I’m now 25 weeks and 3 days pregnant and the baby is still doing well (poor little guy still doesn’t have a name though!) We are so very grateful to have made it this far without needing an IUT. My next appointment is on Monday when I’m 26 weeks and 2 days. At 26 weeks Nora was having her second intrauterine blood transfusion. Here are baby boy’s MCA scan numbers over the past few weeks:

You can see that his numbers have gradually increased over the weeks but he is still staying well under the 1.5 cutoff. Right now he is probably slightly anemic but there are no other signs of trouble on his ultrasounds. His heart looks beautiful. Actually, all of his organs look beautiful (such a blessing) and there is no extra fluid anywhere. He is measuring about two weeks ahead and weighs almost 2 pounds. We are thrilled to see our boy do so well and we give God all the praise for this miracle.

In the past couple of weeks we have finally started explaining to Nora that there is a baby brother in Mommy’s belly and that one day he will come home to stay. This is a huge leap of faith for me because we don’t actually know if he will come home or go to heaven, but lately we’ve been feeling more hopeful than ever that he will survive, so we let the secret out. I’m also HUGE and Nora was starting to wonder what was going on with Mommy’s weird body. I just remember so vividly trying to explain to 2 year old Asher that baby Lucy wasn’t going to come home like we had said and that she had gone to heaven instead. It was terrible and it was so hard for him to wrap his little mind around the concept. I wanted to protect Nora from feeling that loss if her baby brother died so I waited much longer to tell her about the pregnancy than the boys (they knew as soon as I came home with a permacath sticking out of my chest at 10 weeks.) Nora is SO excited about her baby brother and talks about all the things she wants to do with him. In fact, we sat on my bed two nights ago, just Nora and me, having a real heart to heart conversation for the first time. We talked all about the baby and the fun things she would get to do with him once he gets here. It was so special because I felt this sweet connection to my daughter, like we were friends, and it’s something I’ve been looking forward to ever since I found out that I would have a daughter I could keep. Anyway, Nora told me she was going to rock her baby brother, sing to him (she sang me the song she made up for him), put his socks and hat on him, give him milk, give him a bath and when he falls asleep she will shout, “Wake up beebee!” so he can be awake with her (we’ll have to work on that last part.) She also said we should name him “Beebee Callum.” Goodness, she has a lot of ideas and plans for a baby she hasn’t even met yet. With each adorable proclamation of hers my heart trembled and I prayed, “Oh Lord, let it be. Let her hold him and sing her special song to him and even wake him up when hes’ napping, I don’t mind. Please let us experience life with our boy.”

Please continue to pray for our son, that God would strengthen him in this fight for life and protect him from harm. Please pray that Nora will get to be a big sister and meet her baby brother alive one day this fall. I will try to do a better job of updating the blog more frequently. Usually, no news is good news, though!