35 Week Ultrasound Update!!!

That's right, 35 WEEKS as of last Friday!! I always thought pregnancy would go by slower but I feel like it has gone so fast. Every day I get to have my precious angel Quinn is a blessing. Because of T18, we get to have lots of appointments with him :). The ultrasound ones are my FAVORITE. I look forward to them every 3-4 weeks because this is who I get to see...

I can hardly wait to kiss those lips. And forehead. And cheeks. Pretty much every single inch of him. I love him. More than words can ever describe. He is mine. Forever. He is beautiful. And he is perfect, just how Heavenly Father needed him to be.

We get A LOT of information at these appointments so here are just a few updates...
-Quinn is 4 pounds and 7 ounces!! His Daddy and I are so proud of him for being so strong!!
- He is measuring pretty well except his cute tummy, it's at about 30 weeks (no worries though, that is very common with T18. It doesn't mean anything worse:) )
- His legs measured at 35 cm which means about 13.75 inches!!! He is just a long little bean pole!!
- Some good news on my end... They watch mommies amniotic fluid really closely because with these sweet babies, you can either have a really high amount (which causes preterm labor) or you can lose all of it (putting stress on the baby). I've always been on the higher end of normal but still ok. At this appointment, we found out I am just in "normal" range!

He is growing and happy, we couldn't have asked for anything better :)

Over these last few months, we've learned that Eric and I have been so blessed with the doctors we have come in contact with. Lots of families have some really terrible experiences. I just wanted to take a minute today to express my gratitude to them.

Rose is our ultrasound tech. I love her. I only know her from our monthly visits and she means so much to our sweet family. She was there at the 20 week ultrasound. We were chatting while she was taking pictures. I had asked if she liked her job, which she of course said she did but that there were some hard times. It was about 15 minutes later, with the pictures she had taken, she turned to us with tears in her eyes telling us this was one of the reasons her job was tough. She very sensitively started pointing out his cute clenched fists, his rocker bottom foot, scoliosis, cysts and hole in his heart. I can not even begin to imagine how much her heart was hurting having to tell these first time parents such devastating news. She handled it wonderfully and perfectly though. The fact that even her eyes welled up with tears has always meant so much to me because I know she cares. She has from the very beginning. She has been with us through this whole journey. She answers our questions, she is honest but keeps us smiling. She takes TONS of pictures and gives us a CD of them at each appointment. She has always done this, never asking if we wanted it, just knowing how much it would mean to our breaking hearts. Eric and I will always count her as another Angel that was sent to us.

The perinatologists (they are specialists for high risk pregnancies) that we have been able to work with have been great. Dr Gesteland was the one that told us at our 20 week appointment and stayed late to help us get an amniocentesis (it was Labor Day weekend and they wanted to make sure they got it off as soon as possible so we would be able to get our results back sooner). She was always so kind and so sensitive. She had a great way of explaining things and answering our questions. Again, we were amazed with how perfect she was for us at that time.

Other times we have seen Dr Ball. He is known nationwide for what he does and is outstanding. We first saw him at our 27 week appointment. The first time we met was a little overwhelming because he brought up a lot of things that hadn't been discussed before, like what we do after birth (feeding, respiratory, etc..) We were SO grateful that he brought those to our attention so we could prepare for that. He even called down to the NICU to set us up with a doctor to get questions answered and suggested taking a tour of the labor and delivery floor so I wouldn't be so nervous. He also gave us his number so if we had any questions or concerns we could get a hold of him right away. I know doctors are SUPER busy, these "out of the way" gestures have been so kind to us.

Touring the labor and delivery floor was a great idea, by the way. Carolyn from Angel Watch had already set us up to do that and I am so thankful we did. The cute lead nurse (I wish I could remember her name) had been told about our situation ahead of time and was so sweet to us. She showed us the room and how it normally goes, went over some questions we had, etc. She talked to us about our precious Quinn and even her eyes welled up with tears. It was able to put me at ease knowing I will be in hands of sweet nurses who truly care.

The NICU doctor we got to speak to was great also. He name is Dr Lui. I loved her more for her honesty. She told us that we could "fight" and that that is her job. But she explained it's a quality of life issue after that. It meant a lot that a health care professional that gets paid to "fight" was so tender about Quinn and our thoughts. It was kind of her to go over all the different scenarios that could happen and the different choices we would be given. Again, just nice to know and try to plan or expect.

And lastly, my sweet OB, Dr Yamishiro. With this experience, I have come to believe that there are no such thing as coincidences. I was referred to Dr Yamishiro almost 5 years ago by a very dear friend of mine. I wasn't married yet or even thinking of kids at that point. But he was meant to be our doctor for Quinn. I know that with all my heart. He is so caring and LISTENS to us. He lets me ask all the questions I want and he is so understanding. He has always given us honest answers, been realistic but been hopeful for us at the same time. I think that is an incredible quality, especially for a doctor.

I'm sure I'll have much more to say about them after Quinn's arrival but we are so grateful that these special people have been in our lives during these hard months. We are so blessed.