Norah got a present on Friday

and I got a good 20 minutes of crying in before I could write a thank you note.

I'm beyond blessed to have the support of a group of amazingly strong, supportive, honest and loving women. One of which took the time out of her day to send along a little gift.

The babylegs are adorable, but her simple note touched my heart and brought me to tears. She wrote, "I believe in miracles, and I believe in baby Norah" and just thinking about it, I'm in tears again. I can never thank her enough for that. For the prayers, for being a friend and for believing in my daughter - especially when it's been so hard for me to believe that she'll actually be here this year.
I'm sure she'll have a laugh at my thank you card that must say thank you eleventybillion times b/c I just can't articulate how much her thoughtfulness means to me.
The babylegs and the note are put away for now, but my fall baby will wear them proudly and that note will always serve as a reminder for us of what the journey to having baby Norah was about and the support we received during it.

Thank you, Cate. Thank you so very much. (you can count these are thank yous eleventybillion-one & eleventybillion-two).

echo update

I was a little busy tearing up my house for new carpeting yesterday to update when we got home.

Dr. Carpenter is "delighted" at Norah's development. I think that's his favorite word - he said it at least 6 times during my scan. He also said that based on what he saw in May, he never expected to see a healthy, developing baby in July. I think that really hit home for Nick and helped him to understand why I was so hesitant to be overly hopeful.
The only thing that could be seen was a teeny-tiny pocket of fluid near her heart. IF I were any other patient and they weren't looking for problems, they'd think nothing of it and probably wouldn't even make a note of it.
And so, based on everything they've seen at the last u/s in June and the one yesterday...
I'm not longer considered high-risk by the MFM!

Norah's hb was 128 and she's estimated to weigh about 1lb3oz. Apparently, I grow 'em big. We did get to see her on the 3d u/s a couple times and the first time (no there isn't a picture) she looked just like Jordan. JUST LIKE HER. The other times we saw her (when we did get pictures) she had her arms crossed over her face. Silly baby thinks she's allowed to be shy... she has so much to learn!

and the fear returns =/

WTF mate.

Tomorrow I have another fetal echo. I *know* at the last one, Dr. Carpenter said everything looked great but wanted to be absolutely sure when her heart was bigger and easier to see. I was fine until yesterday when I confirmed the appointment. I'm nervous. I know what a difference a few weeks can make.

It seems so silly to be worried about a heart defect at this point. Less than 3 months ago, I was worried about Norah making it at all. Her biggest hurdle has been jumped and now this little one feels just as high. I have no reason to think she has a heart defect. I have every reason to think Dr. Carpenter was 100% right when he said he didn't see anything 5 weeks ago and that this is just a routine follow up.

Sometimes, being a mother is not fun. This worrying shit is for the birds! Only a lifetime of it left though - that's a plus =)

the biggest lesson we learned when buying this house

Was that Belle would absorb everything that was going on. Give her a screwdriver, and she'll find a screw to use it with; a tape measure and she "measures" the walls, table, pretty much everything she can get to; and give her a budget & she'll make sure every dime is accounted for.



She also played with the drill bit and screws for a little while, until she realized she couldn't screw them into the desk. Then it was onto the change. She stacked and sorted and kept showing me each coin. It was to cute not to take a picture of.

ahhhhhhhh

You know when you have a doctors appointment and you just feel like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders? I had that today. I didn't have any questions about what we'd do after Norah arrived, or which hospital would be better equipped to handle her problems, or what the odds of meeting her were up to this week. I just had a normal, regular, plain 'ol prenatal visit. Ok, there were tears, but they were happy tears. My results hadn't made it over from the MFM yet so I got deliver the news about missing cystic hygroma and that was pretty great to see my dr & nurse get emotional with happy tears. These are the same women who saw me through my pregnancy with Belle and have been by my side, answering any questions I can think of during this pregnancy as well.

Oh, and, b/c the CH is gone, I do not have to schedule a primary c-section AND can deliver at my hospital! If she has a heart problem, I'll have the option to deliver elsewhere, but it won't be required like if the CH was there. HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THAT?!?! I'm pretty psyched about it.

In other news, I'm up a pound - or down 9 depending on how you want to look at it - so I didn't get a lecture about needing to gain weight. Norah had a strong steady heartbeat of 131 and that's about it. The office isn't go to remove the high-risk label until after the next fetal echo-cardiogram, but it looks like from here on out, my pregnancy *should* be "normal".