A great day

Today has been a great day. I woke up this morning and checked my email and found that someone had left a post on our blog. It was a sweet mother Amber who had found out about our story through friends that knew each other. The really amazing thing about Amber is that she just delivered her sweet Alexis only a month ago and Alexis and Joy have a special bond. They were both diagnosed with Anencephaly. Amber was so sweet and shared her blog with me and said that I could also share it with you. Amber, Alexis and their family have an amazing story and they give me so much strength. Alexis is also the cutest baby! If you would like to read their story about their journey with Alexis and also share your love for Amber as the time that she is going through now is the time that I am most scared for, click HERE

We also had a ultrasound today and got to see beautiful Joy move and kick and stick her tongue out at us :) We were able to have it recorded so we could bring it home and show the boys and have more record of her. It was so fun to see her. Last week we went in for an ultrasound and really just had a hard experience and I think it made this one so much sweeter. We loved our tech and Joy had moved from being head down to head up so we were able to see her beautiful face a little better. She loves to have her hands by her face and just squeeze her face into the tissue so we still didn't get any great profile or full face pictures but I know the tech tried her hardest and truly cared. The doctor also came in and tried to get some but Joy started sticking out her tongue so we took that as a "ha ha you will just have to wait to see me" :-) The great things that we saw are that she has two eye sockets and they both look "normal" for and anencephalic baby, all of her other organs are working so she is swallowing and her kidneys are making urine. Another thing that we were able to see was her bone structure right above her eyes. Joy really doesn't have much there :) We also think that she might have the dip between her eyes that we previously thought she didn't have. Either way she has a beautiful face with super cute cheeks. It was so fun to watch her move her fingers and hands and it was so fun to watch her when she got the hiccups. She is such a mover and I loved every second that I got to watch her do so. She is my beautiful baby girl.

About a half hour after we were done with our ultrasound we had our second meeting with Angel Watch, a wonderful support group that is helping us and basically taking care of us too :) They have a website if you would like to see more about there program click here. They have a fantastic team at our hospital and we were able to meet with all of them today and also someone from Intermountain Organ Donors, to try to figure out our birthing plan and how they can help us have the best experience with Joy as possible. I am constantly amazed how much people care and really want the best for us and Joy. In the meeting we had Shanie and Cathy who have met with us previously. They are our go to people if we have any questions.or need anything. They are truly there to help us and you can tell they really care about us. They are nothing but wonderful women. We met with the L&D manager who was so helpful in knowing what we could do as far as when our boys could see Joy. Because of my c-sections they cannot be there right when she is born but they will be able to be right outside the door. We met with the NICU manager and she was helpful when we talked about intubation and oxygen for Joy and just helped us feel like the most important thing was for Joy to be with her family. We also were able to meet the manager on mother baby and she was not able to stay long but it was very nice to get acquainted with her. Like I said earlier there was someone there from Intermountain Organ Donors and she answered a lot of questions we had about timing and what organs Joy might be able to donate, and we met with someone from share parents which is a volunteer based group at our hospital that does hand and foot prints, and also molds, they take pictures and anything that we would like to have as a memory of Joy. They were all so open and helpful to all of our questions even if we thought they were somewhat silly. They always made us feel loved and cared for and we know already that they love Joy.

Yesterday I was able to meet with my Doctor and it just confirmed to me how blessed I am to have her as my physician. She truly cares and is so willing to bend over backwards for me. When we talked about days for the section she just said any day. We would figure out what day worked best for our family and she would do it. She shares our same beliefs and I know that is a true blessing. I know that it makes a difference that we both know how amazing Joy is and where she gets to go after she passes away. She is truly a blessing.

Because of all our meetings I was able to spend half the day with my best friend. We had some great laughs and it always just reminds me how blessed I am to have him.

What could be better than a day like today? :)