Catching Up!

Some of you have asked me if I was gonna start blogging again. I have thought about it and it is something I want to start again. The last several months have been a complete blur but things are finally starting to get back to normal. Or at least our version of normal for now. Not only do I want to catch everyone up on our life over the past 5 months but I want to use this as a journal to keep up with my sweet baby girl's life. Obviously I can't put the last 5 months in one entry so I will break them up. This first one will be about the first 3 weeks in Baptist South NICU.


When I first got there, after leaving the hospital, I was so nervous about seeing her. I mean Daniel had brought me back pictures but as you know pictures just aren't the same. I walked in and saw my baby, mask over her eyes, bright light shining down on her, several tubes coming out of her, a tube breathing for her, no clothes on, just laying there...so helpless. I got this huge knot in my stomach and just started crying. I mean, I was her mommy....why could I not help her? The nurses were really nice and came over and answered all of our questions. They told us that she had an infection that she had gotten when they put the tube down her throat. They told us that it would be the first of many and that all preemie babies get infections. (Let me just say that this was her one and only infections as of today). The next couple days were pretty much the same. Then we spoke with a doctor who told us that due to her being so early, they needed to do an ultrasound of her head because she was at risk for having a brain bleed. He didn't go into any more detail at that time. The next day however he wanted to sit down with us in a conference room and talk so we knew something was wrong. He started out by drawing a diagram and showing us the 4 stages of a brain bleed. 1 being not that bad 4 being the worst. After this he proceeds to tell us that she has a grade 3 on one side of her brain and a grade 4 on the other. We were completely devastated. He proceeded to tell us that she would more than likely have some very bad disabilities. Things like Cerebal Palsy, blindness, Mental Retardation, Deafness, ect. He proceeded to say that the brain is a complex thing that they still don't have mapped out so there was no way to tell how she would respond. He said he had seen grade 4 bleeds that caused detrimental effects to where the children could not funtion in normal life and he had seen grade 4 bleeds that you would never know the child had it. So he did leave us with a little hope. He told us that the nurses were going to start measuring her head circumference daily because if started to grow too rapidly that could mean that she had developed Hydrocephalus, which is basically fluid on the brain, which would be caused from the blood blocking the normal fluid drainage pathways. This would mean she would need surgery to put a shunt in her brain. So this was something we worried about daily. We sat in that conference room for the longest time just holding each other and crying. It hit us so hard that this was happening to our little girl. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to hear. We prayed about it and decided that we were gonna trust God and have faith that everything would be fine.

I'm gonna cut alot of this short cause if I told every single thing we would be here for a LONG time. It was a whole week before we were able to do anything but touch her briefly. After a week Daniel was able to change her diaper and I was able to pick her up, not hold her, but just pick her up long enough for the nurse to change her sheet. She was only on the ventilator for 2 weeks. She has always had amazing lungs. They took her off and put her on a cpap machine which is basically a sleep apnea machine. That was the day we first got to hold our sweet girl. That was the best feeling in the world. I cannot even put into words how we felt. She was so so tiny but so so beautiful. She did really good with that. She stayed on Cpap for about a week and did really well but then she started having trouble again so they had to put her back on the ventilator. We soon found out it was due to the development of hydrocephalus. All within 24 hours we found this out and were told that she would be taken to The Children's hospital in Birmingham, AL. I hurried home to get things together for us to go up there because they said I had time but by the time I got home they called and said they were on their way. So Daniel was the only one that made it to the hospital to see her off. He was able to talk to her some before the put her in the transport bed. He walked her to the helicopter and took some pictures and then watched them take off with her. He called me and could hardly talk he was crying so hard. He said it was soooo hard to watch her leave like that and not be able to go with her. He got to our apartment and we left and went straight to the Children's Hospital and that's where our next phase began. Here are a few pics from Savannah's time in Montgomery.

This is a pic of Savannah right after she was born being taken to the NICU at Baptist East.


This is my sweet girl hooked up to everything.


This just shows how tiny she was.



First time holding my sweet girl.

