20 Week Ultrasound

Last week Satch and I went in for the BIG ultrasound.

You may say it isn't really that big because you don't find out the sex of the baby. 

Well, actually it is huge to us.

We didn't decide to have our 3rd child to have a baby boy or a baby girl.

We decided to have our third child to have another baby.

Another person to add to our family.

For months we have been praying for a healthy baby.

This is the ultrasound that goes in and really checks things out.

This is why it was so big to us.   

Truth be known I just also really like to peek in on our little peanut.

It is so amazing to see what is really going on inside my body.

A precious life is growing inside my tummy.

Here is Satch as he got his first glimpse of his baby.

Here is the little peanut.

Isn't he/she a little beauty! :)

Proud Papa.

This is probably 1 of the 1000  10 times that we looked away

 to make sure we didn't see any key body parts.

Honestly, we have never seen these key body parts in an ultrasound.

Would we even know what we were looking at anyway?!?

We were in the ultrasound room for about 30 minutes

Ooooing and ahhhhing at our newest beauty.

This is probably about the time I said a prayer of thanks for our healthy baby

and walked next door for my doctor's appointment.

The doctor walked in and checked for the heart beat with the Doppler.

We were talking when all of a sudden we heard "it."

The heart beat clearly skipped a beat several times.

I was even able to pick it up with my untrained ear.

This is when you realize that life can change in an instant.

One minute I was letting my guard down and thinking of fun things like baby names,

the next moment I was wondering if something was wrong with my baby's heart.

It was so confusing to me.

I was in an ultrasound minutes before and everything was great.

Minutes later the heart sounded off.

My doctor immediately started to comfort me and tell me that this is very common.

However as a mother worried about the well being of my child it is not common to me.

I was then set up to go in for a stage II ultrasound 2 days later.

I went in and had a very thorough ultrasound.

They poked around and extensively checked out all of the baby's organs for about 45 minutes.

We did not hear the arrhythmia at all and the structure of the heart looked great.

Praise Jesus!

I asked the doctor if I will worry about my child's heart for the rest of his/her life.

His reply, "don't worry about the baby's heart for the rest of your pregnancy."

I am so thankful for a healthy baby.

These scary moments in life remind you just how fragile life actually is.

We can't wait to finally meet who God picked for us to complete our family.

We only see what is immediately in front of us.

However, He sees the big picture and has always been faithful to all of our needs.

I just know that he has picked the perfect little person to compliment and challenge all of us.

Here are big brothers taking a look at "New baby."

Griff pointing to his baby tister. (he has insisted that it is a girl from the beginning)

Roman checking out the baby with his chubby little hands.

This year will challenge our family in every way as we know it.

I can't wait to see what God has in store for us...

**Before going in for the ultrasound I wasn't feeling much movement.  In the ultrasound I learned it was because my placenta attached in the front of my uterus.  Since then I have been feeling lots of movement everyday.  Feeling my baby squirm around is one of the most comforting feelings in the world.

Pregnant

October 12, 2011.

A morning that changed our lives forever.

I woke up and took a pregnancy test that said...

Waiting the 3 minutes for the results can be the longest 3 minutes of your life.

Baby #3 was totally planned,

however the word

"Pregnant"

stopped me in my tracks.

I had to sit down for a second to catch my breath.

When Satch and I decided to get married and start a family 

we always dreamed of the number "3."

I also knew deep down that we would have boys.

Satch's family has yet to produce a girl. 

After Roman was born my baby fever 

kicked up to code RED.

Here I was holding and loving my perfect newborn baby

and so longed for a chance to be able to do it again.

My baby fever was an unexplainable thing.  

It was more of a feeling that I just couldn't shake.

I knew that we were up to our eyeballs at any given moment.

I love and adore my boys more than anything in this world,

but something was still missing?

My theory goes like this.

After Griff was born I just knew that we would have another child.

After Roman was born I could not speak with such certainty.

A few months after Roman was born 

Satch had a real conversation with me.

