HUGE Praise!!!

Your prayers have been heard!! We went to the high risk doctor this morning. The first person we saw was the ultrasound tech, and as it turns out, she goes to Eternal and heard Andy preach about us having been infertile for six years before the pregnancy! She was amazing! She did a full anatomy scan of Beulah and said she looks very healthy (another praise!). THEN, she switched on the 3D ultrasound and gave us these!!



We are totally in love with this little girl and can't believe she actually smiled at the camera! What a ham! Already!

Next, the Doctor came in. He was the absolute sweetest man. He did a bit of the scanning himself, but he was looking at the placenta. The original concern was that I might have a condition called vasa previa. I didn't understand that at the time of my last visit with my ob/gyn, but it is much more serious than placenta previa. Placenta previa is where the placenta is blocking the cervix. Vasa previa is where blood vessels or the umbilical cord are between the fetus and the cervix. Click on the link to read more.

The Doctor was looking for the point where the umbilical cord inserts into the placenta. He found the insertion point high up on my right side! So, he ruled out vasa previa! The next order of business was to see where the end of the placenta was and if it was still blocking the cervix. It wasn't!!! It was sitting just to the side of the cervix!! We (including the Doctor) were ecstatic! He said he'd like for me to continue on pelvic rest since it was so close, just to prevent bleeding. But, he thought it looked very promising for the placenta to continue to grow UP as my uterus continues to grow. He did not see any reason to believe that a c-section is inevitable. By the time she's ready to get here, that placenta could be out of the way and I could deliver naturally!!! Hallelujah!!

We just praised God all the way home! We are floating on cloud 9 and honestly can not thank YOU all enough for your prayers. God is good!!

Intriguing Documentary

Not long after I found out I was pregnant, a documentary was recommended to me, The Business of Being Born.  I enjoyed and appreciated what I learned very much, and it has definitely effected the decisions we've made throughout my pregnancy.  The video is for anyone who may be having a baby now or in the future or someone who's just interested in the history of birthing as well as current birthing options and practices.  I recommend watching the trailer before watching the full film to see if you're interested.  I do not recommend you watch the film if you are not interested in watching women birth babies.  It's definitely not a "clean", feel-good film.  :)  I also do NOT recommend you watch this if you will be giving birth soon.  FYI--If you have a Netflix account you can watch the film instantly online.

My New Favorite Thing!!

So, my favorite part of my second trimester was feeling Beulah move.  Now that she's bigger and there's not as much room for her to move, her movement feels very different, and I LOVE IT!!  I can feel her rolling around and I can even feel knees and elbows sometimes!!  I love knowing what I'm feeling.  It makes me feel closer to her because I am more attuned to what she's doing.  She's amazing!!

It's a GIRL!!

If I could express my excitement in characters on a computer screen, I'm afraid it would come out like this @#%^&*!  I am refraining from putting an infinite number of exclaimation points at that end of this sentence:  IT'S A GIRL!!!  (Could you tell by the changes to the blog?)  Our poll results?  17 people (38%) voted it was a girl.  27 people (61%) voted it was a boy.

I don't know how I knew it would be a girl (see last night's post), but I did.  The greatest blessing of all is her great health!  The tech said everything looked "normal".  We saw the four chambers of the heart, the brain, liver, kidneys, bladder, 10 fingers, 10 toes, spine, ribs, etc. and she is just perfect!  She is still measuring a week ahead of schedule, but they're not planning to change the due date.  She's the most beautiful sight we've ever seen!  Praise the good LORD!!  I told Andy that he was glowing.  He's worried about having to give her away one day.  :)

And now for the name reveal...drum roll please...

Her name is Beulah!  When you get a chance, read Isaiah 62.  I cried when Andy read it to me last night.  It has so much significance to us.  Beulah is the new name God gives Zion when he redeems Israel.  It also says in verse 4, "No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate."  That's what we were through six years of infertility.  Not anymore, Hallelujah!!  Verse 3 says, "You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God."  That's our prayer for Beulah.  

We're still toying with the middle name, but we tend to say Beulah Grace.  I had a great-grandmother named Grace.

I'll post the newest video of our beautiful Beulah after I've had a chance to talk to my friend Greg, the computer whiz.  :)

I didn't sleep well last night.  I dreamed that my clock went off at 6:30 and so I turned it off.  As I was laying there thinking about our ultrasound, I fell back asleep and woke up at the time of our appointment.  My mom was here with us (in my dream), so I made her call the doctor while Andy and I frantically got ready to go.  I kept saying, "This was supposed to be our anatomy scan.  We were supposed to find out the gender today!"  It was more of a nightmare than a dream.  I was happy that it wasn't true.  I woke up early.  :)

Since she (Did you hear that? I said SHE!) started moving a couple of weeks ago, the bonding has been so much easier.  And now that she has a name, it's even more-so.  We couldn't be happier or more thankful for this incredible blessing.  Now, I'm going to go praise our LORD for the miracle of our precious baby, Beulah.

I Saw My Baby Yesterday!!!

Have you ever been really excited about something just to have your joy squashed by someone's words?  I don't know if we realize how powerful our tongue can be.  If you tell people that you're pregnant before your second trimester you better be prepared to hear a variety of responses.  Most people we told were ecstatic, but the ones that showed hesitation to be excited or asked questions that were leading to the possibility of miscarriage or other complications, those were the ones that stuck to me.  I mean, I understand why.  Some of them have been through some really traumatic experiences and don't want to see us hurt.

Most of the time I could fight off the fear by reminding myself that God is the one that made this happen in the first place and that He would take care of this baby, but then my fear would consume me again when I had a few days without symptoms and thought that maybe the baby had stopped developing.  So, you can imagine the anxiety with which I climbed up on the table yesterday for my first ultra sound.  I knew this was the moment that would determine my journey for the months ahead.

If you've been through this before, you know that feeling...I'm laying there with hopes and fears swirling around together, dying to know which will win.  The ultra sound tech puts the warm gel on my belly, I hold my breath and grab Andy's hand as she puts the wand to my abdomen, and there it is...the most beautiful sight a mother could see, MY BABY!!!!  We gasp together and watch eagerly as she scrolls over this tiny little person inside me.  How amazing it is to see that tiny little beating heart, that gorgeous spine, those arms and legs moving, the two hemispheres of the brain!!  She said she could see the bladder, which means the kidneys must be functioning properly!  I'm not typically so attracted to organs which is one reason I knew I could never work in the medical field, but I must say, I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life!!  We got a DVD of the whole sonogram and our first baby pictures to capture the moment.  What a treasure!  I'll post some ASAP so you can meet baby Crissinger.  Uncle Mike is getting married this weekend, so we haven't had time to do it yet...maybe next week.

I am so incredibly thankful for this blessing.  I know that I have been guarding my heart and not letting myself fall in love with this baby for fear that I would lose him/her.  But, seeing him/her on the screen yesterday changed that...and the bonding begins!