April 2009 – MiniMarr

Family Portrait

Thanks to an organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, we were treated to a family portrait session with Miss Toot! NILMDTS is an all volunteer group of professional photographers who take pictures for families and their babies when they are predicted to have a poor outcome at birth … It breaks my heart that this organization has to exist, because it means there are far too many people who lose their children, but at the same time, I am so thankful it does … without them, we wouldn’t have some amazing pictures to remember this pregnancy by.

A new friend who also lost her baby to Trisomy 18 first told me about NILMDTS and after browsing their website and list of photographers, I came across Sharon. I think I broke all the rules and contacted her directly, but after seeing her website, I knew she was the right person for us. Sharon suddenly lost her son Owen two weeks before he was due to be born … she’s since joined NILMDTS and keeps Owen’s legacy alive by helping people like us.

Sharon very graciously came to our house over a month ago to take some maternity pictures for us and was perfect. She just got it, which made it so much easier for Pat and I … she took some amazing photos and somehow captured all of our emotions perfectly. I was stunned when I saw the pictures … She also happens to be an animal lover, and snapped a few pictures of our “fur baby” which made us smile!

We’ll be calling Sharon when Toot arrives, and hope and pray she’s able to make it to the hospital! She has her hands full with her daughter, but is going to do everything she can to be there for us. It’s kindnesses like hers that make us realize how lucky we really are … I wish with all our hearts that we didn’t need NILMDTS, but because of them, we’ll always have these family pictures. Thank you Sharon!

UPDATE: (06/03/09)

Now that Brienna has joined our family, we thought it appropriate to post some of the maternity photos that Sharon took for us:

MiniMarr and LittleConroys

This is a little belated, but better late than never! We celebrated Easter last weekend with my brother and his family. It was in a way, a reunion of sorts. The last time most of us were together was out in Oregon in September. Toot was there too, we just didn’t know it yet!!

The new Wisconsonites flew into Boston Thursday night and we spent Friday just hanging out at the house and taking the boys to the Children’s Museum. Quinn got to ride on a train, and was very excited about it. The conductor gave the 7 of us a family fare, hinting that I was under 18 so it was okay … I smiled and said yes, quickly hiding my pregnant belly 🙂 We had a great afternoon, and met Kris to take the train home from Boston and back to Canton. I can remember going to the Children’s Museum when I was little, but it was neat to see it through Quinn’s eyes. He dove right into all sorts of activities, having a blast with the boats (and ending up soaked) and fun with bubbles, trucks, balls and all sorts of other activities …

Reece turned 1 on April 7, so we had a little birthday party for him on Friday night. He loved being sung to, which totally cracked me up. He just knew we were singing to him and would smile and clap, it was adorable! Being the good big brother that he is, Quinn graciously helped open all his presents too. We had a little open house on Saturday so all our relatives could see the boys (it’s quite an occasion when they come to town!) and the Marrs came to visit too! It was a great afternoon and I loved having my entire family together. Easter Sunday was all about the boys … we had an Easter egg hunt, decorated eggs and opened lots of Easter presents. It was a great weekend, and hard to say goodbye to everyone!

Bailey was of course with us too, and despite her initial trepidation about the little people, she quickly learned that when kids are around, food is dropped and therefore she can eat it! She followed Quinn everywhere (who also quickly learned that Bailey would try and eat everything and kept his hand up in the air if he had food in it) and sat beside Reece for every meal … needless to say, she was well fed all weekend! Here’s the none-too-pleased Easter Bailey:

We hope everyone had a great Easter and is enjoying the awesome spring weather! It’s hard to believe it’s the middle of April already! We’re getting closer and closer to our due date and anxiously awaiting the arrival of our sweet Toot 🙂 Thank you again for all of your continued thoughts and prayers. We appreciate them more than you know!

Due Date(s)

Pat and I were treated to another glimpse of our precious Toot on Friday … we had an ultrasound scheduled and got to spend some time looking at little Miss Marr, but I have to say, 2D is just nowhere near as good as 4D! We were definitely spoiled by our last ultrasound with Patty!

The ultrasound was basically just a growth check, but as always, it was fun to watch Toot dancing around. She is still measuring behind in growth but weighed in at 2 lbs 10 oz! That only puts her in the 5th percentile, which is very tiny, but we are quite proud of our little peanut!!

It turns out that Toot was measuring small all the way back to our first ultrasound, so our doctors are now estimating that her due date is probably closer to May 28 than May 18 … the due date in our hearts is and always will be May 18, but at least we won’t be shocked if June rolls around and Toot has yet to make an appearance! We’re quite content to have her with us as long as she wants!

There’s been some inquires about how Toot got her nickname and quite honestly, I don’t even know! Pat and I had been calling MiniMarr “Toot” for as long as we can remember (it seems so feminine now though, I think it’s a good thing she turned out to be a girl!) and somewhere along the way we started using it in front of everyone and it’s just stuck! She’s probably always be Toot to us, poor thing 🙂 She will eventually have a proper name though, I promise!

Thank you again for all of your love and support; reading the comments about Toot’s ultrasound picture made us both so proud and we feel lucky to have such a great network of friends and family. We’re in the homestretch now, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!