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| This is what happens when Bentley wants to get up at 4 AM. |
Brooklyn is about 2.6 lbs (but the ultrasound is usually off by .6 lbs, so she's probably 2 lbs) at 30 weeks and 3 days. The tech guesstimated that she would be between 4-5 lbs at birth. Which means I can go ahead and buy some preemie clothes. :D How cute. Her cysts in her brain are gone, though the doctor says it doesn't mean anything. Her hands are still balled--she's got one finger on one hand that is extended and her thumb and forefinger on the other hand that is extended. Her stomach looks normal and her body is growing.
The indicators that she has Trisomy 18 are still very visible. Her heart--which is not Transposition of the Greater Vessels like I thought--is still malformed. The doctor informed me today that he thinks her heart defect is actually Double Outlet Right Ventricle. It doesn't change much of what has been said already, the blood will still bypass the lungs but the VSD or the Ventrical Septal Defect that she has (I believe he said) means that she might actually live a lot longer than I think! (That is to say, days to weeks rather than minutes to days).
Which is why I am so joyful today! You know, it's strange. For someone else hearing this might be devastating, but seriously. I've been to the far edge and back. To know that I may get to take my daughter home and love her and care for her for a few days is more than I had hoped. Granted, that means we still have to get through the next 10 weeks without going into preterm labor or losing her to stillbirth, but the doctor said my uterus looks good, and there are no indications that I am preparing for birth. Which is great!
Keep in mind that I know that she could still go any day, but I have hope that I will see her in the living, breathing flesh.
We didn't meet with the Neo-Natologists today, they were apparently busy with a "birth" as my doctor put it. I will call them tomorrow to set up a time to meet with them. We will discuss with us what exactly we can expect after birth. We will probably discuss a food tube, since Brooklyn will likely not be able to feed by herself--a bottle or otherwise-- and we will discuss comfort care and whether or not she will be a DNR patient. It all comes down to what Jacob and I want. If you want the details of that meeting, I may put them up here, or you may just need to ask me. We'll see how it goes.
I went to wal-mart the other day and looked at fabric for a blessing dress/burial gown. They had some beautiful fabric, so I may not cut up my wedding dress anyway. Mainly because the pattern on my wedding dress is not what I want on her dress and the color is off-white. I just need to get a needle for the sewing machine, thread, ribbons and fabric and voila. I can make a dress. I might end up buying one, but for now the jury is out.
My blood pressure has been a little high also so I am trying this new thing. It's called 100 days of real food, but I'm only going to do it for 10 days and I'm going to have my Visiting Teacher take my blood pressure and see if it goes down. What I'm doing is cutting out all refined sugars and refined grains and modified grains...anything super processed. So far it's going well. I have accidentally eaten one or two thing with sugar in them but I stopped right away when I realized what I was doing. Ha ha. It's been almost an entire day. 9 days left.
My sister cut out sugar from her diet and her blood pressure looks great--so, let's see how this goes as well.
As for the rest of the family, Bentley has the need to stab everything with his own fork and scoop everything with his own spoon. He screams at me when I take them away from him. He also has a hard time focusing on eating unless I turn on Blue's Clue's and then he's a ZOMBIE. He will just sit there and eat for the whole episode, well, until he's full. I know it's a bad practice but I'm pregnant and I'm tired. Let's see how you handle it.
Jake had an eagle Court of Honor that we were invited to go to. Jacob is the Eagle Scout Coordinator in our ward and so he helps some of the young men figure everything out at the end so they can get their eagle. Anyway, one of the Eagles were touched by how much work Jacob went to to help him get his "Eagle". Jacob was awarded the "Mentor Pin" for being such a great mentor. :D Isn't my huband great? He deserves it.
School is almost out for the semester. Jake doesn't have classes next semester so it will be all research. And guess what!? He's already done with his first year!!! He tells me we have 3 more years and then we are done! How lucky are we!?
All right, well, this has gone on long enough.
Thanks for reading, everyone! Enjoy conference. Thank you for your prayers! Please keep them coming. I need all the blessings that the Lord is sending us!
Love,
Courtney
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