32 Weeks!

We're still doing well.  Physically, I'm feeling good and there has been no new excitement.  Every week feels like a little victory now, and there are really only a few more to go!

Other Celebrations:

In all of the craziness I never got to talk about our trip to Nashville for my dad's 60th birthday!  We had a really great time exploring "Music City" and even took a trip to the Grand Ole Opry.  I loved getting to hang out with my family and celebrate my sweet and wonderful poppa!

The whole familia at Nashville's Parthenon replica

My lovely parents at the Grand Ole Opry

We also celebrated Father's Day yesterday, which I rather insisted Jameson take part in.  Though he doesn't really consider himself a dad yet, he has been truly amazing throughout this whole process, and I think that deserves some recognition!

necessary Father's Day selfie collage

This Past Week:

After initially thinking we wouldn't be able to, we had the chance to meet with the neurosurgeon at Dayton Children's Hospital on Friday for a consultation.  Though there are lots of questions that can't be answered until Abby arrives, he gave us a good idea of some things to anticipate based on the images from our fetal MRI.  It was very helpful to be able to bounce some of the questions that we've had off of him and better understand what his process is in various circumstances (i.e. the handling of syndromic vs non-syndromic cases).  He said that within a couple days of delivery we can expect him to pay us a visit to check out Abby and give us his thoughts on what her treatment will entail.  He was very kind and reassuring, and made us feel at ease with his ability to handle whatever is thrown at us!

We also met with our MFM at the base, Dr. Wenckus, and all agreed that it was time to transfer the rest of our perinatal care to the high-risk team at Miami Valley Hospital (since that is where I will be delivering).  Though I know that this makes the most sense logistically, we really love Dr. Wenckus and I am very very sad to be leaving her care.  I will meet with our new doctors over at Miami Valley in the next couple of weeks.

Emotionally, I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of all over the place (thanks, pregnancy!).  There is simply so much that is unknown right now and I am a person that prefers to (over)prepare myself for basically everything.  I like to do lots of research, and talk to people in similar situations, and attempt to take in ALL OF THE INFORMATION.  However, due to the timing of things, there is a lot we can't prepare ourselves for, and that is sometimes hard for me to deal with.

I actually wrote a very long paragraph here about some of the other frustrations I've had throughout this experience, but ended up deleting it because I realized they just didn't matter.  I just need to focus on the fact that God is blessing us with a baby girl.  There will be some extra hurdles to jump when she arrives, but we will tackle whatever she brings along with her because that's what you do as parents, right?  We aren't the first people to worry about our child, and we certainly won't be the last.  That said, I do think this experience might be easier to navigate if she were here already and we were going through it with her.  It would be nice to have a sweet squishy face to give kisses to in the midst of all this uncertainty.

But until then, I will continue to enjoy Abby's daily ninja dance parties (watch the ribs, child).