The good news keeps on coming!!!

So, after many many prayers, we heard some great news from Duke Fetal today!!!

Before the blood test:
Chance of Down Syndrome 1 out of 127 (high due to prior DS history)
Chance of Trisomy 13 & 18 1 out of 973

After the blood test:
Chance of Down Syndrome 1 out of 2,561
Chance of Trisomy 13 & 18 1 out of 19,000

Thank you Lord for answered prayers this far! We continue to pray for a clean scan when we have the organs checked in a few weeks!

9.5 month stats on a growing girl!

At Birth: 7 lbs 14 oz, 20.5 inches
At 2 months: 11 lbs 10 oz (60%), 22.5 inches (45%)
At 4 months: 14 lbs 3 oz (50%), 24.75 inches (60%)
At 6 months: 15 lbs 7 oz (30%), 26.25 inches (60%)
At 9 months: 18 lbs 2 oz (30%), 27.5 inches (35%)

Things have been out of sorts here lately so I am trying to catch up on blogging!! Chayse had her 9.5 month check up this morning and is doing great! While she is still on the small side, she is advanced for her age according to her doctor! She is an EATING MACHINE and is going to eat me out of house and home. No complaints from us though! We went to Out Back this past week and she ate an entire grilled cheese AND a sweet potato! Where she is putting all of this food is beyond me! She has 5 teeth now and is standing on her own for about 30-45 seconds... still no steps yet but we are in no hurry! She has had a runny nose here the last few days so we are praying for that to go away... she and I both are tired of using the little suction thing to get gunk out!!

Duke Medicine...

I have to say that while I grew up loving Duke (my Mom went to school there), I have a love for Duke all on my own. They have such a GREAT fetal diagnostic department and wonderful OBGYN's! I could not ask for a better place to be . I learned when I was pregnant with Hope that the fetal department was awesome, and then I learned that the doctors at Duke Children's Hospital are top notch. Today, I was reminded of why I love going to Duke.

Today’s appointment went as well as it could have gone! First, I was able to met with "our" genetic counselor to review family history and to understand the range of testing available throughout the pregnancy. This is the fourth pregnancy (Hope Noelle, a tubal, Chayse Nicole, and this one) that she has worked with us on and it is so nice to see a familiar face when you are in the middle of such uncertainty. I did not have to rehash anything with her as she remembers our family and I have to say, what a feeling of peace that gives!!! To have someone that you can connect with during such an emotional time is priceless. I was reminded today that I am exactly where I am supposed to be.

I had blood work was drawn for screenings on three Trisomy's... Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome), and Trisomy 13 (Patau Syndrome). Babies with these trisomy's sometimes show a pattern in the blood work... Hope's pattern was high-low, high-low which is a pattern for Down Syndrome. It will take a week to ten days to get these test results back so please keep that in your prayers.

We also had an ultrasound where the fluid on the neck in measured. Studies have shown a direct link between excess fluid found at the back of the baby’s neck (nuchal translucency) to trisomy's and to heart defects. This test/ultrasound HAS to be done between 11 and 13 weeks gestation. The normal range of fluid is 1 to 3 millimeters and anything above 3 mm can be indication of a syndrome or heart defect... both of which we had in Hope Noelle. Today, our sweet one's fluid measurement was 1.4mm! This is the EXACT same measurement that Chayse had! No anomalies were detected at this time for this stage of our pregnancy. We will go back around 17-18 weeks and have the organs and bones scanned to check their development and make sure all is still on track! Thank God for a good report this far! As I said before, it will take about 7-10 days for the blood work results to come back.

That said, seeing the baby today on the ultrasound was amazing. The littlest Burgess was all over the place! I was so excited to see that little bitty baby in there, kicking and moving... what a sigh of relief!!!! The tech was able to get a few pictures... I will get them posted in the next day or two!

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

Nathan turned 35 today! Nathan had to work but that didn't stop Miss Chayse from visiting the fire house so she could see her Daddy!!! She also had dinner with her Grandma who turned 60 today! Happy birthday Nathan and Mom!!

My Rock Star!

Chayse had some rock star hair when she woke up from her nap yesterday... it was quite comical!! It looks like she was sleeping HARD!!! Miss Chayse is doing well. Her tooth count is now at 5!! She is a trooper though and has only had a few rough bouts with the teeth. She is crawling all over the place and is pulling up and cruising around everything... cabinets, couches, chairs, people... she is such a busy body!

It is hard to believe that she is already 9 months old! Where in the world has time gone?? She is getting so big and is such a joy in our lives.

Miss Chayse has some BIG news to share... she is going to be a BIG sister! AGH!! This was not a planned pregnancy but we are excited about this. I have been very nauseated but not as sick as I was with Chayse. We have had two ultrasounds so far and things look good! We will continue to be monitored due to our prior history. We will again be going to Duke for organ screening and nuchal testing... which is all a standard level of care now for all OB patients at our practice.

While I am excited to know that they have set a new standard, it is still very scary to think about. Nathan and I are both very excited over this little one but at the very same time, there are the natural emotions of grief and fear that re-surface due to our experience with our daughter, Hope Noelle. Preparing for a new baby always brings emotions of joy and gives you something to look forward to but for me, it also brings back a flood of emotions and memories that are still tucked away deep in my soul. While memories can make you smile and laugh, they can also be painful all at the same time. So now, I find myself thinking about what to do as we have this history of past experiences and yet such future hopes staring us in the face. With Chayse, I learned that my body is able to get a baby here healthy and whole but at the same time, dealing with the emotions of knowing what can happen leaves you stuck somewhere in the middle praying for the best in the things to come. I do find myself asking at times, What if such and such happens? What if they find something wrong? How will we be able to explain it to Chayse? Will we be able to go through all that again? And in those moments when I find myself lost in the emotional fear of these things, Nathan as always calms me down and keeps me grounded. I could not have asked for a better father for my children... all three of them. As I said all through labor and delivery,

"I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me."

looking down onto the brain with hands and legs out front... fingers and toes!!

heart beat was at 182 on Monday