Denali Hetzel

  I think that there must be something encoded in Hetzel DNA that causes them to dislike having their picture taken. John's daughter is no exception! The entire time we were having the ultrasound done today, Denali had her head buried up in the placenta and just refused to cooperate! At one point, Dr. M was pushing on my belly (rather hard) trying to manipulate her into a place where we could see her and Denali kicked her hand! And then it looked like she raised both arms over her head and was trying to push the transducer away! It was pretty comical! And then she kept opening her mouth and it looked like she was yawning. I was also amused to notice that she is doing exactly what I suspected she was doing: Pilates! She scrunches up and then extends her arms and legs and then repeats! She must get that from John, too, because I hated doing those in Pilates!

   Anyway, I loved, loved, loved the ultrasound today! It was so awesome to spend time with her and see her moving around! I didn't know that I was capable of loving this little creature inside of me so much, but I do! It's crazy!
  Other than seeing our beautiful daughter, Dr. M also looked at the amount of amniotic fluid. She said that by eyeballing it looked like I had polyhydramnios, but when Debbie, the sonographer, measured it, I was fine. So, that's a relief! I've been really worried about that! Oh, it doesn't look like Denali has a cleft lip, either. A lot of babies with anencephaly have cleft lips/palates, but as far as we could see today, she doesn't! It doesn't really matter if she did, but I was happy about that.

Bear wearing the preemie hat we got today

  Debbie also made a recording of Denali's heartbeat and put it inside a teddy bear for us. When you press on the bear, you can hear the recording. It's very sweet. I imagine it will be a huge comfort when Denali is gone.
   The hospital has a very nice Breastfeeding Boutique that has classes and sells supplies and stuff. I stopped in to see about donating my milk. I'm still not sure if it's something I will do, but I'm going to look into it. Maybe for a little while, anyway. I also found this adorable little preemie hat! It has fairies, my favorite (And, therefore, Denali's favorite, too)! I made John buy it. So now we have three hats in two sizes. Hopefully one will fit!
  Today was a pretty good day! I feel a million times better about everything. I was disappointed to find out that Dr. M is leaving next week, though. I like her a lot and I was hoping I could see her throughout the pregnancy. I'll meet my new doctor in a few weeks.
  Well, that's all for now. I guess I should go do some housework or something dreadful like that. Or, I could look at her pictures again for the millionth time today...