Being transported to Children's Hospital.

Savannah Grace Hatfield

Savannah is here!

Born September 13th 2009.

3:56 a.m.

2lbs. 1oz.

13 1/2 inches long



I know many of you have been waiting for her birth story. Sorry it has taken me so long to post but I know you all understand how busy things have been for us. It all started on Labor Day. I had to go in to the hospital to be monitored for a little while because I was having a few things happen that just didnt seem right. We spent a couple hours there, saw the on call doctor, he checked me, I had and ultrasound, and then he sent me home. He said that everything was fine and my cervix was still closed. Well I still felt uneasy but went home anyway. They had told me that since I had been checked that I should expect some spotting in the next day or two. Well Wednesday morning I woke up to bright red spotting. I was told to expect this but I still didn't feel right about it. So I called my doctor and was told to come in for an ultrasound. My mom drove me there and Daniel met me there. I went in and had the ultrasound and the ultrasound tech said " Oh Shawna!" and had this horrible look on her face. She proceeds to tell me that I am 4 centimeters dialated and the only thing keeping Savannah in is my cerclage. Of course I start to panic because she is acting like I was gonna be delivering her that day. Well Doc Dupre comes in and talks to us and says that I need to go to the hospital and get put on magnesium and put on my head in the bed to see if we can stop labor. He didnt want me getting up at all so I was taken by ambulance just across the street. They had my L&D room ready waiting on me when I got there and all the nurses got to work very quickly on me. Of course I am a hard stick and it took them 6 times, even with the anesthisist, to get my I.V. in. Well they fixed my bed to where I was practically on my head and got the magnesium started. I was also put on antibiotics and was given a steroid shot to help develop Savannah's lungs (I got another one 24 hours later. They told us that not going into labor for 48 hours from the first steroid shot was crucial). I was absolutely paniced by this time. Daniel too. It was all happening so fast. Well soon things started to calm down some. The magnesium appeared to be working. I wasnt having any contractions. So on Friday they decided to take me off of the magnesium and give me terbutaline to prevent contractions. I was also given a nerve pill as this medication can make you very jittery. Throughout all of this I was having severe back pain which we thought was from the position I was laying in. So they would give me staydol and phenergan pretty frequently. Friday happened to be my birthday so my mom invited some people and we had a little party. We had cake and the doc and my nurses joined in. Things were still going ok. Well Saturday morning when I woke up my back was hurting alot and I just didnt feel good so they gave me Lortab which didnt help. By early afternoon my stomach was hurting too and I was in tears. They kept telling me the monitor wasnt picking up any contractions and that I was probably hurting from constipation. I told them I was having contractions but this was my first child and they didnt believe me. SO they gave me staydol and phenergan and it knocked me out for an hour but as soon as I woke up I was in tears. Well sometime that evening I told my nurse I didnt feel right and when she went to check me there was blood every where. Luckily Dr. Dupre was on call all weekend so he came in to examine me and I was 5 centimeters dialated. He told us he no longer thought we could hold off weeks but more like days or hours. They started me back on magnesium, a double dose, and things progressed really fast from there. Daniel called my parents and told them that they needed to come. I was still holding out hope that the magnesium would work and I started to panic when I saw them come in and get the baby bed ready. ( I later found out that they had the incubator placed right outside my door but Daniel threatened everyone to not tell me it was there.) I cannot even describe to you the feelings I was having at this point. It's all still a blur. So by the time my parents got there I was is full on labor. And I had complete back labor. Horrible Horrible Horrible pain. At some point my grandparents and Carol Leah got there but I don't remember much about that. I just remember the agonizing pain. Everyone said they could hear me yelling down the hall. I could not even cry it hurt so bad. Plus they ran out of Staydol so I had nothing to even take the edge off. They had to run to the pharmacy just to get some. By the time the anesthesiologist got there I was 8 centimeters and was told I could no longer have an epidural, it was to late, so they gave me a spinal. Finally relief! (I later found out that the pain was intensified because my bag of water was bulging through and the cerclage was ripping). I was so exhausted by this point that I fell asleep while he was taking the cerclage out and had to be woken up to push. I had to push more than I thought I would with her. She was coming out sunny side up and had to be pushed back in twice. Finally at 3:56 am she made her appearance. She made several little tiny cries that sounded like a kitten. Daniel cut the cord (which he was so hoping he would get to do) and they wisked her off to another part of the room to examine and work on her. Daniel went over with her and so did my mom (she was in there too). So they could see everything that was going on with her. I was frantically trying to read faces to see what was going on. In the meantime my doctor could not get my uterus to stop bleeding..turns out part of the placenta was left behind and once removed, finally stopped. Finally my mom looked over and gave me a thumbs up to let me know she was ok. They got me fixed up and soon after they wheeled her by me so that I could see her (for a few seconds) before they took her to the nicu. I remember everyone that was there came in the room soon after and I found out how much she weighed and how long she was. I then found out that she would be transferred to the NICU at Baptist south. They came and got me about and hour later and wheeled me to the NICU so that I could see her before they took her. That was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. And it was only the beginning of a series of hardest things I have ever had to do. Knowing that she was leaving and going to another hospital and I had to stay at that hospital was horrible. Words can't describe the feelings. Daniel left soon after getting me settled in to my room to go see her. My dad went with him. I demanded to get out of the hospital the next morning even though legally I should have been there 48hours after the birth but my doc let me go cause he knew I would call with any problems. So Monday morning we left Baptist East and drove straight to Baptist south. So that is Savannah's birth story...I will add another blog of her life so far at Baptist south soon! Please continue to pray for our sweet strong girl!

