From Our Neck of the Woods...: August around the house

August was a busy month for us. The girls attended bible camp for a week and loved it as always. They also hit milestones at the pool - though their form is greatly lacking, they can both swim laps in deep water all by themselves! Before, they always stood when they needed a breath. Doug worked with them in the pool and now they are confident they can do it and are eager to show anyone who will watch!

Cassandra came to NJ in order to attend a 3-day conference nearby so we were happy to have her stay with us! She stayed a week! While she was here, Mom finally got sick enough of NJ and flew home to Michigan to continue working on getting her house on the market in order to move to Oklahoma. Just kidding about the "sick" part, though she was here for 3 months and just needed to get home and see her dogs again.

Doug and John finished the hardest part of the roof re-do on the garage - a project that has taken them almost every weekend this summer to complete. All that's left is some painting, facia, and gutters. Doug's thinking he can do that himself. What a huge thanks we owe to John for giving up his weekends to work on this project! Thanks to Sherry for giving John up to us on weekends, too.

The baby and I continue to grow. All along, doctors keep reassuring me nothing is wrong, but order more and more ultrasounds. I have been very upset through this pregnancy with how I'm being treated - I get the feeling something's wrong, but they're not telling me. For instance, I had my routine 20-week ultrasound, and the technician spent a very LONG time looking at the heart. She was asking me again for my due date because the baby is too small to be as far along as it should be. (It's growth is 2 weeks behind now - it was 1 week behind in the first trimester) When I had my appointment with the doctor 2 weeks later, she said they wanted me to have another ultrasound in two weeks. When I asked why, she said as she hesitated and looked resigned in the face that they wanted to check for cleft lip since the baby had it's hand in front of it's face the whole time. They just wanted to be 100% sure there wasn't anything wrong there. So when I went to the ultrasound, a new technician did the ultrasound and said "so you're here to check the heart and face, right?" I KNEW IT. Turns out the heart is fine, and so is the face. Yet, they want me to have another ultrasound next week (after week 28) with a high risk doctor to rule out IntraUterine Growth Restriction. I know this because I was able to decipher what was written on the prescription I'm supposed to hand the doctor. But the thing is, I've done some research online about IUGR and a baby is not considered to have this unless the baby is in the 10th percentile or less in size. My baby is in the 22nd percentile. True, it's small, but in my mind, not close to being an IUGR baby. The docs have completely stressed me out, probably because I'm 41 and refused all testing at the beginning of the pregnancy and they are skittish. This pregnancy has been a nightmare emotionally, but great physically. I've now decided that everything is fine, and I'm going to trust that everything will happen as it should. The baby moves around quite a bit now. The baby continues to grow - you no longer have to push on my belly to feel it's movements - you can simply look at my belly and see the punches and kicks it throws around in there. They can order all the ultrasounds they want. I'm going to look at it like they are giving me yet another chance to see my baby rather than looking for something wrong. That said, November 30 (or earlier since my other babies were early!) can't come soon enough.

But enough about that. The most exciting "medical" news this month is that Caroline lost her first tooth and she hasn't even started kindergarten yet! It had been loose for awhile and she was eager to pull it out. When I asked her what the rush was, she said she wanted the money. Sure enough, while eating a sandwich with bread that had seeds in it, her tooth fell out! Oh happy day! The toothfairy gave her $5 for her first tooth and she brought it to the pool in order to buy sour candy at the snack shack. She ordered it, and paid for it all by herself. What a big girl...

Caroline reading to Memah in her cool hospital bed in our living room