We drove to Houston for the LAST time on Sunday. It’s so nice to have my whole family together for this trip. Josh has the whole month of July off work so he can stay here with us the entire time (unless Nora’s NICU stay is longer than we expect.) On the way here it was so exciting to imagine our ride home with tiny Nora in her carseat. It was really weird to pack for this trip because we will have an extra person on the way home. Packing for a month long trip out of town is hard, but packing for a new person and for the whole birth and NICU stay on top of everything was overwhelming. It’s also hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that we will ACTUALLY have a live baby in our family soon. I have subconsciously not allowed myself to picture our life with Nora in it, probably as a “safety mechanism” to try to protect myself in case the disaster happens. I will be completely shocked when she arrives, I just can’t even picture it. I now realize that I forgot to pack some very important things like a pack and play for Nora to sleep in after she’s born. I can’t believe we are so close to bringing home our baby girl!

Today I had my 35 week check up and pre-op appointment. Nora had an MCA scan to check for anemia and her MoM was 2, which is very high. 1.5 is considered anemic and a 2 is very anemic. Thankfully there were no signs of fetal hydrops and Dr. Moise said the MCA scans are not very reliable anyway at this point. She weighed six and a half pounds today and looked good on the ultrasound. Her last intrauterine blood transfusion is tomorrow at 1:00. Please pray that she makes it through the IUT safely. I am so glad this is the last time I have to do this! The plan is to go three more weeks after this transfusion and then I’ll be induced at 38 weeks. Dr. Moise is hoping Nora will only have to be in the NICU for a few days after she’s born. We will be allowed to take her back to Alabama after she is discharged from the NICU as long as she has an appointment set up with a pediatric hematologist in Birmingham. Dr. Moise has already spoken on the phone with her hematologist at UAB in Birmingham and sent him all the information he needs to treat Nora after we return. Now we just need to get through this last transfusion and get her here safely in three weeks. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. I’ll update as soon as I can after her transfusion tomorrow.