John Allen Dotson was born via c-section on 10/25 at 12:10 p.m. He was only 1 oz. shy of 9 lbs. and was 21 1/4" long! I posted pictures of John D. in my photo book and will post a birth story sometime in the near future. Congrats to everyone who delivered while I was away and good luck to those of you who are in the home stretch!

Our first baby is due 10/21/07. We found out on Valentine's Day that we were expecting. I didn't even tell Jer that I was taking a test. He was laying in bed watching t.v. I burst out of the bathroom screaming "I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant!" He shot straight up and later admitted he thought he had done something to make me mad. I took three pregnancy tests that night and two the next day! I tried line and digital tests. I couldn't believe it!

It's been a long road after 4 miscarriages and an ectopic pregnancy.We are so thankful that God has gotten us this far and taught us so much during this journey. I found out after my first set of labs (with this pregnancy) that I have a blood clotting disorder. At first I was really upset but then thankful that the Lord placed me with the doctor I have, a doctor smart enough to check for this particular disorder. He obviously knows his stuff because things are looking great!

I'd love to meet any other expecting moms especially anyone who may share my due date or have one around the same time!

4/10/2007 Easter was eventful! I started developing a headache around 3:30 that quickly became very painful. I was seeing spots and was nauseated. Around 9:30 I was seeing spots and was really sick and weak. The OB/GYN on call sent in a prescription for headache and nausea medicine that provided temporary relief until around 4 am. At that time everything started to come back and I couldn't keep the medicine down. I called my dr. at around 8:30 and they told me to take frequent sips of water to avoid dehydration. At 2:30 when they called back and there had been no change they told me to head to the hospital for an eval. I quickly drained the first two IV bags. My arm looks like a pin cushion today though b/c they had a hard time getting the veing dur to dehydration. The meds they gave me made me feel drowsy but much better. Before we left to assure me that our baby was fine we had an ultrasound that showed a very active baby and we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. It was amazing!


The caption in the top left corner reads:

Baby D 4/9/2007 - 11 weeks 5 days - 146 bpm

Our miracle baby is going to be a long or triple jumper like it's dad! When the midwife at the hospital brought the baby up on the screen it rubbed it's eyes and began to jump up and down and wave. Even though this made it difficult to get a good picture it was awesome to see our little miracle for the 5th time. This time was even more special though b/c it was moving around and we were able to hear the heartbeat for the first time!

Ultrasounds from 4/21/07 13 weeks 2 days

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5/30/2007 Well, it was confirmed on 5/18 (at a little over 17 weeks) that my 13 week scan (shown in a slide show above) was right. We are having a boy! It's amazing how early they are able to tell. In addition to the scan on 5/18 I also had one on 5/25. I will have one 3 weeks from the 25th and another one again when I hit 28 weeks. That will put me at like 10 or 11 ultrasounds. I've enjoyed all of them but the last two have been really neat because portions of the scan was done in 4-D. I don't have the 18 week ones scanned but I will post the 17 week images.

Waiting on John D.