Email to friends (7-1-05)…

As always, David and I are grateful for your continued prayers, encouraging emails, and concern. We love you all very much and appreciate your involvement in our lives.

Our appointment went well this week. Zoe continues to be a trooper. Her heart rate was 150bpm. One of the main objectives for this ultrasound was to get measurements to see how well she is growing. Children with Trisomy 13 are usually very small. Zoe is measuring within a couple of weeks of her true gestational age and she is in the 47th percentile which is right at average. She is actually a whopping 1lb 11oz right now. An interesting measurement that was taken was the length of her foot and the length of her femur bone. For children with chromosomal abnormalities, generally their foot is stubby and the goal is that the two measurements would be close to the same. Zoe's foot and femur were the exact same.

Her brain continues to look good from what we can tell. She has all of the correct parts in the correct position. Often Trisomy 13 babies have abnormalities down the center of the brain/head/face. From what we can tell, Zoe is developing well. Her brain looks good. Her head seems to be the correct size and shape and her face appears normal. The doctor seems encouraged by what he sees as well.

We continue to thank God for the encouragement we receive. We are thankful for little Zoe and what God is doing in her. It is complicated to know how encouraged and hopeful we can be from what we are seeing but we are trying to accept the blessings we see as real blessings. We will have another appointment in 2 Wednesdays because our doctor is out of the office next Wednesday.

We are also grateful that last night we had private birthing classes. The nurses were so kind as to set them up for us so that we would not be with a group of individuals dealing with an entirely different kind of pregnancy. She was also able to talk to us about complications, what to expect in the best scenario and the worst scenario. I believe that it helped David and I both feel more prepared.

Thank you again for everything.

Christina