Post-Holiday Update

Phew. What a whirlwind this week has been! I have felt such an urgency to organize, clean, and then re-organize our house. Fortunately, I have a husband who is extremely helpful and likes a good project! I had a big long to-do list which is now rather short (hooray!), but still had "update the blog" unchecked on it. :)

This picture of me is at my parent's house on Christmas. 36 weeks! I am still really enjoying this pregnancy, but I am definitely at the point where after a while, being on my feet does actually start to hurt my back and belly. I went to the doctor on the 28th and our little girl has grown to an estimated 6 lbs., 12 oz. She looks so cute and I can't wait to meet her! After a lot of prayer and thought, we have decided that our best option is to simply follow the advice of our doctor and have the amniocentesis done this Tuesday. SO...only a few more days until we know for sure when our little one will be born. My doctor seems to think she will be ready and so she could be born possibly as early as the 2nd of January or we may wait until the morning of the 4th when I am scheduled. There is a chance that her lungs aren't quite ready and that we will need to wait until the following week.

My sweet Andrew shared with me tonight that he is "not quite ready" to have the responsibility of being a big brother. I think he has heard so many times what a big "helper" he is going to be, and I don't think he is very excited about that part. We spent a lot of time tonight talking about what we actually expect of him and that his life will change, but that it isn't going to include a lot more work. He is feeling a bit left out, he said, which makes me feel so terrible. Tim and I vowed to make sure to focus on him more and to make time to spend just with him. I am so glad he is able to express himself well and let us know how he is feeling. What an incredible kid he is. He told me also that he couldn't help but have a bad feeling and thought something bad might happen to me or to the baby. We talked about it for a while and he kept saying, "But you can't promise me that nothing bad will happen, can you??" I reassured him as much as I could while being honest, and he finally calmed down and went to bed. This is so hard for him, I know, and I wish I could make it easier for him (and for Tim and myself, too!). Losing Nathan has changed us forever and we will never stop remembering him and missing him.

Please keep us in prayer over this next week. We will make sure to let you all know when our sweet little one arrives. Thank you so much to all of you who hold us up in prayer so often. You have truly blessed our lives in ways you may never know.