The countdown is over!

Well, here I sit in our hotel room in downtown Minneapolis waiting for 7:30 a.m. tomorrow.

The amnio comes first. If the results of that are OK, we move on to induction around noon.

And then?

It's all in God's hands. I want things to go smoothly and quickly but I really want my daughter born on July 1. We'll see if that's what God has in store for us. If not, of course I'll just be glad to have her in my arms, no matter what day it is...

Can't wait to meet you, baby girl!

D-Day is June 30

It's getting closer!

We will be induced at Abbott-Northwestern Hospital around noon June 30 (if the amnio comes back that our girl's lungs are mature enough).

I can't believe we get to meet her in less than a week!

It's been a long time coming. Not the 10-month pregnancy itself because I think that flew by.....but the waiting to become a mother...to have a child of my own. More than a decade, we've waited for this. For her. This exact child God created was meant to be ours. Now.

God may seem slow at times, but He is never late!

Amen!

Nursery 101

I can finally say after all of our hard work and effort, the nursery is now complete!

I love how it turned out. It's a nice mix of vintage, shabby chic, antique stuff, but still very feminine. It's also calming. I like going in there to sit in my glider rocker and just rock and think about how it will feel to have our daughter home and in this room we created for her.

I never thought it would actually happen. I dreamed. I hoped. I had faith in our Lord Jesus that He could do it. I just wasn't sure if that was His plan for us. I felt it deep down that someday I would be a mother but I didn't know how that would happen.

Just a short month away (if we make it that far)!

I cannot wait to bring our darling daughter home and have her meet all of the wonderful people who have loved and supported her parents from Day One.

We are one lucky family.

Lucky and blessed.

The Unknown

Well, tomorrow is another appointment in St. Cloud. Dr. Rice told us to pack our bags "just in case" Dr. Fairbanks tells us to head to Abbott after our appointment. I don't think it's going to happen but we'll pack our bags in order to be prepared.

All of our testings continue to go well at the hospital here. I've had several NSTs (non-stress tests) and BPPs (bio physical profiles) and she's passed them all.

I, however, apparently am doing a little too well in the blood pressure department. It was discovered last week that my blood pressure was too low. (Can you believe it? The doctors are all being overly cautious because on paper, I should be having issues with my blood pressure, etc., but instead, my bp did the complete opposite they thought it would). At its lowest, it was like 95/23 or something dumb like that. The nurse said I shouldn't have even been talking to her. Dr. Rice came in and asked me how I was feeling, if I had eaten, taken my meds, etc. I didn't have any symptoms of low bp...so it couldn't really be explained. She called the specialist in St. Cloud and he said for me to cut back on my bp meds. I did and came back in the next day to have my bp checked again. Then it was 145/75 so then Dr. Rice said to take my bp meds just once a day, in the morning and then see how it goes. The next day, it was still low but not like a few days before.

When I went for my testing yesterday, my bp was 121/62! Woohoo! They were thrilled.

And so was I.

A poem for our girl

We were blessed beyond all measure
That cool November night.
The test was finally positive.
Mom couldn’t believe her sight.

Dad was gone a-hunting
Gone for many days.
So Mom was left with a secret
Her thoughts going many ways.

God had finally done it!
A baby was on the way.
The countdown had begun
Only nine months away.

The time went by so fast
And now you’re almost here
We cannot wait to meet you
Our precious daughter dear.

A sneak peek

On May 18, I was blessed to get a sneak peek at what my daughter looks like.

I was having my routine BPP (biophysical profile which is essentially an ultrasound) and the tech said, "Let's flip the switch and take a few pictures of her in 3-D!" I definitely wasn't going to argue with her.

Next thing I knew, there she was on the screen and without any prompting from the tech, I could totally see my daughter's eyes, nose, mouth, chin, hand, chubby cheeks. She was right there. In plain sight. Right in front of me.

What a beautiful creation from God.

A blessing.

A true miracle.

Frustrated and confused but still pluggin' along

So, I met with Dr. Rice, my doctor at St. Joe's, last Thursday.

She was telling me how she'd had this conversation with Dr. Ney, the specialist from St. Cloud that I saw on May 10, and how Dr. Ney was telling her how we'd discussed our birth plan and that I would come down to Abbott in the Twin Cities and position myself locally at 38 weeks and stay down there until I give birth...also that Dr. Ney had intentions of doing an amnio on me at 38 weeks to check the baby's lung maturity.

I sat dumbfounded. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

First of all, Dr. Ney never discussed any of this with me, and secondly, I already said that I have no intentions of "moving" to the cities to "live" for two weeks while the doctors figure out when I'm supposed to be giving birth. I said I couldn't afford that and I wasn't going to do it. I was so frustrated. I could barely speak. I just began shaking my head.

Dr. Rice kind of looked at me puzzled and said, "Did she not discuss any of this with you?"

I said, "This is the first I'm hearing any of this!"

Dr. Rice said she was disappointed because it was her understanding that Dr. Ney had discussed all of this with me.

So as of now, all of this is completely up in the air with the exception of the fact that I'm NOT going to the cities early. If I'm there, it's going to be because I'm having this baby!

After our discussion, Dr. Rice said that I was to have an NST (non-stress test) and BPP (biophysical profile). I left the hospital, came back to work for a half an hour or so, and went back to the hospital to have these two tests done.

The NST was to monitor baby's heart rate as she moves around, etc. They strapped a monitor on my belly to track her heart rate with a printout. She was moving around quite a bit, (as she does often) so they had to move the monitor thing twice. She finally stayed in one spot long enough for the nurses to get a good reading.

After nearly an hour, Dr. Rice came in and said that everything looked GREAT! I was relieved of course.

Then it was on to radiology for the BPP. It was basically an ultrasound but they looked at eight specific things including my amniotic fluid level, her diaphragm use (breathing) and her range of motion. I saw her profile again with her cute little nose and chin. I saw her ear, her hand with her fingers moving about as well as her foot being clear up by her head. She had the hiccups twice which the ultrasound tech said was obvious diaphragm usage. She is also head up again. She was facing outward and the tech said that when she made another pass through with the doppler, if she was still facing out, she'd flick the 3-D button on and take some pictures. I was so excited but tried to contain myself. Well, of course, why would my daughter cooperate? Ha-ha! The next pass through, she'd turned around and was facing inward so no 3-D pics this time around.

The tech was going to show my results to the radiologist and then to Dr. Rice and then Dr. Rice was going to call me so I went back out to the waiting room to sit.

After about 10 minutes or so, a nurse came and got me and directed me to a phone where Dr. Rice was holding. Dr. Rice said that baby could score an 8 out of 8 on the BPP and that was her score! Perfect! Again, I was very relieved...

BUT, and there's always one of those, I have to continue these tests weekly until she's born. The next one is tomorrow already.

I just hope my girl keeps impressing the docs because she's definitely impressing her mother.