It is amazing to me that time can go by so quickly, but also seem to crawl by as well!
(Does that even make sense?)
We had our last ultrasound today!
Madeline is doing great and has gained exactly 2 lbs! She now weighs 7lbs 3oz. If she keeps it up she should weigh about 8lbs 11oz when she is born. Her "O" looks good. It still only includes some undialated bowel and looks small compared to her tummy! Hopefully she will have her surgery and be able to be at home with us before we know it.
We cannot wait to hold her and kiss her up!
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I am not sure if you remember from my last post we were able to get in contact with another family who's daughter Ella has an Omphalocele. She is now 8 weeks old. Hers is alot bigger than Madeline's will be, but she is having a hard time with eating.
Here is the link to their blog.
Please pray for them and for healing for little Ella.
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Finally, I just wanted to wish a happy birthday to my little sister Emily. Her birthday was October 22nd!


She also threw me a "baby #2" party on Sunday which was so fun.
We are blessed beyond words that you are in our lives!
We love you Auntie Emily!

Just a little update on what Madeline has been up to.
We have been having our NST's now for about 3 weeks.
They have been pretty good, but at our NST yesterday, they had to do an ultrasound to make sure her fluid levels were OK.
Thankfully they were good, but they were on the "high side of normal".
Sometimes babies with a birth defect will have higher levels of amniotic fluid. This in turn can cause them to come early.
At our last U/S Madeline was already 5lbs 3 oz so she is probably about 6 1/2 lbs by now, which is good.
But we would like for her to stay inside as long as possible, so she can be as healthy as she can be for her surgery.
Please pray that she will stay put until at least 36 or 37 weeks! (c'mon Maddie... that's just another 2 weeks!)
Thank you for all of your support and prayers!

Today we will be hosting a Harvest Party for our young marrieds group and so Ava and I made some apple pies. This is one of my favorite fall things to do and up until this year Ava was too little to care much. But this year she was the best helper I could ask for! She was so cute and so excited about the pies!
I am so blessed to have such a sweet girl as a daughter!

We started Ava in a ballet & tap class on Mondays.
She LOVES it! She liked soccer but she LOVES going to ballet class!
She is so cute! Here are some pictures from the other day when we were allowed to go into watch. She had the GLOW showing off all of her new moves!

Hi Everyone,
We had our 4th ultrasound and our 1st NST (non-stress test) today. Everything went really great! The omphalocele about the same and still includes only her bowels. It is still considered to be a moderate size. They were able to see all of the other organs in the abdominal cavity, and they are all growing well which is great! We got another great look at her heart which still looks good. She is measuring to be about 5lbs 3oz, which is really great as well. It is within the normal range for size… just on the big end! She already wants to be like her big sister! (Ava was 9lbs 5oz)
The NST went really well too. Her heartbeat was measuring 150 bps and she was “responding beautifully” (the words of the nurse!)
Again we want to thank everyone for all of their prayers for Madeline and our family. They mean so much to us and God has really given us a peace about a lot of the things our hearts have been anxious for. Please continue to pray, because we still have a long journey ahead of us, but we know that God is faithful and merciful and gracious and He will see us through!

The LORD'S loving kindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23