24 weeks tommorrow and Finally getting some things done!

Today was my 24 week appt. I will be 24 weeks tomorrow. We have reached our first goal. This is the point that Savannah would have a chance at survival if delivered now. Things are still looking good. Still no sign of the placental tear. My cervix is closed. And apparently we have a little chunky monkey on our hands. The average weight for a 24 week baby is 1lbs 3oz. Our Savannah weighs 1lbs. 10oz! The nurse was shocked at that number and said that if I gave birth at 36 weeks when the cerclage is taken out then she predicts her to be 8-9lbs. If full term she predicts 10-11..WOW! Now Doc. Dupre was a little more reserved with his guess. He said that if she continues to grow at the rate she is now (which could increase or decrease) then he thinks full term she will be around 8-9 lbs. Still a chunky monkey in my book. I discussed quite a few things with him and since things seem to be going good now I don't see him again until Sep. 15th. I will have my glucose test then too. Hopefully I will pass this one the same as I did the last one. And Thankfully I had not gained any weight since last week. We had an ultrasound but didn't get any good pictures because she was facing away from us but at least she is head down. Hopefully she will stay that way.

So over the last couple weeks Daniel and I have ordered quite a few things for Savannah and almost all of them have arrived. We had the hardest time finding a pack n play that we both liked. We had looked online in all the stores and could not decide on anything. The pack n play is what Savannah will sleep in when she comes home. So it is in our room and we wanted something that would not clash or look bad with our room decor. So of course all the cute pink girly ones were out of the question and every neutral colored one we came across was just plain ugly or not even the least bit girly. Finally I came across the Albee Baby website. Now normally I am leery about ordering from stores I know nothing about but I had heard from a few people that they were reputable. We found the perfect pack n play for us and it was even cheaper than most we had looked at. Also there was no tax and anything over $100 dollars shipped for free. We received it in less than a week. (Let me just add that Storkland could have ordered us the same one but would have cost $50 more!) I'll post pics below but we are in love with it. It has a bassinet on top that she can sleep in until she moves to her crib and then it turns into a pack n play which will be great for overnight trips. It has 2 night lights, one so you can see the buttons to push and one that shines in on the baby while she is sleeping so you can check on her. It plays 5 classical songs, 5 nature sounds, and has 2 levels of vibration. On the bottom it even has these little storage shelves which I am sure will come in handy. We also received our travel system. We also had a problem finding one of these we liked. If we found one that we liked the look of then it wasn't at the top of the safety list and vice versa. Finally we found a Graco passage system that we liked. It's very girly which I think will be very fitting for Savannah. It's safe, lightweight, and easy to use. We are really satisfied with it. We have all of our nursery furniture now since we received our glider/ ottoman but I wont post pics of that yet. I want to get the nursery ready first. Our bedding got here today so we can start to buy other stuff. We had to wait so we could match the colors. We are having to be creative with her room since we live in an apartment that will not allow us to paint but I think it will turn out fine. Here are a few pics.

