Baby and Casey Update - 26.5 Weeks

First, a little perspective for you from a picture that was taken five minutes ago. The other glowing blonde with Casey is Payton Merriman, one of our good friends from Riverbend Church. She and her husband, Mark, are two of our everyday heroes and angels who have been helping with frequent meals and frequent play dates for Eliot with their daughter, Harper. The reason for the picture is this: Payton and Casey have the exact same due date (if we were only having one baby), March 27th. That's right, she is 26.5 weeks pregnant just like Casey. What a difference four more babies makes!

We went to see Casey's Ob/Gyn today, Dr. Stephanie Reich, for our regular visit to check in on the babies and Casey's health. Dr. Reich delivered Eliot and Casey always felt very comfortable with her so we were thrilled early on when we found out she would keep working with us through the quint pregnancy. She and our perinatologist, Dr. Berry, have worked together every step of the way and both of them will be in the delivery room with Dr. Reich taking the lead.

As has been the case with every visit to date, the babies and Casey are both doing very well! The babies seem to be running out of room though - we could really tell this time just how crammed they are on top of each other. Casey has baby parts up against both kidneys, pressed down against the bottom of her cervix, just below her sternum, and all points in between. There are literally three babies stacked on top of each other from her waist to her chest and one baby on each side of this stack. Later today, Casey had her hands on her hips and could feel the babies on the sides moving at the same time...crazy!

Though she is having a real hard time moving around, breathing, eating, sleeping, and just about every other activity necessary for survival, both doctors are astounded at how well Casey is handling this pregnancy. Dr. Reich told us today that she is really surprised that she's not in the hospital yet. Her blood pressure was very healthy when they checked it today, her cervix is still completely closed, her symptoms are stable, and she is growing as she needs to be. Her belly grew 2.5 centimeters in the last two weeks!

As the babies are starting to require more calories to complete their development, Casey was given orders to eat more calories. Normally, that'd be great news, but it's really hard for her to eat much at one time because her stomach is being smashed down by all those babies. She is also having an aversion to sweets so I can't even tempt her with bowls of ice cream and holiday candy!

So, for now we continue the waiting game. And though the wait is always the hardest part, we love the fact that Christmas will be at our home this year and not at the hospital. We love it that Casey and the babies are doing so well. And we love it that we are almost to week 28 and the pregnancy is almost over! We love more than anything that God has blessed us so richly with this pregnancy and that we have been able to share these blessings with so many wonderful people. It's going to be a wild January (and hopefully early February), but we are more excited with each passing day about finally getting to see these little ones who have garnered so much attention. And when the time is finally right for this guy and these gals to meet the world, bring on the CHAOS...the good chaos that is!!

God Bless,

Ethan

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