Today was another follow-up ultrasound on Melody. Praise God, we received only positive news today. Here are some things we are excited about:

- Melody was kicking her legs and moving her feet

- Melody's feet do not appear to be clubbed

- She is measuring just about right for 24 weeks (her head is a little small, but nothing concerning)

- She does not have fluid build up in her brain, which means the fluids are circulating properly

All of these things can change in the months ahead, and/or after her birth. However, we are grateful for each of them, each day we see them. I've never been so happy to see my baby kick her feet before. This means, at least for now, the nerves to Melody's legs and feet are developed and functioning. The lack of clubbed feet may mean one less surgery for her. It is quite likely that she will need shunting for fluid on the brain after her repair surgery, but we are thankful it is not already an issue.

Officially, they have placed Melody's due date on Sept. 23! Two days earlier, yippee! At this point they plan to deliver via c-section at 39 weeks, so that would be about Sept. 16th. We have an appointment on Monday with the neurosurgeon who will do Melody's surgery at birth and we have quite a list of questions for him. Also, I will have the glucose tolerance test for diabetes at that time as well.

We asked the doctor for pictures of Melody's spina bifida. It helps explain how we know she has it and what it looks like. Here is a picture of her spinal lesion (opening). It runs from the L3 vertebrae to the L5 vertebrae. Those are the final 3 vertebrae just above your tailbone. You can see her backbone running from right to left in the picture below. Then you can see a black section at the end of the backbone. The black area is the opening where her spine failed to close.

The following picture shows the membrane which it protruding from the spinal lesion. It is outlined by the measurement guides and looks kind of like an oval. From this view, the membrance sac is on top of the spinal lesion. It looks very large in comparison, but from the measurements it looks like it is about 3cm across. The membrance sac can be completely empty (best case scenario) or contain spinal cord and nerves, which is most likely. We will only know when the neurosurgeon opens this after Melody is born. Even then, he cannot tell you what every nerve is for.