Follow up Baby Doc Appt. 22wks 5days

We had a doc appt today for a follow up on the cerclage. Things are looking good so far. We still have a long way to go and things could happen at anytime but as of right now we are on track. My contractions have slowed to only 1 or 2 a day which is good and Savannah is growing beautifully. She had her ankles crossed the whole time which was cute. She is still breech but still has some time to turn. I had gained 5 lbs. in 2 weeks. YIKES! But still on track. I am still 2lbs. under prepregnancy weight. We were able to talk to the doc about alot of things. He has started me on Prilosec for my acid indigestion. He said that could be causing my nausea. So hopefully that will get better. I told Daniel if the old wives tale is true that Savannah should have a head full of hair. He also has prescribed me some Ambien to sleep. I told him how I can take tylenol pm and sleep for about 2 hours but then I am wide awake, mind racing, tossing and turning. He said it was probably because on top of the normal pregnancy discomforts with sleeping I am dealing with alot of stress that keeps my mind racing and I am also in bed all day not exerting any energy. He said that I should take an Ambien occasionally so that my body doesnt get run down. I'm not sure how I feel about taking something like that but I mean I will if it means keeping my Savannah healthy. We also discussed how Savannah kicks so low all the time and how I am scared she will break my water. She doesnt kick low everytime but most of the time. He said that she def. could but that there is nothing you can do about it. He said I can try changing positions and try an coax her into moving but its really just a chance thing. She kicks so hard and so often I just hope she doesnt kick my water bag just right. We are 1 week and 2 days away from the point at which Savannah could survive outside her mommy but of course we are hoping for many more weeks. I go back to the doc on Sept. 1st. We will have another ultrasound and talk and then I will go back in two weeks. This is when I will have my 2nd glucose test. He told me that I am now allowed to get out of the house for 2 hours at a time. So I hopefully will be able to start attending Sunday morning worship again. I could go for longer with a wheel chair but to church or out to eat or to a movie is what I can do without one. He said I needed to get out of the house some for my minds sake. But I can only go out every few days, not every day. I am so thankful that things are going well. Savannah is such a fighter already and I know she is gonna be a handful when she gets here and i can't wait. lol We finally have our bedding, pack n play, travel system, and glider/ottoman ordered. So once they get here I can start purchasing some of the little things and sit in my glider and watch Daniel get the nursery together. We already have a bunch of things for Savannah. She is gonna be one spoiled little girl! Here are some pics from the ultrasound today. The first one is of her feet. Daniel said she has my toes. lol Her ankles were crossed like that the whole time like she was kicking back.

This next one is another view to show us she is a girl. She is gonna love me flashing her girly parts everywhere. lol

This last one is my favorite. It is her profile and I think she looks just beautiful if I do say so myself. I think she looks just like her daddy.

Back to Bed with a Bundle of Nerves!

