Thank you. And I do mean YOU.

I was catching up on my Bloglines reading this morning, and had 6 or so posts to read. Some of them are from people who recently had babies (including a set of quads), and some are from people who are still in the trenches. Coincidentally, all of the posts today included pictures of the blogger and/or their babies. None of this is all that amazing, it's what happened next that shocked me. Megan strolled into the office to see what I was doing. As I clicked through the posts, she greeted each and every person -- including the quads -- by name. I knew that every time I visited a blog when she was around, she loved to look at the pictures and always asked me people's names. It just didn't dawn on me how many people she knows.

That's when it hit me. I don't even know most of these people. We've never met, and we never will. Yet I truly do feel like we are friends, and I genuinely care about them. I would think that it's some romantic version of "caring" about people that you can easily reserve for folks you'll never, ever meet. But since I've had the privledge of meeting over a dozen of the DC Metro ladies, I know that it's the case that I really do like them. There is something special about the IF bond, and I'm not sure I can put it into words. Even if I could, those words would never do justice to the richness that my blog friends have brought to my life.

Two years ago today, I was going in for my first D&C. One year ago today, I was still reeling from 4 pregnancy announcements (including my best friend), and a cancelled IVF cycle. I felt alone. Very, very alone. I have Kevin -- who is amazing and patient and tries so hard that he deserves a medal -- but that's different. I also have a wonderful, wonderful group of IRL friends who have worked hard to educate themselves and figure out the right way to be supportive through our IF journey. But that's different too. My sister has endured 3 IVFs and 2 miscarriages, but she is somewhat bitter about it, and I suspect that she's always thought we should stop this nonsense and move straight to adoption. So, as much as she did actually understand, her support was different as well (plus it was almost 10 years ago that she rode the IVF rollercoaster). The only person I had that truly, truly got what I was going through was Rho. And boy, did we lean on each other hard during our first few cycles. (Especially because her IVF cycle got cancelled last December shortly before mine did.) Without a shadow of a doubt, I would not have made it through this journey without her.

I remember like it was yesterday, when I wrote this in a previous post:

"It's amazing how this whole IF thing fucks with your mind. One minute, I am cool as a cucumber. Totally well-adjusted, cruising through each day with nary a worry in sight. Okay, that's a bit much, I don't know that I'd go quite that far. But suffice it to say that at those times, I'm not a ball of seething anger mixed with raw nerves topped with painful depression. Then, there are the other times. There are the bad days when I can't as much as take a single breath without lamenting my fertility woes, the wasted 4+ years trying to make babies, the angst-filled pregnancies that killed my babies, the hundreds of shots, the procedures, yada yada yada. More than anything, I get angry. But then the guilt (about the anger) takes over, and then I get sad, then I get gloomy, then . . . well, you know the drill.

Recently, I had a particularly happy spell. Two of my co-workers had babies (who have children under 2 at home already), my neighbor had a baby, my best friend is enormously pregnant, and there are what seems about 65 million IF bloggers who have managed to get knocked up in the past couple of months. Miraculously, I handled all of this well. I think I actually managed to half-smile at a couple of pregnant people in the mall recently.

Then, something happened. I don't know what it is. I think that part of it is the fact that I never really mourned the failure of our recent IVF. I was angry and shocked, but only cried twice (including that episode in Dr. Chat's office). For the past 2 days, I've been slipping back into my old, sad ways. Ugh. Luckily I've got loads of experience with this particular situation, so I know it's fleeting and will correct itself without any major event. Which is a good thing. But it still sucks. I'm sad, I'm angry, I'm feeling unfairly picked on, I'm confused, and mostly I'm just tired.

Tired of all of it. Tired of the waiting, tired of the failures, tired of the trying, tired of the drugs, tired of the bloodletting, tired of the dildocam, tired of the broken dreams, tired of pretending like I'm okay, tired of pretending like I've got hope, tired of actually having hope, tired of being jealous, tired of being angry at pregnant people. So damn tired. Mostly tired of trying. It feels like there is no end in sight.

This is ridiculous, there is an end in sight. We have a very clear game plan, and I'm 99% certain we'll have a child by the end of it (via donor eggs or adoption or kidnapping ... totally joking about that last one). It's just that when you're down in the pit, there isn't a lot of light and that makes the shadows under the bed really look like monsters. But they aren't monsters, they are dirty socks. And most of the time, dirty socks aren't that scary. Just dirty, and sometimes smelly.

