Baby Update and Peanut Butter Cookies

I haven't given a baby update in months so I thought I would share with you the latest news from the doctor. Many of you know that our original ultrasound showed the baby had an echogenic bowel which the doctors said could be completely normal with absolutely nothing to worry about now or in the future, or it could be a marker for downs syndrome or Cystic Fibrosis. We did some further testing and those two were 100% ruled out. This was wonderful news but the doctors said I still had to be considered a highly monitored pregnancy because there could be future complications (like stunted growth or still birth). So, every month I have had an ultrasound and starting in 2 weeks I will have to go twice a week until the end of my pregnancy to undergo non-stress tests to make sure the baby isn't distressed. If he shows any kind of elevated heart rate, they would induce me early.

While living at the doctor's office is not appealing, I haven't minded the monthly ultrasounds because it has been super neat watching the baby grow. The reason they are monitoring his growth is to make sure he isn't delayed in his growth. Well, personally I think the Lord has grown him so much over the past few months just to prove to the doctors that all of this extra testing is absurd! He started out about a week ahead of his growth schedule from the very first ultrasound. This was common with both Hannah and Emma. They had long legs like me and they were always ahead of their due date by a few days. Hannah had the largest discrepancy between her due date and size. They said she was 8 days ahead of her growth schedule. None the less, she came on time and I went into labor on her due date and she was born the next day. I think Emma was a few days ahead but not much. I can't remember exactly. Well, "brother" as he is affectionately called at our house is now 14 days ahead of his due date! He is in the 83 percentile for his age. This means 83% of babies his age are smaller than he is. He is a whopper! When the ultrasound technician measured his femur bone this week she said, "Whoa, have we been saying this baby has super long legs?" I told her we had not, we had just been told that he was a week ahead of his due date. She did a second measurement to make sure she was correct and sure enough, she was. He has LONG legs and is 14 days ahead of where the average baby is at this time.

I tell you all this, to say God is good. He has been faithful to answer our prayers and we believe he will continue to do so until the end of January when we meet our perfect son. Please pray that I have patience as I have to endure so many long doctor's visits between now and then. I feel as if I am always pressed for time to get my business work accomplished and with all of these extra visits I have been falling behind. Pray that he will continue to astound us with perfect reports and that he will continue to grow strong and straight like willows by the water (Isaiah 44:4).

As for the two princesses, tonight they had fun making peanut butter cookies with Reese peanut butter cups in the middle. That was our advent activity for today. Below are some pics of their culinary skills in action!

Speaking of two princesses, in 8 weeks we are going to need a new blog title. If anyone can think of creative replacement for Princess Pastimes, let me know. We will be adding a Prince to our clan and we'll be changing our blog name.