Where does the time go????

My baby turned one today!!! I've had my cry and am now in disbelief that the year has gone by so quickly. Evan and I have spent the last 24 hours reminiscing about the day Livi was born and the old saying is true and amazing. I have forgotten all the bad, painful stuff. I remember it hurting like the dickens and all the other unpleasantries of labor and delivery. But the sheer miracle of seeing our baby girl for the first time and knowing that she was healthy wipes out all that other yucky stuff. Here are a couple pictures...then and now.

First time to hold her


First few days at home


Christmas '08


Check out that belly! She is SO little, but eats twice what her three-year old sister does. I used to have that metabolism!!!

Quick post

Just a quick post regarding my sonogram this morning. The tech searched and searched, but could not find the same anomaly she saw two weeks ago. Praise God! We are so relieved and I truly feel happy, for the first time since hearing the scary news that we might lose our baby. The heart rate was a strong 171 and there is even a hint at what the sex may be, but we are going to keep that one secret until we know for sure. It's still pretty early to know 100%.

Anyway, thank you for your prayers and concern. More proof that God hears our prayers and while we were at peace with whatever God decided, we are elated that He has chosen to heal our baby.

Gotta scoot. Mia has a choir concert at church tonight. Got to make her beautiful...I mean, more beautiful.

I've got to stop

Googling, that it. I am information junky. I love to google, scan articles, message boards...anything that will give me an idea of what I am dealing with. When we were adopting, I read happy ending stories and not-so-happy ending stories about adopting and drove myself crazy. When I was pregnant with Olivia, I was on the internet a million times a day looking up every new symptom, worrying myself sick about if I would know when I was in labor. (Oh man, did I know!!!!) So, this latest development is no different. Google cystic hygroma and you will be bombarded with a lot of medical jargon, but even more sad stories of babies not surviving. Not what I need to see! What's almost more disturbing than that is the number of people that choose to end their pregnancies once they find out that their baby will most likely have a disability, like Down's or Turner's. I've never raised a child with a disability and I am certain it is no easy task, however, I could never choose to end their life because it might be complicated. Perhaps I am being insensitive here, but this hits at my core pro-life nerve.

Whoa...better stop myself before I get on my soap box! Yep, too late. I'm already there!!!!

We've got some good news...and some scary news!

Of course, good news ALWAYS comes first. The good news is, God has blessed us again and we are expecting another baby. I am about nine weeks and wanted to wait to make the announcement until I had my first doctor's visit and sono, which was this morning. Thus, the scary news. My anxiety quickly went away as soon as the tech turned up the volume so we could hear the heartbeat...a strong 179. Yea! However, I watched the tech as she kept going back over the same thing. Apparently Evan did too, because he asked if everything looked ok. Unfortunately, there is fluid behind our baby's head and neck. Neither one of us knew what this meant, but we knew it wasn't super news when we were taken to an exam room where, after the tech and the nurse whispered, were told that my doctor would be in shortly to speak with us. My techy hubby whipped out my new IPOD touch (super cool birthday present to me!!!) and started googling what the cause could be. *Note - googling can cause serious alarm! Anyway, my doctor eventually came in and after looking at the sono pictures told us that while it is still really early to try and determine anything based on a sono (love the CYA), if it is anything, it is most likely a cystic hygroma. Once again, techy hubby started furiously googling! :) My doctor told me that this is usually caused by a chromosomal anomaly which could lead to various diagnoses. I could miscarry. The baby could have something called Turner's syndrome, Noonan syndrome or trisomies 13, 18 or 21. Can you tell I have been googling?? By the way, trisomy 21 is also known as Down's syndrom. Learn something new everyday! Anyway, it is still really early and even if our baby does have a cystic hygroma, there are cases where they are not caused by chromosomal anomalies and just go away without any complications. So we are praying, and asking everyone we know to pray, for our tiny little baby. God is awesome and is in total control of this situation. We are trusting that He will take care of our baby and make this hygroma, or whatever it is, go away.

I go back in two weeks for another sono to see if anything else can be determined. If it still appears to be a cystic hygroma, my doctor will refer me to a high-risk OB and we will go from there.

Say a prayer for this family!

Their surprise baby (conceived after adopting their gorgeous son!) decided to throw them another surprise and come into this world this morning...a full two months before her due date. So far, she is doing well despite her early arrival. Say a prayer and then jump over to their blog to let them know you are praying.


http://dagerhart.blogspot.com/