Leaves

Justin emailed me this picture recently with the subject: "The only thing I am thinking about"."  It took me a while to get what he meant (duh - it'a a picture of a bunch of leaves) but once I did, I thought it was really sweet.

They're all I'm really thinking about, too. It's such a crucial time for the baby's lung development, and as the doctor said, we need to pray especially for those litlte "leaves." (See Update from last week if you have no idea what I am talking about!) I am constanly praying - all day and all night - and I am trying so hard to remain still and calm so as to keep as much fluid in there as possible. (It's very stressful, I might add!)

The tough part about it is that it's not like the doctors can look on the ultrasound in a few weeks to see if the lungs have developed properly or not. There's no way to tell, not until she's born and has to breathe on her own. So all we can do until then is pray and wait.

In the meantime I can be so thankful for each week I make it in my pregnancy. I am 19 weeks now! I have made it 5 weeks on bed rest and only have 4 more to go before I go to the hospital. I just pray that I can keep going like this without any further complications and without going completely crazy from not being able to get our of bed but just a few times a day! But so far, so good. And I am looking forward to going back to my doctor on Thursday for more encouraging news!

One more thing: I wanted to say how much I appreciate all the comments people write on the blog.  I know I have not responded to most of them (mostly cause I don't have your email addresses) but I can't tell you how much it means to me to read your encouraging and sweet words.  To those of you I know and to those of you I don't: thank you for all of your prayers for our baby. It is so humbling and so touching, more than you'll ever know.