Week 36 update

The doctor’s appointment this week was good, but a little hard. The baby’s heartbeat was 155 which was really good. The sonogram showed lots of fluid which was also good. But at the time the baby was breech. (Still no confirmation on boy or girl but we’re going with girl based on the last sonogram.) She’s small and there’s lots of room and fluid for her to move around so she could turn, but we have to be prepared to make a decision about a c-section. A c-section would help the baby's chances and would maybe allow us to see her longer but it's a c-section and I might not be able enjoy my time with her as much. I want to be able to hold her while I can. Given the size of the baby and how easily Lydia came out last time, the doctor said a vaginal breech birth should not be that difficult (he said he's done hundreds of vaginal breech births) but do we take the chance (doctor said it was about 5%) that the baby's arm or something would get stuck.

We saw the lead doctor (Dr. B) at our practice today. He's so nice and I felt very cared for by him. He changed my due date back to what I thought it should be (12/14) and told us he was going to discuss our situation with the rest of the staff so everyone would be ready. So I felt like he was really listening to me and my concern that the baby is coming soon more so than the other doctors (although I like the other ones too). Dr. B was also more (gently) frank with us about the baby’s condition whereas the other doctors may have avoided going into more details. He hugged us and really encouraged us in what we were doing. We discussed doing an amnio with him and he said he was willing to do it but he thought it was moot at this point. If for some reason it’s not a trisomy case, then there’s not anything that they or we could do differently. And the chances that it’s not trisomy are so small.

We've been blessed by the prayers of so many friends and family. I’ve really seen them working. I don’t even remember this but I guess I said I was tired in an email to some friends. I haven’t been noticeably tired since then. Also, we were able to decide on a girl’s name the same week we sent out the email.

We are still praying for the decisions we have to make and that we would wait upon the Lord during this time of uncertainty. I was encouraged by one of my dear friends today that God gives us the grace when we need it and so even though at times I fear the uncertainty of what’s to come, God will provide His comfort and His grace for the moments that I need them. I return to the doctor’s on Tuesday and we are also meeting with a funeral home that day. My parents and my brother are coming to town on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with us since I am obviously unable to travel at this point.