I just want my life to begin again. It feels like I've been holding my breath for half a decade. I'm waaaaay beyond manipulating my plans around the possibility of being pregnant, that's not what I'm talking about. I think I'm just so very ready to find my old self again, to check the box on the family building nonsense, to begin LIVING.

Again, this is ridiculous. I am living. I have a great life. Shit, I'm not even sure what it is I'm trying to say here. I do know that just putting it down in print is already making me feel better. It's cathartic, really, sort of cleansing."

This year is different. This December 31st, I'm not checking in for another D&C. This year, I'm not crying that yet another year has passed with nothing to show for it except a big, fat helping of debt and sadness. This year, I have all of you.

It's amazing that after just 7 months of blogging (although I've been reading much longer), and almost 100 posts, I feel like I have known some of you for such a long, long time. I suppose this is what it feels like to have a support group. Whatever it is, I love it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not so dense that I don't realize this December 31st is also quite different because I've got Spidey on the way. But I genuinely feel that even if we hadn't been blessed with our little miracle (hey, the 7th time's the charm, right?), I would still be in a better place. Thanks to the magic of blogging and the support of our community.

I already wrote a gushy post about how much I love you guys, so I don't need to go into it all again. Just know that as I am counting my blessings, the IF blogging community -- and specifically every one of you who have ever showed me kindness or support or empathy -- are near the very top of my list. Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

Our "big" scan yesterday was blissfully uneventful. What a wonderful Christmas present!

As previously predicted, it does, in fact appear to be a boy. Once we get our scanner (joint Christmas present for/from me and Kevin) and get it hooked up, I'll scan in the pictures. (Not pictures of his family jewels, we didn't ask for any of them, just pictures of his face, hands, legs, etc.) The 3D ones are neato, even if Spidey does look quite alien-like.

Everything went well. All the organs are accounted for, measuring correctly, and in the appropriate place. We saw the 3rd joint on the pinky finger, saw the hands opening and closing, and saw a gorgeous 4 chamber heart. All fantastic signs that Spidey probably does not have Down.Syndrome. So we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Yesterday I was 18w1d and Spidey's measurements averaged out to 18w0d. All of the measurements (femur, humerus, head circumference, etc.) were between 17w6d and 18w1d. I think that partially it's because Spidey is cooperating and growing on track, but I also think that the tech who did the initial scan was great at her job. She took a lot of time to look at everything -- again and again and again -- and provided an endless running commentary explaining what she was looking at, and what she was looking for. We really appreciated that!

The biggest shock of the day was that the Perinatologist recommended that we don't do the AFP quad screen. We were totally set and prepared to get it done, but he basically talked us out of it. He spent a long time explaining exactly what it tests for, and then reviewed all of the results we have thus far (extensive anatomical scan, NT scan, NT bloodwork, etc.) and said that we wouldn't be testing for anything else we haven't already tested for. I have NEVER EVER been the one who was offered the "easy" road. I have never been the one who was told she didn't need extensive, exhaustive, invasive testing. We completely trust this Doctor, so we decided to take his advice. I was giddy at the prospect of avoiding an agonizing wait for yet more test results -- especially for a test that often gives false positive. So that too was a great early Christmas present.

As of today, I will start wearing maternity clothes full time. Thank goodness because squeezing my big self into my old clothes was getting pretty . . . um . . . comical. I also promised to get excited and attempt to be optimistic about this pregnancy. I truly will do my best. Luckily I feel him move every day, dozens of times a day, so that's reassuring. We told Megan that she is going to be a big sister and she was excited. She initially refused to accept that it was going to be a little brother, insisting that she would only like a sister. Eventually she came around and decided that having a brother would be okay -- only if we agreed to name him Scuttle. (For those of you who have the fortune to be blissfully unaware of the excruciating details of Disney movies, Scuttle is a seagull played by Buddy.Hackett in The.Little.Mermaid.) We avoided the discussion and decided to tackle that one later.

