Overwhelmed With Thankfulness!

So much to be thankful for.

The words my mom said as I shared the news of this past week – week 34! I couldn’t agree more and here is why:

We are one week closer to meeting our little sweetie! I had my 34 week appointment and everything is checking out great. My blood pressure 108/68, weight gain good, and she is still growing! My next appointment will be in 2 weeks, and then I start the weekly! At my week 38 appointment, if she is not here yet, they will do a growth ultrasound to see if they need to induce me. Honestly, I do not even care how she comes into this world – as long as we are both healthy, that is all we can ask for! So much to be thankful for!

AND…

Today I went to Minneapolis (well, Burnsville, for those who know their MN geography) for my heart check up and yet again, we have so much to be thankful for! Honestly, I was going into this appointment with excitement because I have felt so incredibly good throughout this whole process. And it truly is a continuous miracle – my heart is doing phenomenal! I do have a little more regurgitation in my mitral valve, but nothing that they didn’t expect, as the blood volume during pregnancy increases. My heart function is normal and my heart doctor now says that my delivery doesn’t need to look any different from a “normal” delivery! No worries about pushing, labor, etc.! I truly have nothing to worry about, from a heart standpoint! As long as my heart med keeps doing what it’s supposed to do, (keep my blood pressure low – even though I don’t have high blood pressure, – and keep my heart in rhythm), I am golden! I may get an irregular heartbeat during delivery, but nothing that should cause concern. The doctor’s words today that continue to proclaim God’s majesty and power were “when I look at your (physical) face, you do not look pregnant.” Those words reflect the fact that I do not have any swelling, which was one of the biggest concerns with my heart! Being pregnant AND having a heart problem, usually ENSURE the fact that I should have swelling, but God has protected this body from that – a true miracle! The next step? Having this baby :). Her only demand is that we send an email with a picture of her when she is born! I told we can for sure do that! Then I just have to follow up in 6 months after I have her, to make sure my heart is doing okay and has gone back to what my new normal is. SOOOOOO much to be thankful for!

AND…

We got to see our little sweetie today too! During the ECHO (heart ultrasound), I kindly asked the technician if she had time to take a look at the baby. She glanced at the clock and said “I think I can do that…” Sure enough, we had just a few minutes to spare and to the belly she went. When she found the head, we caught our little daughter letting a HUGE yawn out, as we saw her tongue just flutter. She was probably thinking “enough of this probe, let me sleep”! We saw her beautiful face, little nose, feet, butt up in the air, and her just being extremely active. We found that a foot is by her head, and the other one, not exactly sure where it is, but she is flexible! Probably because there is no where for those long legs to go, so she is just using one as a pillow maybe :)? Smiles never left our faces that whole time, as we saw this life growing inside of me, making us all the more anxious to meet her. If I can give away any little secret, it’s this – she is adorable (and like I told my mom, not that we are biased or anything!) SOOOO much to be thankful for!

It has been an exciting past 2 days, overflowing with joy. A miracle that continues to grow inside, as God continues to grow our faith as we see her grow. God’s grace continues to overwhelm us and it continually brings us back to our knees, in thankfulness to Him!