30 Weeks

Riley has reached the thirty week mark which means we only have nine-ish weeks left to go until we get to see her in the flesh. We were told by the doctors at the Mater Hospital that they normally let a baby with Riley's condition go up to 39-40 weeks to make sure she has grown as much as she can. But if she hasn't been born yet in the 39th week they will induce her. I remember when we first heard that we were pregnant I read about 3 books on pregnancy within a couple of weeks; however since we heard about her condition I haven't read anything about what to do when you actually have the baby. Feel like that may be something I should get onto before she makes her arrival but on the flip side we will have a bunch of nurses and specialists taking care of her in the first few months of life. So maybe I shouldn't be too concerned.

We had yet another growth scan yesterday as well as a doctors appointment today; we felt it might have been unnecessary since we had one only two weeks ago but we also tend to see it as a positive. Normally after the twenty week scan you don't get to see your baby again until birth, we are blessed that we get to check in on her and see how she is growing every couple of weeks. And let me just say she is GROWING! She is already up to almost 1.7kg. At these growth scans they are always on the lookout to see if she is growing at the right rate; so it is a relief to know that there is nothing to worry about (besides the obvious). This time she decided to pose for us so we ended up getting this shot...

Also we have been blown away by the support of people from all over. All the prayers and encouragement we've received is incredible; sometimes from people who don't even know us but heard about our circumstances then decided to reach out to us. We have built relationships with people in similar situations to us as well; it's funny to think that before this we had heard hardly anything about Congenital Heart Defects and now it feels like everywhere we turn we see a news report, a Facebook post or hear of families going through this too. Maybe we just notice it more now. There are even people hard at work in Jess' workplace raising money to go towards her. One day when Riley is a little older I hope to show her all of this so she can know that she had so many people on her side fighting for her every step of the way. To everyone who has kept Riley on your heart, we thank you!