Christmas Day has been good so far. It's only 8:26am but we've already been up for over 2 hours, opened all the presents, and eaten breakfast. At the moment, Megan is running around in a Barbie wedding dress, wearing frog rain boots, and sporting 2 small baby dolls shoved down the front of her dress. I simply couldn't be more proud. :-) Best of all is that she's desperately lobbying for us to let her go outside so that she can dig in the yard for worms. She's trying to negotiate by asking for "just 2 worms" but we're not budging. She seriously is a trip, when she's not in the throes of a temper tantrum, screaming her head off acting like a raving lunatic, she is one of the funniest people I've ever known. If I can get the camera out of Kevin's grip, I'll upload a picture of her in the wedding/frog getup for you guys to enjoy.


Here they are:




















I've been praying for all of my blogland friends to get what their hearts desire. Especially to my friend who is in the 2ww after secret IVF #2, I hope you get amazing news very soon. Thank you also to all of the Braces Bunch gals who have sent cards. I love them! I have all of yours done, addressed, and labeled, but buried them under wrapping paper until I discovered them around midnight last night. Yikes! So they will go out tomorrow.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season.

Do you love your scanner?

For Christmas, Kevin and I have decided to give each other a scanner. It will primarly be used for scanning in pictures (particularly old pictures, far pre-dating digital cameras) and other random pieces of paper such as recipes and whatnot.

Do you have a scanner that you use for pictures? Do you love it? Do you hate it? Please give me any feedback you've got so I know where to start my search.

Thanks!

Hot Chocolate

I seriously need to post more. Previously, I was blaming my need to go to sleep at 9pm. Now, I've realized it has as much to do with the fact that I am so freakin' busy at work I don't even have time to eat or pee, much less keep up on my blogging. I'm seriously struggling to get my head above water on reading and commenting. Actually writing posts seems like such a luxury right now. And all because those bastards are making me WORK for my money.

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On to better topics...

For weeks, I have been meaning to encourage you to go buy one of JJ's holiday CDs. This woman has a voice like an angel. I'm not just saying it because she's one of my favorite blog buddies, and someone I've had the supreme pleasuring of meeting IRL. She is genuinely talented and you will. not. go. wrong. if you buy one of her CDs. I have the Phoenix Mix CD that she made for the Braces Bunch gals, wherein she sings 2 tracks. Then I brow-beat her into sending me her own CD that has not left my car since the moment I opened it. I listen to it each and every day. JJ -- you would die if you heard Megan singing your songs, it's the cutest thing. She does routinely ask me to turn it off so she can hear her nerve-grating Dora CD, but I typically refuse if I haven't had my JJ fix for the day. :-) So.... GO. NOW. Buy one of her CDs. You will kick yourself if you don't.

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I have lots more to say on various other topics, but the one that's stuck in my brain right now is how scared I am. I'm scared shitless that something is going to go wrong with this baby. I've started feeling him move (SO weird to call it a "him") and am starting to show. I've managed to avoid wearing maternity clothes -- at least at work -- and still haven't told too many people. But it is just so REAL. I was doing a decent job of sort of pretending like it wasn't such a big deal, and didn't talk about it too much.

But we just got back from Kevin's parents' house where we celebrated an early Christmas with his family. Don't get me wrong, we had a wonderful time. I'm truly blessed to have married into a family that I love so much (especially my MIL, if you can believe that). But our baby was a topic of conversion quite a lot. For some reason, it made me uncomfortable. I think I was uncomfortable with their confidence that we were actually going to end up with a live, take-home baby in May. I so desperately want to believe that this is true, but I'm scared. Just so scared.

I think I was the most freaked out when my MIL told me that my FIL crawled into bed last night and whispered to her, "Next year, I get to buy a fire truck!" You see, he has 3 granddaughters. He loves them desperately, is a very hands-on Grandpa, and will play Bar.bies or Polly.Pockets until the cows come home. But he was giddy like a little kid at the prospect of buying a fire truck for his grandson. Nevermind that this theoretical grandson would only be 7 months old next Christmas, that doesn't seem to matter too much to my FIL. Which is extra cute since he's usually so practical.

His family (Mom, Dad, 2 brothers and their wives) were all so happy, so excited, so confident. They must have hugged us and congratulated us half a dozen times. I know they mean it too since Kevin's younger brother & wife have 2 girls, but endured a heartbreaking miscarriage at 14 weeks between their two daughters. And Kevin's older brother & wife struggled for years to have children, but simply couldn't go on after a few failed IUIs. Now they invest all of their time and energy into their dogs. The whole family has supported us through all of our ups and downs to reach this miracle pregnancy and we are lucky for that. Their enthusiasm is genuine, and it takes my breath away.

