Our Rainbow

A "rainbow baby" is a baby that is born following a miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, or infant loss. 

This is ours. In November, I miscarried. I don't want to go into all that because it was extremely painful, but this little "baby flower" (what Livie has dubbed her baby sibling) has already started helping me heal. 

Several weeks ago my belly pooched out and we were a little worried (well, Andrew was worried and I was worried/excited) that there would be two since I was only seven weeks along. Today we went in for a nine week appointment. I, being the super rational girl I am, was worried they'd look inside and say "Hey, you have all the symptoms but that uterus is empty!" Well, when they looked it definitely was occupied. And lucky for Andrew it was occupied by only one. And I'll be honest, though the idea of twins was fun, I'm relieved too. And even though twins weren't the reason for the early pooch we did get another explanation. We thought I was 9 weeks, due December 19, but the ultrasound puts us a week ahead. So yippee! Dec. 12 which is awesome and a little further away from Christmas. (Yes, I realize we could've planned that better but it was time.) 

So, Dr. Firth is retiring and we've had to switch OBs. We decided to go with Dr. Horsley. He was the doc who caught Olivia's defect at her 20 week ultrasound. He was also our stake president once upon a time so we figured that would be a good fit. After today, I am convinced we made the right choice. We talked about Olivia and he was particularly encouraging, and sweet concerning 'baby flowers' heart. He spoke to me about all the usual pregnancy care stuff, but then made sure to tell me to care for myself emotionally and spiritually. He said everything I needed to hear. 

As you can see from the ultrasound, 'baby flower' is absolutely beautiful. He/she is perfect as far as we can tell. His/her heartbeat was perfectly strong and beautiful. Now we just wait 'til July 20th for our twenty week. For that one we will be meeting with maternal fetal medicine for a very thorough ultrasound to make sure baby flower is healthy. There will also be a fetal echo on August 9. 

So, we're nervous for obvious reasons, excited for obvious reasons, and just overall ready to have the best Christmas ever this year. And if you feel so inclined to pray that this little one might grow healthy and strong, I would not discourage you in the least.