This past Sunday a week ago I went to worship in the morning time but was in alot of pain. By the time I got to Longhorn afterward I could barely walk. My lower abdomen was hurting soo bad and I was almost in tears. I got home and called the on call doctor which of course was the doctor I had just switched from. It took him an hour to call me back and then he said instead of going through the hospital that I could just come into the office and he would meet us there. Well we got there and he left us sitting in the hot car for about 10 to 15 minutes because he was on the phone. We finally get in and he says "Wow, you are in alot of pain aren't you?" He apparently saw the way I was walking. Well we go upstairs and he checks my urine first of all since he was convinced that the intense pain I was having was simply a urinary tract infection. My urine was clear! So we go in and he gets the Doppler out to listen to Savannah's heart rate. It takes him FOREVER to find it! I have never had it take that long. So of course we were panicking. He proceeds to then say "Well I'm confident your baby is alive" and then almost gives up but I guess can see the panic in our eyes. Then he says "Well I've had to send you for an ultrasound before when we couldn't find the heart rate haven't I?" I said "Yeah when we lost our first baby". He was just so insensitive which reinforced our decision to switch from him. I still don't understand how he went from being such a caring doc to what he is now. Finally he found the heart beat. Let me just say that it wasn't even that hard to find at 12 weeks and while in the hospital this last time they always found it right away unless she was really active, but at least then you could hear her kicking the Doppler. So anyway, he then examines me. He told me that everything was fine and that my cervix was closed, a little soft but closed. He proceeds to tell me that even though my urine is clear that he thinks that my bladder is irritated and causing my pain so he prescribed me a medicine that would relax my bladder and some darvocet. I of course could not stop thinking about the "little soft" cervix. I kept questioning him and he told me that it was probably nothing to worry about, some women have a soft cervix throughout their whole pregnancy, and that even if it were a problem that there is nothing they could do. He told me he could not even treat me until 24 weeks because before then it just meant something was wrong with the baby. (we recently had our anatomy ultrasound which showed everything with the baby to be perfect). I kept insisting that something be done so he said I could come in the next morning for an ultrasound to determine my cervical length. Of course at this point we really did not trust him so I called first thing the next morning to get an appointment with my new doctor. We went in to see him Monday afternoon. First of all we had an ultrasound but he said he doesn't like to even do ultrasounds in this situation because feeling is way more reliable. He examined me and said that my cervix was not only VERY soft but very short. I started freaking out because the other doc had said there was nothing that could be done. My new doc then said that we could have a cerclage put in. A stitch around the opening of the cervix to keep it closed) He said they have a high success rate and cannot be done after 24 weeks. What?!? Didn't the other doc say there was nothing that could be done UNTIL 24 weeks? Anyway, he went over the risks of the surgery which included preterm rupture of membranes, miscarriage, infection, and some other things but explained that this was our only option at saving our little girl. Without it I would deliver her pretty soon and she would not be able to survive. So we left there and went straight to Baptist East. We were both in a state of shock, very scared, nervous, and just overwhelmed. We arrived at the hospital and were checked in pretty soon after. Things from there happened very quickly. First of all, my bed was put in a position where my feet were in the air and my head was down. This was to allow gravity to move the baby away from my cervix. I had an IV started, after being stuck 5 times, I had a catheter put in, which was not fun, and then I had a magnesium drip hooked up. I was told that this was gonna make me feel horrible. Boy did it. I felt extremely hot all over, my eyeballs were even hot. I had to be given Zofran for my nausea, which did not work. I then got a bad headache which I was given Phenergan and Stadol which allowed me to rest a little. I was hooked up to a monitor that would show if I was having contractions or not. I was. Or as they called it my uterus was very irritable. That's why they gave me the magnesium. My uterus needed to be calm in order to have the surgery performed. I was told that if my uterus did not calm down by morning that I would have to wait til the evening to have my surgery. It took a while but it eventually calmed down by morning. I was taken to the surgery area around 8 am. Daniel was able to go with me there and I was able to see my family shortly before the surgery. Now this surgery required that I have a spinal. If you have talked to me about this issue at all you know that I am planning on going through natural childbirth because I am so scared of epidurals and spinals. I have bad scoliosis and on top of that I freak out when I can't move my legs. So the thought of having a spinal was just terrifying. Now it was a necessity. So they wheel me back to the operating room, transfer me to the operating table, roll me on my side and then give me the spinal. And of course they had a student do my spinal. Over all it wasn't horrible. It hurt and he had to wiggle it a bunch but he only stuck me once. Then the numbness started. I hated it! On top of that I stayed nauseated and they kept giving me stuff and it wasn't working. The doc came in and got started on the procedure. I was terrified of being awake because I didn't want to be alone if my water broke or something. The whole time I was looking at every ones faces trying to decipher how things were going. Looking for any sign on their faces as to how things were going. I later found out they had given me a little something for my nerves. The procedure was over pretty quickly and the doc told me things had went well. He said my cervix was very spongy and that we had done this procedure in the nic of time. He said the next few days were very crucial and that I would stay in the hospital that long. At this point I was still nauseated and even started to throw up. It took them a while to get me stopped but then they wheeled me into recovery. It wasn't long until Daniel and Carol Leah were able to come back. Soon I was wheeled back to my room and put back on magnesium for a few hours. I had some cramping and was given some pain medication. Every time my catheter would need emptying I would have a contraction, every time I would have pain I would have a contraction. It was very scary. The next morning, the doc came around and said that my uterus had calmed down quite a bit. He said I could have my catheter out and that I could get up to go to the bathroom, shower, and sit in the chair for lunch. That day was rough, had some spotting, very painful, and got even more painful after being up some. Told the doc about it the next morning and that's why he decided to keep me an extra day. He sent me home on Fri. But I have to keep an eye on alot of things. Very Scary being at home. Every little twinge worries me.

