30 weeks down 10 to go

We had another echo with our favorite pediatric cardiologist yesterday. I love her so much. She and her tech Cindy are so positive I feel so good when I leave their office. They did get quiet when they were looking at his tricuspid valve - and I tensed up - but then "Not leaking" was the verdict. PHEW!!!!! everything else is about the same. She was able to see the pancake-like left ventricle but she said the super small size would actually be a good thing - you don't want a big void over there since he won't be able to use that side anyways.. He does have a VSD - Ventricular septal defect - or hole between the left and right side of his heart but she felt like this wouldn't really affect him in a bad way. The vessels going to his head/brain look good- not bulging with too much pressure. His tri valve is still strange looking and in a strange location but is functioning well and his heart is bigger than it should be.... we'll keep an eye on that. 

Macsen was moving and rolling around like crazy - you wouldn't think they would know when they were getting scanned but they do. His heart rate goes up every time and he scoots around inside my belly like he's playing chase the baby. 

The girls made the 4 hour trip with us this time. Their Aunt C watched them for us at the mall during our appt. They rode a train, jumped on those trampolines w/ the harnesses, rode on the coin operated mechanical mall toys, and got to put a quarter in the biggest gumball machine ever. Thank you Charlene! 

On the way home I had to convince Aaron to bring us to the beach - if only for an hour. The girls played in the water and made friends with some older girls that had a cache of hermit crabs and minnows. 

It was a really good day and I'm committed to making more days like that before Macsen's B-Day. I don't want the girls - or us - to look back on this summer as  a time of dread and toil - dragging ourselves from one appointment to the next, holed up in our house waiting for the sky to fall. We have 6 weeks left here before we move up to PA for his birth and I want to wring every bit of normal out of them that I can.