27 weeks

we are celebrating 27 weeks with jonathan this week. it's a significant milemarker in this journey because it's been 10 weeks since we've found out about his condition and we've probably got 10 weeks at the most left in the pregnancy. sadly, the past 10 weeks have flown by so we realize we don't have much time left to spend with him. of course, we have no way of knowing what will happen after delivery. we may have only minutes or hours with him, or we may have several days. i am truly at peace with whatever happens at that point. again, our prayer is just that he is born alive so that we can meet each other. we are assured by our doctor that he can even be born alive at this point in our pregnancy, if he decides to come earlier than expected.

jonathan is getting really big now, and is still moving around pretty good most of the time. and like i have mentioned before, he really loves his sweets. usually it's chocolate of some sort. yesterday, he wanted a starbucks grande mocha frappacino (decaf of course!) and so i certainly obliged him. i'm surprised i haven't gained all that much weight yet. hopefully it doesn't sneak up on me. but at this point, what baby wants, baby gets.

so we had another doctor's appointment yesterday. i was a little concerned all morning because i hadn't felt jonathan move all that much for several hours. but when we listened to his heartbeat at the appointment, it sounded great- normal, even. my belly is also measuring on track for where i am in my pregnancy. i have gained another pound, which puts me at 14 total. we didn't get an ultrasound this time, but in less than a week we will be traveling back to pensacola for our last appointment with our specialist. we'll get another very detailed ultrasound then. because i will be so far along in my pregnancy, we will be able to get an excellent look at jonathan's heart and perhaps a prognosis as to what we can expect in the next couple of months. we also hope to get lots more pictures and maybe even a sound clip of his heartbeat.

one interesting note about my doctor's visit yesterday: i learned that my triple-screen blood test results came back completely normal. another reason not to trust these tests, or even take them at all in my opinion.

and finally, on a somewhat sad note, this week is our genetic counselor's last week working at our specialist's office, as she is moving on to another job. she has been absolutely wonderful to us, and a friend from the beginning of our ordeal. we know that God placed her in our lives specifically to help us during this time, as he has done with many, many other people. we will miss her.