Since being home I am still having some contractions. He said this is fine unless I have 6 or more an hour for 2 hours straight. I've had six in one hour but no more than that. I still have some cramping on and off and some shooting pains. I have alot of pressure from the baby from where I don't have alot of cervix left. This also causes the soreness. I have to stay on bed rest, I can sit in a chair for a little while a day, and I can take a VERY quick shower. I go back to the doctor Monday, the 24th. He said if things are healed enough then I can go on very short outings as long as I stay off my feet. Such as church. So we will see. Daniel and I are constantly on edge because any little change could signal labor. Our doctor has been great though and said that there would be ALOT of communication back and forth until Savannah is born. And he said I would probably be in and out of the hospital because he would rather be over cautious than under cautious. That really comforts me. I will have the cerclage removed at 36 weeks if I make it that far and will probably have her soon after. Our first goal is to make it to 25 weeks, which is 3 weeks away, because that is the earliest she would be able to survive outside of the womb. We obviously want her to go alot farther than that but that is our first goal. This is also when he would be able to give me medication at home if the contractions became to frequent. He could start them now if absolutely necessary but he said they don't act long term so the longer I can go without them the better.

Alot of people are wondering if this is a result from coming off of bed rest this last time. Not really. Coming off of bed rest is probably what helped us find this before it was too late because of the pain I was having from the pressure. This is not something that they routinely check for because checking your cervix this early can cause this to happen so we never would have known it. Most women don't know they have an incompetent cervix until after they have a second trimester miscarriage. So we were lucky in this aspect. I however think that this has been in the works since the last time I was in the hospital. I complained to my old doc then that I thought I was having contractions and was told that it wasn't possible since I was so early. Apparently that was not true. My new doc says that while it is not common to have Braxton Hicks contractions until 24 weeks it is not impossible especially since my uterus was already irritated from the tear. I also read online that they can start in some women as early as 2 months. The doc says that braxton hicks contractions alone are not harmful, they are actually helpful but when they happen to often they can cause the cervix to soften, shorten, dilate, or all of the above. So I think it has been in the works for a while.

On a good note, Savannah is very very active. While in the hospital she would kick the heart monitor every night and the nurse could feel her lift it off my stomach. Here lately it has been soooo cute. She loves hearing her daddy talk. She gives him a high five all of the time. Last night he would say, "Savannah do you love your daddy?" and she would kick him. He just talks to her and she responds all of the time. Her kicks have definitely gotten harder. Sometimes they scare Daniel because he is caught off guard. Last night we were even able to see my stomach move when she kicks. She is most active time is from 8pm to 12am. She has a party then. She loves music and is alot more active when its on. She is definitely not a morning person, she sleeps til about 11am..lol We cannot wait to hold her in our arms. As much as I can't wait to hold her, I am so looking forward to seeing her in Daniels arms. He is already such a good daddy and she is going to be soooo lucky to have him in her life. They are going to be so close.

