog post. But things are going well at our house. We are just loving every minute of having her in our family. Here are some photos of our baby over the past month.

She's Here!!!

Our precious baby girl has finally arrived! She was born April 1st. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz and measured 18 in long. We are so thankful she is a part of our family and are so indescribably in love with her. More to come later!

38 weeks

Phew! We are at 38 weeks, a place we never actually expected to reach. But we figure the extra incubation time is probably good for the baby anyway. Hopefully (fingers crossed) this is the last weekly picture update though! Cause we know you all would rather see pictures of the baby anyway. :)

37 weeks

I am officially full term today! We are so anxious for this little girl to come, we can hardly contain ourselves! We have our bags packed and we're pretty well ready to walk out the door at a moment's notice. Now the difficult thing is to occupy myself while I wait. If you know me you know how impatient I am. The wait to go into labor is just about killing me. Being incredibly uncomfortable sure doesn't help either! But I know she will be worth it so it's tolerable.

36 weeks

Well, here we are! 36 weeks! Today we hit our very last milestone before our baby could be born. We now get to join the "any day now" club! This week my doctor removed the cerclage. It hurt like crazy but at least it didn't take her very long. She showed us the surgical string they used to stitch the cervix shut which was kind of interesting. It looks sort of like a thick, bright blue, dental floss. Anyway, after she removed the stitches she examined me and said I was dilated 1 cm and 80% effaced. Bummer. We were sort of hoping I would be at least 2 or 3 cm. Oh well, I guess this just means that our baby has a bit longer to fatten up before we meet her. The really good thing now is that I have been released from bed rest! Malone and I have been going for walks, and it feels so nice to be independent again. But we are so excited for our little girl to come. Of course, being excited and nervous and anxious just makes it feel like time is going by slower.

35 weeks

Well, this week I have been sick, sick, SICK. I managed to catch a cold and I just can't seem to shake it. It makes all the pregnancy symptoms extra uncomfortable. Good thing we're almost at the end right? Anyway, here's a picture. Please ignore my puffy puffy face, my stretchy pants, and red nose.

Our Friends

Last summer Malone and I were able to attend a conference about adoption. While we were there we met some really great people. Two of these people are Savannah and Josh. They have been hoping to have children for a very long time. They've tried to conceive on their own and they've tried to adopt. Last fall they were selected by a birthmom. Just today I found out that their birthmom has backed out on them. My heart breaks every time I hear of a situation like this. Although we respect that only a birthmom has the right to make a decision about placing her child, we also understand how horrible it is to be the couple who gets the short end of the stick. Anyhow, the purpose of this post is not to bemoan our past experiences. We have grieved and moved on. However, moving on from such an experience isn't easy, and I'm sure Savannah and Josh are really in need of extra prayers right now. So please pray for them. I know they're not sure exactly what they will plan to do now. So maybe the best thing would be if we pray for them to find the solace they need and be led to the path which will be best for their family. Thanks in advance!

34 weeks

Here we are at 34 weeks! Hooray! This week I had an appointment with my doctor. I had a non-stress test and an "unofficial" ultrasound to measure the levels of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. Everything looked great!

My next appointment is next week. I will be having another non-stress test, an ultrasound to measure the baby's growth, and an appointment with the doctor. I didn't think we were going to have any more ultrasounds, but I guess the doctor proved me a liar. She also allowed us to go ahead and schedule the cerclage removal. That will happen the next week. And then I guess we'll see where things go from there! The doctor says I could go into labor immediately but it's also possible that it can take a few days or so. All I know is, we are so SO excited to finally get to hold our miracle baby in our arms!!!