November 23, 2007

January 8, 2008

We now know that Whitney's birthday will be on Tuesday, January 8, 2008. That Monday we will have a maturity amniocentesis to ensure that her lungs have fully developed and if so we will keep the date otherwise we will move it to a few days later. I am not sure how I feel about being awake while they perform the c-section...It just doesn't seem right.

Our next appointment, December 3, will give us more details about Whitney's care after birth. We will have another ultrasound, tour of the NICU, and have a consultation with the neonatalogist.

Currently we are trying to prepare for a few practical changes such as moving Fiona to a toddler bed and purchasing a few new items. The next 6 1/2 weeks are going to fly by with all of our Christmas festivities. She will be here before we know it.

November 6, 2007

Doctors Appointment

Yesterday I had my first appointment since being home from Philadelphia. I had 2 ultrasounds since after the first one the power went out and all of the information was lost so we started again. They reviewed the ultrasound and MRI reports from CHOP and hopefully they will be able to utilize the information.

Whitney has a head of hair already. I am very excited about this since all of the Vandersluis children are born bald. I can't wait to see what she looks like. She is currently 2 lbs and 13 oz which is in the 47th percentile for 29 weeks. We were unable to see her back again since she is still in the breach postion and looking very cozy down there. The fluid in her brain ventricles have increased a little to 17mm and 21mm. This is no suprise however we continue to pray that these numbers do not increase. The great news is that her feet are not yet clubbed. We are thankful for this and continue to await her birth watching God work in our little girls body.

My next 2 appointments will be every 2 weeks, Nov 19th and Dec 3rd. We are scheduling a c-section which is looking like it will be during the first full week of January. I can't believe that Whitney's arrival is only 9 weeks away.

Florida Keys

I know many of you are wondering how our trip was and it was wonderful. The flights were all as scheduled and Fiona did great. She slept on the way down and on the way home we sat next to a very nice man who held and played with Fiona for the last hour of our flight. Fiona was having the time of her life playing with the new 'toys' he had with him such as a golf ball and breath freshener. It is amazing what can entertain children. I buy these fancy new toys for the trip and she is more interested in playing with our plane ticket stub.

The weather was better than we expected. There was a 50% chance of rain each day with wind from NOEL coming in, however, it was sunny every day and rained at night. We were very blessed and Fiona and I spent many hours by the pool. We tried to go to the beach but it was pretty dirty and I thought that the beach volleyball court and pool were a better fit for us. We also went to the aquarium and a butterfly museum during the week. The butterflies were amazing and it was fun to watch Fiona point at all of them and attempt to grab a few.

Overall it was a wonderful gift. Thank you for praying for our safe return.