But it still scares me to death. And it makes me sad. Why can't I be as happy as them? Why must I caveat all baby-related statements with "assuming all goes well" or "God willing"? These are rhetorical questions, we all know the deep layers of pain within that keep me from enjoying such blissful, carefree, innocent enthusiasm. We still haven't told Megan about the baby because I can't face the prospect of having to un-explain it.

I have vowed -- to myself and to Kevin -- that I will start telling people freely after our appointment on Christmas Eve. I need to know that all of the organs are there, that the systems are working properly, and that my body is doing what I so desperately pray every day it should do (successfully grow a baby and keep it in there). If we get the all-clear from that scan, then I think I'll be able to have a little more faith that this just might work out. Don't get me wrong, I would never be so cavalier or glib as to expect that something catastrophic couldn't still jump up and snatch it all away. But I think that I'll at least be able to accept it as a real possibility. That we might actually have a baby. After all these years, all these shots, all this money, all this heartache, all this praying. A baby. Man oh man, what a miracle and a blessing that would be.

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My last thought is about my friend C. You might remember her from this post. Her amnio is tomorrow. She won't get the results for 8 - 10 days, but please keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she makes it through the procedure.

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For anyone that noticed, the title of this post is "Hot Chocolate." There is absolutely no reason why. I just couldn't come up with a good title due to the varied nature of all the thoughts within, so I decided to simply pick something that I enjoy (yum!) and was eye-catching. I could have entitled it "Hot Sweaty Sex" but at this point I have absolutely no idea what that is. Poor me. Poor Kevin. Someday I'm sure we'll get our sex life back. In the meantime, I think I'll go make us some hot chocolate.

Hugs and Prayers

Please go over and give Carlynn a hug. She just endured the unthinkable... Another premature birth at 20 weeks to a little girl.

My prayers are with her, her husband and that beautiful baby girl.

Belly Full 'O Cookies and IF Friends

Some of the DC Bloggers got together today for a cookie exchange. Man oh man was it yummy. Not a single cookie was anything remotely the same, we had a wonderful variety!

As sweet as the cookies was the delivery from LJ. She couldn't be here because she's traveling for work, so here is what she sent instead:

We missed you, LJ!

Now, on to the cookies... Here are 2 pictures of them. I only have 4 of the 6 recipes so I will butcher the names of the two I don't know for sure, but you'll get the point. Unfortunately, if you weren't able to attend, you can't appreciate how much these pictures don't do the cookies justice. They were all DELICIOUS!!


Left to right they are Butter Spritz Cookies (Shelby), Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies (Me), Mama's Oatmeal Lace Cookies (Sunny), and Apricot Florentines (Bean).

Here are some Almond Shortbread Cookies (Deanna) and no-bake Rice Krispie cookies with dried cherries (Meghan). These are the two I don't have recipes for, so I don't know the exact name but dang-dilly-dang-dong-ding were they delicious.

As always, the event itself and festivites contained therein were overshadowed by the good time we had just enjoying each other's company. We came up with a nice, long list of other activities we DC Stirrup Queens can do as a group to keep us busy since we get together monthly. Ideas for next month range from ice skating to a trip to Let's.Dish to a winery tour to pedicures. I'm on the hook for organizing next month's outing, so wish me luck!

Deanna was the new face in the crowd, and it was wonderful to have her join us. We hope to see you more!

Predictably, we spent most of the time laughing ourselves silly at Sunny's crazy stories and antics. Sunny, it is a damn shame that you haven't been blessed with the chance to procreate yet because we surely need more of you in this world.

Shelby was there, looking wonderful for 25 weeks pregnant. Yay!

Bean was there and in amazing spirits given the tragedy she's been enduring this last month. Bean, you are so strong and such an inspiration. I pray for you daily and hope the next cycle is the one for you.

Meghan was there, fresh off her POAS adventure yesterday. She didn't wave around a white stick full of this morning's fresh pee so I'm not sure if that means she decided against the devil stick this morning or if she just didn't want to share the results. She made us all jealous when she left to go have a big, homecooked Sunday meal at her parent's house.

We had a great time, plus shared lots of laughs and plenty of cookies. I am so grateful to have found this wonderful community online, but I'm estatic that I've been able to connect in person with so many truly amazing women that I genuinely like.