Satch:"Our hands are pretty full with our 2 kids.  

I'm just not sure if we will have another.

I don't want for you to get your hopes up in case this is it."

Me: "Yeah, yeah, okay."

I knew that we would revisit this conversation when the time was right.

I was also smart enough to let it go at that moment.

Needless to say...

The conversation was revisited and we decided to give it another try.

I remember thinking through the situation.

We both needed to be 100% on board and on the same page.

I didn't want either of us to have hard feelings or resent the other years down the road

for pushing the other into such an important decision.

I didn't want to always wonder what if...

I didn't want for him to blame me for forcing the issue.

The night I planned to have "the talk" with him was pretty amazing.

That day I prayed for Satch's heart to be open to the conversation

and I prayed "thy will be done."

Funny thing,

I didn't even have to start the conversation.

He did.

We talked and made our decision together....

I am so excited thinking about our future.

I am very nervous about having 3 kids 4 and under.

I question my ability to handle it.

I often also question my sanity. :)

What I don't question is His will.   

With lots of prayers for and over our family I know that we will be just fine.

  

The bond

It seems like this was just yesterday.

In the blink of an eye and a nano second later here we are now.

Plus one more...

This pregnancy has not been easy.  It started off a little shaky.  I went in for my first appointment at about 5 weeks.  Everything was standard procedure.  A battery of blood work and an initial ultra sound. This is when I caught my first glimpse of our little peanut.  The next day I received a phone call that my progesterone level was low.  I needed to come back in the following day to have my labs redrawn.

The levels came back low.  Not low enough to put me on oral progesterone, but low enough to be closely monitored.  I went in weekly to have blood work done.  At about 10 weeks my levels were finally at a better place.  Praise Jesus.

Last week my doctor was out so they scheduled me with another doctor in the office.  He was unable to find the heart beat with the Doppler monitor.  He said everything was great and not to worry because at 11 weeks it was still early to pick up the heart beat with the Doppler.  We will see you in a month.  Walking out of the office without hearing the heartbeat was brutal.  I need to hear it for comfort and for reassurance that our peanut is growing big and strong.

I sat on it for a few days, but couldn't let it go. I felt that everything was good, but needed to hear my baby.   I sent my doctor a text telling him about what happened.  He said come back and see me on Monday.

I went in today.  Once again he could not pick up the heart beat with the Doppler.  He sent me in for another ultrasound.  (I believe this is now the 3rd- Peanut is already being captured by the paparazzi)

As soon as I walk into the ultra sound room I always throw out my disclaimer, "remember we DO NOT want to know the sex."

Next thing I know I saw Peanut on the monitor.  This was the most beautiful sight.  It was such a relief to know that Peanut is still there.  This picture of my baby made it so real.  Of course I knew that I was carrying around a baby, but this was our first bonding experience.  Wow.... this 11 week and 5 day baby is fully formed.  He was adorable.  One of the reasons why he is so hard to pick up with the Doppler is because he is moving around too much.  Peanut sat still long enough pose with his hand next to his face.  Simply breath taking.

The doctor walked in to make sure everything was good.  He looked at the monitor.  He said this is the nasal bone and research shows that babies with Downs do not have a visible nasal bone.  I was able to breath another sigh of relief.

I am so grateful that my pregnancy is right on track.  I pray that the Peanut continues to grow big and strong.  I am so in love with a.....?

Oh and the heart rate was so fast and strong today.  It was 170 beats per minute.  This is the most precious sound imaginable.  I will never tire of hearing my baby thumping away inside of my belly.

**I used "he" today rather than using he/she or it.  :)  

BIG news

2 little boys

have some really

BIG NEWS...

We are so pleased to announce

that we are expecting a new baby

in June.

We are filled with

joy

love

happiness

anxiety

and sweet dreams of the future

thinking about our newest blessing.

Shhhhhh........

Griffin just can't keep his secret any longer.... He is going to be a BIG BROTHER! We are expecting Baby Schaff in the spring. Thank God for his many blessings!