Thursday, April 12, 2007

Week 21


According to this week's ultrasound, Abby's weighing in at almost three-quarters of a pound now and should be about 10 1/2 inches long, head to heel. Her eyebrows and eyelids are fully developed now, and her tiny ears are able to make out sounds.

The ultrasound on Wednesday gave us what should be our last look at our little girl before she makes her grand entrance in August. She's proving to be a modest little thing, but the technician was able to coax Abby into moving her foot out of the way to show us for sure that she's a little girl. She seemed to be resting while we were trying to get a good look at her, laying comfortably on her belly and making it difficult for us to see her tiny face. But the technician was able to check everything she needed to--Abby's head circumference, femur lenghth, kidneys and heartbeat--and all reports came back positive. It's amazing to get to see her little heart beating on the screen. In the video, you'll see two times when heat imaging is applied to show first the blood pumping through the umbilical cord and later the four chambers of our daughter's beating heart. What a little miracle!

Abby's getting a little more active lately, and on Wednesday night we were able to feel her kick (or punch...who knows, really?) for the very first time. Up until now her movements have been faint little flutters, but this was a definite--albeit gentle--thump from inside the womb.

Please continue to pray for God to prepare us for this awesome responsibility He's called us to of raising one of His daughters. We're so excited to welcome this new addition to our family, but we know that "unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain" (Psalm 127:1). Pray that we would continue to put our trust in God to care for our little one, and that we would rely on the Spirit to give us the strength and wisdom to parent our daughter rightly.

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