Scott, Carlye, & Evelyn: July 2012

Evie's stats:
•20mm ventricals
•6+ lb

I'm just over 36 weeks and we finally have a scheduled induction date! Evelyn Claire will arrive August 3rd if she doesn't decide to come earlier. My hospital bag is packed, Scott is installing the car seat tonight, her closet gets new additions each day. We're as ready as we're ever going to be! I hope she doesn't come early and throw off the plan because I love an organized plan, but whatever happens happens at this point. I'm just thrilled that we made it this far and she definitely won't be late. Because honestly, I am so sick of being pregnant. The other day a lady at work said "This is such a fun and exciting time for you!" and I just smiled at her and shook my head. No, this has not been fun. Somewhat exciting, filled with anxiety, pain and roller-coaster emotions but not what I would call fun. But now it is almost over and I am thrilled to be counting down the days. Seventeen more prego days (and nights), 10 more shifts at work, 2 more doctor visits, 1 more ultrasound. And then? One brand new, perfectly adorable baby. And the end will turn into a new, and hopefully much more joyful beginning.

Evie's stats:
•19mm ventricals
•5.5 lb

I haven't updated for awhile, but things have been going great! Evie is a little champ, already surprising us and her doctors. Our last check-up/ultrasound was June 12 (31.5 weeks) and we were overjoyed to learn that her ventricals have stayed stable at 19mm. It appears that the neurosurgeon was right about Evie not having hydrocephalus at all- at least not in the sense we thought at first. He guessed that her ventricals had more fluid because her CC was smaller, making more room for fluid to fill in. He didn't see any drainage issues at all and assumed she wouldn't need a special shunt placed after birth to help her drain the excess fluid. Since her ventricals have remained stable it looks like he was right on!
My doctor was surprised and said that since Evie has been stable for 8 weeks we can anticipate a vaginal birth later than 37 weeks, maybe even as late as 39 weeks. At first, I had mixed feeling about that because, as you know, I am not a fan of being pregnant and 2 more weeks seems like a long time! But gradually I came to accept the fact that the longer Evie is in me the better so I'm glad she has a little more time to develop.

We have another ultrasound on July 10, at 35.5 weeks. At that time the doctor said we'll make more definite plans about when/how Evie will make her entrance into the world. I'm hoping for 39 weeks and planning on a normal delivery barring any unforeseen complications. I am so amazed at the miracle that God has worked with this little girl. Already we have been so blessed. I can't wait to see what He has in store for our little family!

*Side note: we still don't know anything really about her ACC (agenesis of the corpus callosum: missing part of her brain) and won't know more until she is born and the doctor's can check her out. So more on that after birth.

On another note, this last two weeks were so much fun! My mom came down for 10 days to help me do Evie's nursery and she did an amazing job! We worked really hard sewing, organizing, painting, hanging, and in all ways decorating. Ok, mostly she worked hard and I helped a little with multiple breaks (I am so exhausted these days, yuk). It took a lot of work, but the finished product is magical. I wanted a soothing, old-fashioned, very feminine nursery and I love how it turned out. The apartment already had sky-blue walls, so to make it more girly we focused on pink and yellow as our main colors with accents of the blue. Hope she likes it as much as her mom and Nana!