GROWTH!!

today was our final growth ultrasound. the next time we look at her arms and legs to see how big they are will be when we are holding her in our arms. i cannot wait to see her cute little face and hold her, no matter how long that may be.

so they gave us some really good news today.... her chest size went up a lot since last month. last month her chest measured 19, which put her in the 2 percentile for growth, this month- she is up to 25, which puts her in the 14 percentile. normal range is 10-90%, so yes she still is on the small side, but she is in the normal range!!!!!! they measured it multiple times to double check as they were really surprised it had gone up! we both just smiled knowing it was God's work and timing. they also looked at what is in her chest, and her heart doesn't take it all up. she actually has quiet a bit of lung tissue in there. now we don't know how well that lung tissue will work when she comes out, but at least there is space for it to grow and develop. our dr also wasn't concerned about the fetal lung maturity test being low, as she does have a small chest and there was alot of fluid- so those 2 factors may make the test come back falsely low. she was very careful to not try to give us false hope or let the chest growth give us a better outlook than we should have. but we both found this to be such an encouragement. it's nice to have some growth when you aren't expecting it and especially here at the end of the pregnancy.

her arms and legs are now on a 13 week delay- which is okay now that we have some chest growth. usually the limb length discourages us as it correlates to the growth of her chest. but with this visit, her chest grew so we are okay with a bigger delay on her limbs. she can be as small as she wants to be in that way. she will just be a cute little peanut. right now she weighs 4lbs 4 oz. so she may hit 5lbs for birth!

our dr confirmed that we are not draining anymore, so when i have contractions again we are going to let it progress if i am dilating. my goal is to make it 3 weeks from my last draining. jan 29th (38 weeks) or so. (well of course i would love to go till her due date but i doubt i can hold her in that long). we will see how my uterus tolerates the fluid build up. as i can tolerating being uncomfortable if it can. my hope and prayer at this point is that our family can get here in time.

all this great news made for some much more authentic smiles during our maternity pictures we took today. which i will share when we get them from Anna. i am sure they turned out great and will be a good way to remember this pregnancy.

anyway- i am going to hang out with Sophia's daddy and maybe even go on a date since i went through all the work of putting on make up and doing my hair for the pictures. ha! speaking of him- he has assigned me to bed/couch rest for the next few weeks and is making me take it easy to keep this little girl cooking as long as possible. so here goes my attempt to sit....

again- thank you for praying, God has heard and acted.

please continue with prayers for growth and healing. pray for us as we make preparations for her birth and possible death (as we need to plan for the worst now, so we don't have to make any extra decisions then).

-tristen