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Ella slideshow

Saturday, October 9, 2010

One of my favorite memories


     One of my favorite memories of Ella came during our 32 week ultrasound.  That was our third ultrasound.  The first two were horrible-those are days that I wish I could forget.  The first one was at 16 weeks and six days.  That was the horrible day that we found out that Ella had anencephaly. We went into the doctor's  office so excited to see our baby for the first time, but left the office devasted.  The second one was a week later.  We were sent to a perinatologist for a more detailed ultrasound to confirm the anencephaly. Of course, our worst fears were confirmed.  We also found out that day that we were indeed having a girl like we had known all along.
     Up until the 32 weeks ultrasound, we really had no clue what Ella looked like.  The only pictures they gave us from the earlier ones was one of her foot and one of her girl parts.  We were so blessed to have an awesome ultrasound tech at our 32 week appt. She did a 3d ultrasound and let us watch Ella wiggle around for 20 minutes or so.  I remember seeing what her beautiful face looked like for the first time.  It was so bittersweet.  She was SO active! She was smacking her lips, playing with the umbilical cord, sucking her  fingers and sucking her toes.  Seeing how happy and comfortable she was gave me so much peace.  I had  worried that she may be uncomfortable because of the anencephaly-but that day those fears were put to rest.  She looked so happy.
     I toted a photo album around in my purse with all of those pictures in it the rest of my pregnancy.  I wanted to show her off to the world so bad, but I knew that I would probably have a meltdown if I did.  I did, and still do have a hard time talking about her without crying.  So, I only showed them to family.  So....here they are.  Some of my favorite memories captured on ultrasound. (please excuse the format)


This one is of her perfect profile.  You can see her big foot.
             I love this one.  She is smiling or laughing.

Sucking her finger
                               And, my favorite!  showing off those beautiful lips!



                           I love you Ella!  I miss you sweet baby!

9 comments:

  1. Penny, I just love those pictures. They are of a happy little girl just as content as she can be safe in her mama's tummy! My favorite is the one of her sucking her fingers. It reminds me of LR when she eats chocolate and licks the melted chocolate off of her fingers. That it the sweetest picture to me. Thank you for sharing your sweetheart with us! I know how difficult it is to talk about our babies. I cry when I talk about Eli also. One sweet day...

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  2. Those photos are precious! I'm so glad you were able to see your beautiful daughter playing happily inside her momma. What a wonderful memory. :-) Thank you for sharing.

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  3. Beautiful pictures!! So glad you were able to see her happy and playing and that you had a wonderful ultrasound tech that knew how important that would be for you.

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  4. beautiful, thanks for sharing with us! She did have a blast inside of you :) So glad you have such great us pictures!

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  5. Oh my gosh, Penny---those pictures seriously just make my heart weep--with joy and sorrow at the same time. She absolutely was beautiful, there's no doubt, but seeing her activity--the smiling and pursing those sweet lips (LOVE THAT!)...sometimes we sort of just think they are not doing much of anything in there but flipping around or whatever, but knowing she was just living a sweet and happy life is precious...
    Lots of love, friend!!!

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  6. Those photos are amazing Penny! I love the smiling one especially. Such a beauty! It's so comforting to know our little ones were so happy and safe during our pregnancies. They had nothing but happiness and love their entire lifetimes! Sending you a HUG on this 5 month anniversary.

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  7. oh, those lips! you are so lucky to have these amazing photos, and an amazing daughter. Until we meet them again...

    Hugs to you!

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  8. Isn't it amazing to see them on the 3D? I loved it. You really get to see more of who they are. The photos of your precious angel remind me of my own. So beautiful!!

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  9. Thanks for sharing...She is so beautiful! I lost my son Cayden in Feb. of this year to anencephaly. My heart goes out to you and your family!
    Love, Chrissy
    Caydenryan.blogspot.com

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