That was the week that was

It's been another week of progress and learning! The time is certainly flying by and our boy will be with us before long (what a relief that will be!). So here's what we've been doing...

A visit to see Kara
... well actually Kara's mum, Jan, as Kara was already in bed. Kara is 8, lives near us and has achondroplasia. Jan very kindly put a card through our door after we found out about our boy to say we could come round and talk to her. We spent a lovely evening with her. She filled us in about Kara's life so far, the Restricted Growth Association conference, and generally useful information. Jan has said we can ring her at anytime and we feel very reassured to know that someone has gone ahead of us and can give us advice about what it is like to bring up someone with achondroplasia in the UK.

Hospital Visits
We started at Ipswich at the beginning of the week seeing a different obstetrician who gave us some reassurance about what will happen at the birth. It seems that the labour will be treated as normal (unless anything tricky crops up) but that after the birth, the care will really kick in and baby boy will be seen by a paediatrician straight away. We saw the special care baby unit (again!) and they seem to think that he will inevitably end up in there for at least a few days so they can observe him. Hopefully, he will arrive on time and so won't need to be in there long. If he comes early, he may have a lengthened stay.

We also went to Addenbrookes this week and everything there is progressing well. The consultant seems very happy with how baby is doing. His legs are still growing, although not quite as fast this week. His head may be starting to get a bit bigger now but we will have to see how that develops over the next few weeks. Clare's fluid is slightly up on last week, but not as high as the week before. So, all in all, good news!

Little People, Big World
Mark and Sarah (Clare's brother and sister-in-law) have recorded loads of episodes of Little People, Big World for us and we went round to watch them last night. The series follows the Roloff family: Both parents have dwarfism as does one of their four children. The series is very amusing, mainly due to all the crazy things the kids get up to on the family's massive farm in Oregon. The programs showed a bit of the Little People of America conference, which lasts a week and occurs once a year. It certainly was a fascinating insight and we learnt a lot from it.

Ok, so that's out news! Our boy has stayed in for another week which is really excellent. God continues to bless us as we put our trust in Him.

Psalm 121

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?

2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;

4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.