Showered with Love

This past weekend, Baby Vowler was showered with more love than this mom-to-be could possibly dream of for her little one. My framily – Mom, Dad, BB, Jill – arrived late Thursday afternoon to kick off the weekend. Luckily I have a very understanding boss (a.k.a. Mitch), who graciously allowed me plenty of free time to enjoy my family. There is no greater gift he could give me than time with them. We spent Friday running around, getting things ready for the Brew BBQ Baby shower.

I often tell people that the things you miss the most while living away from home aren’t the big, grand holidays (although you certainly miss those, too). It’s the little moments you miss – the daily interaction, running errands together, going for walks, enjoying a holiday coffee on a Saturday morning with mom. Having my family in town gives me a little peek into those times, and there’s nothing I cherish more.

When I moved from Texas nearly six years ago, I had absolutely zero intention of staying away. I’d always had a little dream of moving away, paving my own way in an east coast city for a few years, then come back home to the Lone Star state. Well as they say, you make plans and God laughs. On my very first day of work in February of 2011, I met Mitch.

We worked on a huge project with a lot of people our age who quickly and warmly welcomed me (I was the new kid on the project). One of the senior project managers on the project embarrassingly carted me around to the different offices in the trailer introducing me to the team. Mitch was likely out on the jobsite during this time, so I didn’t meet him right away. I later came back to my office that I shared with three other people (construction is a glamorous life, y’all) and Mitch was sitting across from my soon-to-be-best-friend Mary. He introduced himself and continued his project-related conversation. Later that day (keep in mind this is my FIRST day there), he asked me if I was interested in going to a basketball game with him and a couple other people that night (a Tuesday). I politely declined because I lived in Virginia at the time, the game was in Maryland later that night, and I also had no idea who this guy was. Immediately after my decline he said, “OK, well I have another option for you..” and he proceeded to ask me to go to a hockey game that Saturday. Damn – now I had no excuse. This guy KNOWS I have no friends yet and now I can’t use the weekday excuse, so I accepted.

We didn’t start dating right away, but we became friends quickly and let me tell y’all – no one can make me laugh like Mitch. (If you’ve never heard the story, ask him about the time he crashed in a hot air balloon with Joey. I laughed so hard in the job trailer, a stream of people came in asking me what the commotion was.) To keep a much longer story short, I fell in love with Mitch before we even decided to date. He is the kindest, most generous and compassionate, funniest man I’ve ever known, and y’all can blame him for the reason I am not already back in Texas. And that is how our family story began.

I’ve jokingly told several people that Mitch is certainly the reason we are having our sweet babe with an extra chromosome because he is certainly more patient and arguably more ready for this than I am. Many people have told us that they couldn’t imagine better parents for this baby. That is such a humbling thing to hear, and I can only hope to fulfill everyone’s beliefs and expectations! If there is one thing I know for sure, Mitch will be an awesome dad.

Not only did God put Mitch in my life at a time when I least expected it, but we’re now living within easy driving distance to CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) to watch over our sweet baby’s heart and extra chromosome. If I was ever unsure about where we are supposed to be living between our two homes, I’m now convinced we are exactly where we need to be at this moment. CHOP is world-renowned for their fetal heart program, and I’m not just saying that. Ask anyone in the medical community, and they’ll tell you we are in the best place in the country given our circumstance. CHOP also has a Trisomy 21 program which provides members with additional resources (pediatricians, therapists, support specialists) through the life of your child with Down syndrome.

We had an appointment at CHOP yesterday where we met with our Cardiologist, Maternal Fetal clinic, and Trisomy 21 program. I won’t overload you with information like we were yesterday, but here’s our current status:

The baby’s heart continues to function well. In case you missed it on the first post, the balanced AV canal defect means that there is a hole directly in the center of the baby’s heart. This means that blood flowing out to the lungs to be oxygenated gets mixed with the oxygenated blood that gets distributed to the rest of the body. Instead of having two valves that distributed these two bloods, the baby’s heart has one major valve. Luckily, the heart is balanced on each side and the one valve is functioning well (no major leakages, which is common). These two blessings make the heart repair very manageable. Because the heart has shown no signs of major changes, the Cardiologist effectively “discharged” us until the baby is born!

The Maternal Fetal clinic does their own ultrasound (growth scan) to check on baby. Baby is measuring well – in the 77^th percentile and apparently has a lot of hair (insert your shocked face here). No new news, which is again wonderful.

The Trisomy 21 program sounds so amazing, and we’re looking forward to being a part of it. They guide you through every stage of life – from newborn to adulthood independency transition.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Much love and thanks to Jill for playing photographer!!