Last Friday Night

Last week Cody and I were lucky enough to meet with a specialist from Children's Medical Center in Dallas to have a fetal echocardiogram done for our little man. Every pregnant lady has about a 2-3% chance of having a baby with a heart condition. Because I myself have a congenital heart defect, that increased our baby's chance to a 5-6% chance of having something wrong too. I am so thankful that my cardiologist is quick to emphasize that our baby has a 94-95% chance of having a perfect heart, which is what we tried to focus on as we went into the appointment.

 I actually spent the day out of town for a college fair and made it back into town with about 5 minutes to spare. With every new appointment, I knew I would have some paperwork to fill out and didn't want to make us start late. As the nurse was handing me the paperwork, she said, "I'll need you to fill these out and give me a copy of your driver's license and insurance. And, I think your parents are here for you."

 I honestly can't imagine the look that I gave her. I wanted to look down, point out my growing belly and state loudly: "Excuse me, I AM THE PARENT HERE!" {As an adult with a congenital (meaning from childbirth) heart defect, people expect to talk to my parents a lot. It's mostly humorous, but somedays, not so much.} I took a look around the lobby and saw no one. I looked back at the nurse and she gave a nod to an area around the corner. Right then, I did, in fact, see both of my parents coming around the corner. I'll never forget my mom's words, "You didn't think there was anyway we were going to miss this, did you?!"

 It was hands down one of the sweetest surprises I have ever had and I am so thankful that they were able to come be with us. Throughout my life, I've always had a weird 6th sense about surprises and get a feeling about things before hand. I knew I was getting a dog for Christmas one year, I had a good feeling about getting a cell phone as a gift, I just knew that Cody was going to propose on a certain weekend. I don't snoop to find out, but seem to know anyhow. This time though, I had no idea that they were coming down. My mom even got lots of information out of me: my doctor's name and how to spell it, specifics on the time of the appointment and what type it would be, and she told me my dad was going to Lubbock for work but she was going to Amarillo to go shopping... This one should have given it away. Lubbock shopping is much better than Amarillo and she most always goes with him any time she can!

 They were able to join Cody and I in the appointment to spend a wonderful hour seeing Griffin preform gymnastics for us. Seriously, the doctor said, "I have NEVER seen a baby move this much in the womb!" As if that news wasn't fun enough :), she also emphasized that babies normally act the same way outside of the womb as they do inside... we're in for a handful! {In our little man's defense, I had hot sauce with lunch and a sugary drink on the road, so I really hope that's why he was so active!}

We left our appointment knowing that Griffin does not have the same heart condition that I do and that his heart looks good, but we have to go back in 8 weeks to see her again because she was not able to get all of the pictures of his heart as she wanted because he was so active. We are not worried that we're going to get bad news at our next appointment and are so thankful that he is looking so healthy right now. It is truly unbelievable how much they detail can see on such a tiny little heart!

 We then spent the rest of the weekend celebrating with my parents. They picked up our stroller for us in Lubbock, so we got that set up and tested it out in the house. My mom and I shopped for cribs online, we picked out paint samples, my dad helped with projects around the house and Cody installed a fan in the nursery. It was such a great weekend and I still so giddy about how much fun it was to have my parents here and celebrate our good news!