Pregnancy Week 34

Wow. I never thought I'd be typing "week 34". God is SO good to have carried us this far! Lily has turned back around and is head down again, so we're on for a regular birth! Yeah! I was so scared at the thought of another c-section. Otherwise, things are very quiet. We've had fits and starts of contractions, but that is just my body's MO. We're pretty much past the days of grabbing our bags and rushing to the hospital. But it is encouraging to know that my body is changing in preparation for this little girl's birth. The ultrasounds just tease us now. In the last several, the techs have marveled over how much hair she has (you can see it floating around in the amniotic fluid). At the most recent the tech predicted it would be curly! Another girl that looks just like her daddy, maybe? Every appointment makes me more anxious to meet this little one. Although my doctor won't stop me if I go into labor anytime after Christmas, I'm not holding my breath. We are tentatively planning an induction for January 17th (our options are the 16th, 17th, or 19th).

I've been keeping busy getting the house ready for Lily's arrival, cleaning and organizing and getting baby stuff set up. Generally driving Loren crazy "nesting". Our dear friends, the Deibels, threw us a baby shower last week, which was SUCH a blessing.

We were excited to get to see Loren's brother, Joel, last night, and his sister, dad and stepmom come on Saturday to stay for Christmas. What a blessed time of celebrating the birth of our Savior and preparing for the birth of our little girl. We serve a great and a good God, in times of want and times of plenty.

Hab. 3:17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
Hab. 3:18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Hab. 3:19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.

Rejoicing in HIM,
The Bakers

Pregnancy Week 32 & Something Fun

Another week, another complication...Three weeks ago we went in, and due to pain in my leg I had an ultrasound to check for a blood clot. No blood clot, but I did have a muscle tear (how did I do THAT???) and the ultrasound showed the veins in my legs were giving out. Hello, support hose. Then last week, Lily measured WAY big. Her estimated weight was 5 pounds, 3 ounces, which is closer to a 35 week baby than a 31 weeker. After some blood tests, gestational diabetes has been ruled out, so we don't know WHY she's so big.

So, yesterday she turned 32 weeks. At the ultrasound, two things were discovered. First, my cervix is changing, which landed us at Holy Family for the evening to monitor contractions. We got to leave, but I'm on bedrest now, as well as Procardia. Today the contractions were still there, so they upped my dose. I'm still having contractions, even on the higher dose, so I'm not sure what my doctor will do on Friday. I have to make it 2 1/2 more weeks and then I can have her, praise the Lord!

The other complication is that sometime in the last week Lily TURNED! She has been head down since 16 weeks, and all of a sudden NOW she flipped. If she does not turn on her own, we will be having a c-section. There are ways to manually turn the baby, but with my uterine scar that is not an option. So we watch and wait, and I invert myself for twenty minutes a day with the hopes that gravity gets this girl back where she belongs.

It's amazing, that we only have a few weeks left. Tonight we were discussing how we never dreamed we would make it this far. God is so, so good.

Psalm 52:9 I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.

And, just to prove our ENTIRE existence isn't consumed by this pregnancy, a few pictures of the girls:

Grandpa reading with his girls:


Jaime with her lego robot:


Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and Grandpa: