Sweet Baby Girl

I have pictures!!!!

Introducing Brooklyn Hope!

I can of course see her sweet face, her arm, and her hand. The first one she is giving us a TigerWoods fist pump.... The second, she is wiggling her fingers, so her hand is kinda blurry. But I sure wish I knew what all the rest of that junk in the picture is! Well, then again, maybe I am better off not knowing.

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Our appt today was fabulous. He checked out Brooklyn and me thoroughly... and when I say he checked me thoroughly, that is NOT an exaggeration. Never had a pregnancy appt that was that "extensive." I'm used to women doctors, so it was kinda weird, and David just stared at the ceiling. Made me laugh, which I hope the doc didn't think was weird that I was laughing during all this. I digress....

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He said that Brooklyn had grown perfectly since we saw her last! She weighs 1 lb 3 oz right now, in the 51st percentile. Her bones, head, etc are growing right on schedule, and he was pleased with the measurements of the ventricles in her brain. The fluid is definitely still present, but he said it was "good" for what we expect of her. For any of you medical people, he officially listed the lesion on her spine as 3 sections, an L4, L5, S1... and he said as far as open neural tube defects go, that he would call what he sees as "mild." Whatever that means. Point being, he was pleased with everything. Also, he saw her legs moving around! I have definitely been feeling her, but never quite sure what she was capable of moving to cause the "kicks" I've felt. But she is kicking those sweet feet! Yay! And he said her feet are growing great with no clubbing, and along with the movement, that was a great sign. So, we are praising God for all of this news!

I loved when he switched to the 4D sono. We got these close ups of her face, and it was tear-worthy for sure! Thankfully, he keeps a box of kleenex right next to the table where I am during appointments. :)

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We had hoped to have more info on "where to go from here," like finding out about her surgeons and junk like that. But this was not evidently the appt for that. So we'll find out what we can on our own for now and ask those questions later. He did say that he expects this to be a perfectly normal pregnancy (easy for him to say, right? Nothing about all this feels normal to me!!), and depending on how big she gets, delivery by csection at 38 or 39 weeks. I had thought they would take her earlier than that, but I guess it is good to let her "cook" and get as healthy as possible before surgery. SO, looks like we'll welcome her around the first week of December!

Thanks again for all your prayers. We still have a LONG road ahead of us... December seems so long from now!! In the meantime, I'll keep you all posted if we know anything different. We are of course still praying first and foremost for complete healing of Brooklyn's little body, and are thankful that God is holding her close for now until He shares her with me. :) Oh, I just can't wait to hold her.

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Many of you know that Romans 5 is my favorite passage of Scripture. (Are we allowed to really have "favorites?")...

"3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces HOPE, 5and HOPE does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

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Love to all~

D, J, R & B