A Big Thumbs Up!

So with each Ob/Peri appointment that comes, I anxiously await that ultrasound fearing for bad news. I mean, how can I not after all that we've been through? As they put that gel on my stomach and set everything up, I nearly hold my breath. I'm sure that will change once I can constantly feel Samuel moving around, but up until this point, I don't so I'm constantly paranoid. Well, thankfully, today brought another batch of good news our way!

Samuel's healthy with a heart rate of 152 bpm and growing as he should be, and best yet -- and the reason for today's ultrasound -- my cervix is measuring exactly where it should be! (For those of you just now reading, this is a major concern after how we lost our first son, Jacob.) What a huge relief! My sister, Deb, said it best...I spoke with her before the appointment and she said a good ultrasound will probably give me a sigh of relief for about 2 minutes, haha. Yeah...that sounds about right. :)

Well, that sigh of relief was followed by a fun 10 minutes of watching our little guy relax on the screen. He was too stubborn to give us a profile shot, but we did get to see him vegging out. He laid there with his arm behind his head as if to give it some cushion like someone who's laying on their back without a pillow. He also sat there with his fist clinched shut, but his index finger out and bending back and forth continually as if it was intriguing to watch. Towards the end, he gave us a thumbs up -- giving the tech, James and I a good laugh. Perhaps he was reminding us that things are going great thus far...

I'm so thankful things are continuing to go well. It's still hard not to expect the worst, and gosh...I'm sure I still will until we hear him cry at delivery -- assuming we make it that far. I guess it's only natural. We'll definitely soak up every minute that we have with this little guy, that's for sure!

On a side note, something really strange happened last night. I have this canvas of a basset hound that hangs in our hallway -- a gift from my sister shortly after Liv's death. She said it reminded her of Oba, so she had to get it! Well, it's hanging up by a pretty thick nail, so it shouldn't ever go anywhere. However, late last night, while Oba and James were both fast asleep, I heard this huge crash. With the house completely dark minus the laptop, I immediately wondered what on earth that noise could've come from. When I got up to look, I saw the canvas on the ground and the nail still firmly in place in the wall. There was absolutely no reason for it to fall. I looked on the back of the canvas and nothing was different either. How weird! I know in the baby loss community, I hear people mention how they feel that situations like that make them wonder if it's their kid toying with them. I jokingly told James that Liv was messing with us, but who knows. Either way, that was just really odd...

Well, here's to another day of good news and a glimpse of little Samuel!