A much-needed vaca

We spent last week in South Carolina.  Hot?  Yes.  Amazing, beautiful and full of relaxation and great family time?  Absolutely!

We left on Friday morning and stopped in Greenville, SC to meet up with Brandon's grandma and brother.  In the 8 1/2 years we've been together, I've never met either of them, so it was nice to finally see them face to face and let our boys connect.  It was a great visit, short... but still great.  I was able to spend some time chatting about Ellie with Grandma Shirley a little as we made the long walk downtown for dinner, too.

Saturday morning we headed from Greenville to Fripp Island.  My family has been going to Fripp for longer than I can remember.  I'm not sure how many times we've gone (I could figure it out if I tried harder, I know), but I know that our first trip there was when my mom was as pregnant with me as I am with Ellie now.  So it's held a special place in our hearts for 31 years - let's say that.

We comfortably fit all 23 of us in a big ol' house on the island for 7 glorious days of relaxation, family time, sunshine and sand (and plenty of pool time, too).  We cruised around in golf carts the whole time and each family took turns cooking dinner for the rest of the families... which was a fabulous idea.  There were times when the humidity were a bit rough at 30 weeks pregnant, but we were never too far from cool water or a shaded ride back to the house.  My sister-in-law, Karen, took some family photos for us with a little maternity flare.  My sister Emily snapped some beach shots of us... we were trying to get sunrise pictures, but we had a dreary morning.  And the sunrise silhouette below is compliments of a friendly stranger I saw on the beach when I went to check out a sunrise alone one day.

The drive may have been a little challenging with a bladder that gets kicked when it's full and a preschooler who can't seem to go potty when we make pit stops for fuel, but we did alright.  It was nice to sleep in our own bed again last night and to see our church family this morning.  It'll be nice for the boys to see Brandon's parents tomorrow... but I think I could have stayed in that house in SC for another week enjoying the lazy days and watching while our boys made lasting memories with their cousins.  But today it was back to reality... who knows when we'll be back on the island.  Time to get back into some sort of groove before we welcome this new little bundle of chaos into our lives (by groove I mean: paint the nursery, install new cabinets and counter tops in the kitchen, get all of Ellie's stuff ready... you know) .  We have 3 appointments for Ellie this week... each with an ultrasound... and did I mention we're headed into a holiday weekend??  Yahoo!  You can expect another update at the end of the week.  Thank you for following along.

Here are a few shots from last week for your enjoyment:

 Daddy building a sand castle with the boys.

 Sunrise on the beach... wish my camera lens didn't have sand on it ;)

Family/maternity pic... how cute are those little monsters?

The boys checking out the ocean on the 1st night.

Chunky little gold digger

We had another round of appointments this week.  I went to see Dr. Dev on Monday and brought the boys with me while Brandon worked late – whew, is that ever a chore?  They want to check out all the equipment as I get weighed and sit for my blood pressure… then, of course, they have to come into the restroom with me, too.  And they want to flush the toilet a thousand times, then scream at the loudness of the flush.  They sure do add a little something extra to appointments at times.  I came armed with books, toys and Playdoh, and they were still more interested in the paper on the exam room table and the industrial “swoosh” of the toilet.  Fantastic. 

Anyhow, this appointment went great – nothing new to report there.  We’re starting to go every-other week now that we’re 27 weeks.  For those of you who haven’t been pregnant recently, this is the start of the 3^rd trimester… so we’re 2/3 of the way to delivery.  Celebrations!  That also means that I have my glucose test in 2 weeks – which really isn’t as bad as some people make it sound.  Or, maybe Dr. Dev just has a better drink for me than others get.  Mine tastes like orange soda… can’t complain.  Dr. Dev did go over the report from Dr. Luby (cardiologist).  He said that Dr. Luby indicated that there should be no contraindications to carrying full term and having a normal delivery.  She doesn’t anticipate that Ellie will need cardio intervention at birth.  Dr. Dev said that because of this, we have the option of delivering at Upper Valley Medical Center in Troy.  This is much closer to home, and has a Level 2 nursery, but it’s something we’ll want to chat with Dr. Luby about next month.  While I hope and pray that Ellie won’t need any intervention at birth, I would be heartbroken if she had to be transported to a hospital where I was not staying.  So that’s up in the air right now.

Today (Tuesday), I went back down to Vandalia to Perinatal Partners.  I was happy to see Lara welcome me back to the ultrasound room for another 40 minute exam.  I love ultrasounds, so this is fabulous.  Lara and I laughed uncontrollably at the shenanigans that Ellie was doing.  She sure moves around a lot.  Ellie now weighs 2 pounds 3 ounces and is measuring exactly how she should at 27 weeks.  Her head is more round than oval, and her belly is measuring at about 28 ½ weeks… chunky little thing.  When we flipped to 4D (shhh… I’m not supposed to tell you we did this), we could see puffy little cheeks and a button nose.  Ellie’s eyes are open now and we could see those alien-shaped little peepers opening and closing.  We saw her yawn and admired her full, beautiful little lips.  Ahhh – can you tell that I’m totally in love?  She posed with her hands behind her head for a bit, and then folded herself in half with her feet over her head.  She stuck out her tongue a little and rolled around all over the place.  Amazing!

Look at that face!  Perfect little lips, chunky cheeks... ahhh!  LOVE!

And this is the one that inspired the title of this post.  

She's either about to pick her nose or do a field sobriety test.  

Little stinker.  This makes me giggle.

Lara also took a look at all of her organs and such – we watched the blood being pumped from the placenta through the cord, we checked out the veins and arteries around her heart, and watched the blood pump around her heart again.  I’m someone who always asks questions, so I had Lara freeze the screen so that we could look at her heart together.  Last time, Lara was scoping things out and I had to wait for Dr. Sonek to give a diagnosis.  This time, I already knew the diagnosis, so Lara could chat with me and show me where the septum was and wasn’t in Ellie’s atria and ventricles.  She showed me the A-V valve in action and showed me where the blood was going as it exited through the pulmonary artery and aorta.  Again, I was totally amazed and so thankful for this technology and for people who use it that are so caring and informative.  

Dr. Sonek came in and said that everything looks consistent with what we saw last month and that Ellie is growing perfectly.  He went over the report from Dr. Luby as well and I talked to him a bit about where to deliver.  He said that he thought Dr. Dev had delivered in Miami Valley (in Dayton), but wasn’t sure if he still did.  So, we’ll check.  That would be the ideal situation.  Either way, we’re going to do what is absolutely best for Ellie – and I haven’t been one bit doubtful of what our doctors have suggested so far… so I know we’re in good hands.  We'll also need to make sure that we're going to a hospital where the pediatric team has BCMH certified doctors.  I know that no matter where we go, I'll be just fine... so this decision is all about our baby.

I really feel like I got to meet Ellie today – and see her beautiful little face.  I’m amazed at how much she resembles our boys in these pictures – which as you know, is one thing I was super concerned about.  I left this appointment with a smile and a giggle, more excited to meet this ornery, chunky little girl than I had been yet.

Thank you for reading along!  Here are some more pictures of our ornery little turkey for ya - feeling pretty spoiled to get to see her so much more than we got to see her brothers:

 Seriously - those cheeks!

 Here is her right footprint - the left one is lifting off here.

And the classic profile :)