If you missed our first two updates, you can catch up here and here.

If you would like to support us, you can find our registry here, or consider donating to your local Children’s Hospital or Ronald MacDonald House.

As Sofia and I drove down to Children’s hospital today, we were met by a surprisingly thick fog that made for a stressful drive.  As one point Sofia turn to me and say, “this feels like our life right now.” And she’s right. A weeks ago, it felt like the final weeks of pregnancy were murky with unknowns.  After the last two days, however, we now know a lot about what our life will look like in the final five weeks of pregnancy and beyond.

First things first–baby’s abdomen has caught up to a normal size.  A month ago it measured less than the 1st percentile. Two weeks ago it bounced back to the 9th percentile.  And now it’s measuring somewhere around the 25th percentile. This is great news for a baby with Gastroschisis as their abdomens tend to be small anyway.  But even being at 25th percentile was more than we could have expected–especially after we got the reading putting the measurements in less than the 1st percentile.

So here we are–one month out.  The most exciting thing I can say is that everything looks perfect, except baby’s intestines are on the outside of the body.  Everything else is perfect. As of today, I believe we’ve had 15 ultrasounds–so we are getting very lucky to see baby progress.  And Sofia is having a completely normal pregnancy on her end. She is getting less and less comfortable and struggling to sleep. But, all in all, things are looking great.

Children’s Hospital has asked us to relocate to Aurora around the 34th week.  For us, that is December 12th. At that point, we will be relocating to the Ronald McDonald House in Aurora.  It is about a mile from Children’s Hospital. That will be our home until our baby is released in February or March 2019.  In the meantime, my job has been flexible enough to have me start reporting to work in the Aurora Office instead of Greeley.  This will allow for me to save my PTO–making it so I don’t have to miss anything with baby and still get a week or two of paternity leave when we are discharge from the hospital.

If all goes according to plan, we will welcome our first born on January 2nd.  There is much that could alter that date, but that is why we are moving close to the hospital.  Meanwhile, the baby’s room is pretty much ready. Which just added a couple finishing touches–including a world map that is way way too big.  We are as prepared as we can be.

And now we wait.