Cookies, Scans and Prayers

Geez, I really need to start posting more often. Now, my infrequent posts are not only way too long to be enjoyable, they simply aren't funny at all. That's just disappointing. I vow to work harder at posting more and cranking up the entertainment factor (or at least attempting to!).

In the meantime, here's what new with us:

1) COOKIES!

I am in the throes of preparing for the DC Metro bloggers Cookie Exchange! It's at my house tomorrow afternoon and I'm just giddy with excitement. Usually I'd be over the moon about the prospect of dozens of different cookies showing up at my house -- solely for my eating pleasure -- but I'm actually more jazzed up about getting to see my fellow local IFers. Woot!

2) NT Scan

The bloodwork from our NT scan finally came back. They said it would take 7 - 10 days. True to my (obsessive? annoying?) inquisitive nature, I started calling daily at the 7 day mark. There was a reason for my over-interest in getting the results, see item #4 below. Anyway, they finally came back on day 14 and the news was good. Here are the stats:

Downs:
Before the test, based on my age alone it was 1:111
After the test, it was 1:2,201

Trisomy 18 & 13:
Before the test, based on my age alone it was 1:201
After the test, it was 1:3,534

While we know that these numbers are just estimates, we are still encouraged by them. The genetic counselor felt the need to remind us that someone has to be the 1 on the left side of the odds. So we've vowed to beg and pray each day that we fall on the right side. This isn't quite the amazing 1 in 10,000 odds that Erin got for the WonderTwins, but we're happy with my dusty old ovaries nonetheless.

3) Latest sonogram

I had a regular OB appointment on Thursday. The fact that I'm still down 2 lbs from my pre-pregnancy weight isn't really all that impressive since it's still a good 20 lbs more than I should weigh regardless. But I'm still considering it a small victory.

This visit was with my favorite OB/GYN. I just love him. He knows I'm an ultrasound junkie (or, as one of my favorite blog buddies likes to call me, a ScanWhore) so he automatically put me right into the exam room with the sonogram machine. After putting the goop on my belly . . . wait, let me digress here for a second. I think I might write an ode to the abdominal ultrasound. Not that I didn't grow fond of my thrice-weekly (or more) transvaginal probes, don't get me wrong. It's just that after years of getting the dildocam shoved up my girlie bits on an alarmingly regular basis, I forgot how nice it was to score a picture of my uterus or ovaries without feeling supremely violated. The impact that I feel this delightful little perk of IF treatments has had on my sex life is definitely the topic of another post. Suffice it to say that I don't consider this impact to be a positive one. Kevin would, no doubt agree, but he's too busy servicing himself in the shower at the moment...

So, back to the scan. He put the goop on and started searching around for the baby. I swear to you that I almost pass out waiting for something to be discernable. I hold my breath, time starts to slow, and seriously I start to get tunnel vision. I can actually hear my pulse in my ears, it's a very strange feeling. But I can't help myself, I'm always scared completely shitless that they'll find something horrible has happened. I can't function until we see a heartbeat.

The baby wasn't very cooperative, we couldn't get a good look at it's heart and all we could really see was a leg. And the leg was still. Not moving. I could feel myself starting to pant, on my way to hyperventilation. Suddenly, it moved! And not a little bit. It sort of freaked out. Like a bug was crawling up it's leg or it had the jimmies or something or a hornet flew into it's underwear. All 3 of us (me, Kevin and the Dr) laughed and said, "Whoa." Then, the baby turned a bit and WOW. The Dr and I both sort of gasped and said, "Oh!" There, clear as day, was a penis. No doubt about it. I can't believe that at just shy of 15 weeks it was so obvious. But it was.
The Dr moved the probe right away because he didn't know if we wanted to know the sex or not. So I said, "Dang, are we having a boy or what?!" And he said, "Do you want to know?" I said, "Duh, YEAH!" And he said, "Yes, you are. That was an incredibly clear picture, huh?" Meanwhile, Kevin hadn't seen what we saw and he was frantically scanning the screen for some visual confirmation that he'll hopefully get relief from all the estrogen in our house. He started practically squealing, "Wha? Wha? I didn't see it!! Lemme see it!!!!" I couldn't help but laugh, he was acting like a lunatic. So the Dr moved around a bit more and, although we never got the crystal-clear picture that we did the first time, we got plenty more views of what was clearly boy parts.

