It's a Boy!

Some of you may have already figured this out due to the chubbiness being displayed in my belly region.  But for those of you that are not in the Kansas City area and haven't seen us these last 2 weeks, we are expecting.  We were hesitant to share until we had met with the Perinatologist and had our 16 week sonogram done.  Luckily, that appointment proved uneventful.  We decided to post pone our Amniocentisis until the next sonogram in 4 weeks in hopes that maybe it won't be needed at all.  So far the baby looks great!  No areas of concern, although it is still early.  We did discover - quite easily that Avery will have another Baby Brother come September!  Needless to say we are cautiously excited for this blessing and looking forward to showing Avery what its like to have a sibling. 

Avery has been doing well this week.  Her counts were stable, which really means her bone marrow is keeping up rather than shutting down.  We are hoping to see some improvement this week when we check labs.  Her platelets are a lot lower than I would prefer, especially with a toddler that has balance issues.  She has been spending the week with her buddy Chance and the puppies.  She is really smitten with Grandma Marlene's puppys as they are too dumb to run from her and let her hug and squeeze on them.  We may be trading Jersey in for one of them...

On Thursday last week Avery flew to NYC with Jeremy to take part in a photo shoot with St Jude and Marlo Thomas.  It was very exciting - however this 3 year old decided she didn't feel like smiling during the session so we'll see how many pictures she actually makes it in.  They will use the photos during the last few months of the year when they run the "Thanks & Giving" campaign in the retail stores.  The campaign asks you to give thanks for the healthy kids in your life and give to those that aren't.  If you haven't noticed it in the past, keep an eye out for the purple glasses near the registers in November and December.  I'll remind you - no worries.

Avery seems to be keeping her energy up for the most part.  She is loving the outside right now and thankfully its been in the 70's and 80's the last 2 weeks and we've been able to spend a lot of time outside.  She loves sitting on the front step and using her chalk.  Great temps right now make me leery for the summer.  I'm going to be huge and miserable already -- and I am pretty sure we are going to pay for the mild winter and beautiful spring with 150 degree summer -- I just know it.  If anyone recalls my ankles and knees when I was pregnant with Avery, this is not going to be pretty. 

It feels like we just got home and we are so relieved to be here, but in 3 short weeks we'll be returning Memphis for the dreaded first scans post radiation.  We pray that the radiation has gone in and cleaned house on all these nasty cells and tumors, but we know what the reality is.  We have a 50/50 shot of this working and we've risked it all to win that bet.  Every day it feels like Avery learns something new... and every day we know what this radiation is taking away from her.  Its a fine line that Jeremy and I walk each day.  We rock back and forth on feelings of relief, guilt, exhaustion and gratefulness.  What this cure will bring is devastating but in the same breath it will bring us her.  So we hold on tight to knowing that we did everything we could and that come what may - we will do our best to make her life the most fulfilling life it was meant to be. 

Here's to Avery being a Big Sister again!!

Jenn