23 Weeks!

This week is bitter sweet for a few reasons. First, it is Addi's first birthday. That is bitter sweet in itself- my baby is growing up! Second, it is the time in my pregnancy I was put on bed rest and everything that could go wrong did.

From my belly: Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, Stella can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango). I am able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your Roo Roo barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

Here is the long version I used for Addi...

From my belly: Our baby is longer than 10 1/2 inches and weighs over 1 pound. The body is becoming proportioned more like a newborn, and is the size of a small baby doll! Lanugo hair on the body sometimes turns darker.She is about the size of a small baby doll and looks very human. Her face and body look similar to that of a newborn at this time. Fat is still being deposited at a rapid rate, but your baby still looks red and wrinkled. Our baby looks red because the skin is losing its transparency and pigment is beginning to form. I am feeling our baby moving quite a bit throughout the day as she kicks and punches the uterus walls. Babies also run their hands along their umbilical cord and body. Stella now can suck her thumb for real, where she was just sticking it in her mouth. She will continue to swallow amniotic fluid and recycle it as urine. The liquids and sugars that the baby retracts from the fluid is a supplement to the nutrients that the placenta delivers. I might be able to feel small `jumps` inside when she gets the hiccups from swallowing fluid. The pancreas is developing and it will responsible for insulin production, to help break down sugars. As she continues to grow, she has less space to move around in the uterus. Bones, muscles and organs are growing steadily.

At my last appointment on Thursday, everything was good except I had another UTI (total count- 4, 2 GBS 2 other) which just means another antibiotic per day (same one I am already on 1x a day). We are just waiting on my 24 week appointment, a week from Thursday- ultrasound cervical check and FFN test. I am trying to keep my mind off of it considering all I know from last time. It is not great. Last time I said... "Addi is still so tiny and before 24 weeks survival rates are very low, between 20-30%. After 24 weeks, they keep going up from 50%" Each day counts in the next couple of weeks- 26 weeks is 90% and 30 weeks is 98%!

Thankfully, Addi's birthday has been a great distraction! Same with Easter. We took Addi to her first Easter Egg Hunt which she loved and we are having a small celebration at Easter dinner. Wish me luck on cooking my first dinner for our friends and family! Pictures from the weekend and her birthday to come soon! For now...

For my girls, I love you: Philippians 1: 3-8



Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart... There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. It's not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality....all along you have experienced with me the most generous help from God. He knows how much I love you these days. Sometimes I think I feel as strongly about you as Christ does!