I just ask that you please continue to keep all of us in your prayers. Especially little Savannah. Pray that she can stay in my tummy for at least 14 more weeks.

Pregnancy 20 weeks! Half Way there!

So just some updates on the pregnancy since I was 2o wks yesterday. I really only updated on the tear in the last post so here goes. I have started to feel some pretty strong kicks. Daniel was even able to feel one at 19 weeks 5 days. He was really excited. Now if he feels long enough he can usually feel it at least once a day. Savannah seems to party around 9pm. Although last night during bible class I promise she was practicing her gymnastics. It is such an incredible feeling to feel her moving around inside of me. I still don't feel her all the time but it is getting more often. However I am not fond of the bladder kicks. Apparently she thinks its a soccer ball cause she loves to kick it and its not the most comfortable thing in the world. Although I would rather feel her kick my bladder than not at all. At my appt. I had gained 3lbs since my 13 week appt. That makes it a total of 6 lbs. but I am still 7 lbs. under prepregnancy weight. (I feel like I've put on 40lbs. already) The doc said that it was fine and that at this rate I was on track to gain about 15 to 20lbs. so I'm ok with that. I still don't have a huge appetite. I eat but I don't really snack. I'm waiting for that intense hunger to kick in that everyone is talking about. I still get nauseous on some days and gag when trying to fix food. Even just fixing a bagel this morning made me gag. My stomach has definately popped on out there so I know my stomach will be HUGE by the end but I am taking comfort in the fact that my weight must be shifting to the front since I haven't gained all that much weight. I do however already have "the waddle" I think. lol Now that I have been up some my sciatic nerve is back to killing me. Sometimes I can hardly walk. But I would not give up any of this. We are so excited to have made it this far. I can already tell that Savannah is gonna be a big Daddy's girl. She kicks alot when he talks to her and then other times he can touch my stomach when she is going crazy and he will soothe her. I can't wait to see them together. We are looking forward to buying some things now. We have our nursery furniture but thats about it right now. Hopefully we can go out this weekend for a little while and get some things. I'm super excited about my baby shower that my sis in law is giving me too. We are doing it a little earlier than normal just because of the holidays and the fact that Savannah could still be a little early so it will be on Sep. 26th. I am just so excited to finally go to a baby shower that is for me and the fact that I will get to attend it and not be on bedrest is even better. So here is a pic of me at 20 weeks. Daniel took it last night. I look super tired and to me I look like a hippo but who cares as long as my sweet girl is healthy.

It's a........?!?

GIRL!!!!

Savannah Grace will hopefully make her debut sometime in December. All is well with her and she is just perfect. Her heartrate was 146 and she was moving around like crazy. I felt and saw her push at the ultrasound probe a few times. She is still measuring almost a week ahead of time.

As far as the placental tear it appears to have healed completely. They could see no separation at all. The doc said that I could get off of bedrest but I needed to take it easy. No bending or lifting of any kind. I am not to get overheated. He said I could take showers and I can go to church and even shopping some but if I am going to be out for an extended period of time It need to be in a wheel chair. I still have to be monitored by ultrasound at every visit to check on things and I am still at a high risk of the baby coming early and also having to have a c-section but over all things are great!! We were so pleased with this appt. I will still probably stay on alot of bedrest when at home and take extra precautions when out. I refuse to over do it, we've come too far this time. But we are so excited to bring this precious little girl into the world. She is already loved more than she will ever know. I go back to the doc on Aug. 1st for a visit and another ultrasound. We are praying hard that things will stay on track for us this time. Thank you for all your prayers. You will never know how much we appreciate him. We know that God does answer prayers and it is through his will that all of this is possible. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Here are some photos from today. Once again the gestational age is wrong on the picture. They put it up based on when my cycle started instead of my ovulation date based on our fertility medication. So it should say 19 wks 6 days.

This next one is her face.

This next one she was waving at us. :-)

And Finally She's a girl!! You can tell better in the second photo.