Eventually the Doctor kept moving the probe around and finally found the heart. And the brain. And whatever else it was that he was looking for. I was so stunned by the clear picture of my kid's package that I had difficulty concentrating on the rest of the scan. But it was pretty quick anyway.

I know that a lot of people say they don't care if they have a boy or a girl, they just want a healthy baby. We truly, truly, truly mean it. It's exciting that it's a boy (or at least appears to be), but we would have been equally as thrilled for a girl. It is a true, genuine miracle when any baby is conceived, and let alone actually forms into a healthy fetus. I don't take that for granted one single bit. So hopefully our upcoming scan on Christmas Eve will reassure us that all of the necessary organs and items are there. After that, I plan to start telling people at work.

#4 Prayers for my friend C

A good friend of mine is pregnant with her 2nd child. Despite the fact she got pregnant with her son the 2nd month of trying, and got pregnant with this baby on THE FIRST TRY, I still love her dearly. She is a week behind me, so it's been fun to experience it together.

Her NT scan didn't go that well. She had it done at 11 weeks (11w2d to be precise) and the baby wasn't very cooperative. It took them over 1.5 hours to get something resembling a decent picture of the nuchal fold, and when they did it was larger than they were hoping. At 11 weeks, they like to see a measurement below 2.0 and hers was 2.4. They told her to come back 2 days later in the hopes they would get a better picture.

Two days later she went back again and this time they got a good picture. Despite the fact that the measurement was better -- 2.1 this time -- they were still concerned. They told her to wait and see what the bloodwork revealed. Luckily she had this test done at the hospital where we work, and is friends with the Perinatologist, so they expedited her results.

A week later, she had her results. They weren't great. The Down's risk was good, but the Trisomy 18/13 risk was elevated. With someone her age, they like to see numbers around the 1:8,000 range. Hers was 1:197. Although a true "positive" result is actually 1:150 or less, they were concerned enough that they recommended she get a CVS. She agreed and scheduled the CVS for a week later (she had to wait for the Dr to come back from Thanksgiving vacation).

In the meantime, she went to her regular OB for her 12 week appt the day before Thanksgiving and was hit with another whammy. Her initial bloodwork revealed that she's positive for Kell. I thought I knew most of what there was to know about things-to-worry-about-in-pregnancy, but I'd never heard of this. It's similar to Rh in that there are antibodies and antigens and the wrong combination is bad for the baby. But, unlike Rh, there is no Rho.gam shot. The treatment is essentially tons of monitoring, possibly multiple amnios, and multiple in-utero blood transfusions. Astoundingly, this isn't related at all to the Trisomy 18/13 results. It's just 2 bad luck things at once.

To make it even more cruel, they drew her blood again at the OB's office and ran the test one more time. She had to wait until the day after Thanksgiving to get them, but this time, the results came back negative for Kell. Whew. Her OB said, "Don't worry about it, sorry for the false alarm!" So off she went the following Monday to get her CVS with the Perinatologist.

Once he heard she had tested positive for Kell, he refused to do the CVS. He explained that it's extremely rare to get a false positive and that he strongly suspected she was, in fact, Kell-positive. And if she is Kell-positive, then doing the CVS will cause her blood and the baby's blood to mix which is a bad thing. They drew more blood (she's giving the stuff up like an IFer at this point) and ran the test right away. Since she had the bloodwork done in the Lab within our hospital, we were able to look up the results in the system within a couple of hours. VERY much positive for Kell. The Perinatologist was right. The OB was wrong. And, apparently, the OB's lab simply performed the test wrong. Wrong. Holy shit is that scary.

Now she can't have the CVS and she instead has to wait to have an amnio. Fortunately, they are going to let her do it at 15 weeks so it is scheduled for a week from Monday (Dec 10th). Unfortunately, the results take 8 - 10 days to come back which is sheer torture. But at least she'll have a definitive answer on both the Kell situation and the Trisomy 18/13 situation.

There is so much more to the Kell puzzle than I can write here. If you are interested in knowing what we've learned, let me know in the comments and I'll contact you. Likewise, if you have experience with it and can share additional information, please let me know.

In the meantime, please pray for my friend C and her little baby. I hope that her NT scan scary numbers turn out to be just fine like my buddy CE, and that the baby turns out to be Kell-negative (which is still a possibility).

Thank you for making through this long post. I will post again on Monday with an update and pictures from the Cookie Exchange tomorrow. Yeah for cookies!!