27 Weeks and a Head Cold

So I've had a decently nasty cold for the past week, which makes me not want to do much of anything, let alone write about not doing much of anything.  But I figured I owed you an update, so here it is!

On Saturday, we reached 27 weeks!  I can't believe I'm in the last week of my second trimester!  Ellie is having frequent parties in my belly and has even started playing tag with Daddy.  He pushes on my belly and she kicks back.  It's pretty funny.  For them.  The internet tells me that she is practicing breathing her amniotic fluid (sounds icky to me, but it's good to practice, I suppose!) and showing more and more brain activity!  And I'm getting bigger too!  Yesterday, I had to have Andy tie my shoes for me to go to work because I just couldn't reach them well enough.  Granted, I had just had a really big lunch, but still.  I will be done with work in just 2 more weeks and then good-bye shoelaces!  Slip-ons from here on out!  I promise I will get an updated belly picture to you here soon, it's just been hard with our crazy schedules.

Speaking of crazy schedules, here's a sample of what we've been up to this past week:
Monday: Andy work 7-4:15; Heather work 5-10.
Tuesday: Andy work 7-4:15; Heather work 10-3, quick dinner, clean house, teach lesson.
Wednesday: Andy work 7-4:15, dentist appointment at 5:15, quick stop home for dinner, church council meeting at 7; Heather work 9-2, make and eat dinner, choir practice at 6, pack a little once home.
Thursday: Up early for ultrasound at the specialist; Andy work afterwards until 4:15; Heather run errands while in town, make dinner, clean house, teach lessons, eat dinner, teach more lessons, sort and start laundry
Friday: Andy off work; meeting with the insurance agent to sign papers for the homeowners insurance, grocery shopping, pack and do more paperwork for the rest of the afternoon, more laundry, dinner; Heather work 5-10.
Saturday: Fall Fest all day at our favorite Christian Summer Camp and Retreat Center (where we met and got married).  Home to collapse after a long day.
Sunday: Sunday School and Church, Bells practice for Heather, lunch with Andy's dad and a friend of his, home to change clothes, Heather work 3-7, dinner, more laundry and packing.

And that brings us up to the present!  Hopefully this week will be a little less hectic, although I can't be sure.  I have a dentist appointment on Wednesday and work here and there throughout the week.  I can't wait until I'm done with work and then will have 20 more hours a week to spend on things like packing and getting ready for the new house!

Speaking of the new house, only one more thing has to happen in order for us to reach settlement on the 8th.  And it's completely out of our hands.  If this last ball gets dropped, the whole thing will fall apart, and we don't even know the name of the person whose responsibility it is.  I'm just trying not to think about it too much, because the possibility just stresses me out too much.

Our ultrasound on Thursday went well, I guess.  It didn't take nearly as long as the last one and consequently wasn't nearly as painful!  That's always a plus!  The ending conversation with the doctor was almost identical, though.  She's still only in the 7th percentile and he's still concerned about why that is.  She looks great developmentally.  Bloodflow to everywhere is great, her organ development and placement is great, heart looks great, everything is great.  Even her short femurs (leg bones) caught up!  I had to specifically ask about it because he didn't bring it up, but he said that the last measurement was in the 3rd percentile and now they're in the 28th!  So that was a bit of good news for the day.  Maybe if her legs can catch up, the rest of her can too?!  But for now, we are getting some blood work done (on me) to see if I am carrying any kind of an infection that could have spread to her very early on and caused this stunted growth.  If it comes back positive, then we will pretty much have to do an amniocentesis at 32 weeks to find out if it did actually pass to her.  I don't want to have one done.  I really don't.  But if the doctor says it's necessary, then we will do it.

The most discouraging part of the day was when he told us that whatever we find out will pretty much just be for the sake of knowledge and preparation.  At this point, nothing that they find will have a solution.  She has no physically deformities (which would at least be fixable to a certain extent), so everything else is either a viral infection (no cure for viruses) or a chromosomal abnormality (no cure for that, outside of science fiction).   So anyway, it wasn't a bad visit because there was no bad news, but I don't feel like calling it a good visit either because I didn't feel good when we left.  I'm just getting to the point where I either want an answer or to be left alone.  13 more weeks of this and then I will have her in my arms, good or bad.  That's what I'm going to focus on right now and realize that, as frustrating as they can be, the doctors really do have our best interests in mind.  God's already got her life all planned out and He'll give me the strength to deal with whatever is involved in it.  If you didn't know this already, my absolute favorite book of the Bible is James.  He's got so much good stuff, minus any sugar-coating, packed into such a few short chapters.  For example:

I think that's what I need to be focusing on in the coming weeks and months.  Building endurance.  The specialist wants to see me again for another ultrasound on November 1st (I have my glucola test at the regular OB on the 31st of this month and then go back on the 1st for my first Rhogam shot.  Another busy week.) and then has warned us that he will probably want me to come in weekly after that to be hooked up to the fetal monitor to make sure that there is no need to take her early.  Combined with the bi-weekly OB visits that come in the second trimester, plus once a week birthing classes starting in November that will certainly prepare us for any possible problems that may arise during the birth process, our endurance will be growing in abundance.  And I will, with God's grace, consider it an opportunity for joy.