My husband and I had been married since November of 2006. He had been deployed to Iraq (he is active duty Army), and the day he returned home we eloped to Las Vegas. We found out we were 4 weeks pregnant on 02/06/07. It was a huge surprise, but a wonderful one. This is the first child for both of us and we are very excited. Unfortunately Charles has to redeploy to Iraq this year, but we are praying it will be after the baby is delivered.

My sexy husband on his second tour in Iraq.

Me and a friend at the All Ranks Ball

03/15/07 Ok, somehow I erased all my posts on here and my ultrasound pic. :( I'll get them back up shortly, but heres the scoop. We have had 3 ultrasounds so far (I'm spoiled I know lol). We could only see a little bit on the 6 week one, but we were able to see and hear the heartbeat. Our last ultrasound was last friday-03/08/07. Our baby was measuring at 8wks6days. It looked like an adorable gummy bear lol. We got to see its arms, legs and spine. It was doing summersaults for the ultrasound tech. So adorable! My hubby was there with me for both of them which made it that much more special. I have had a lot of morning sickness for the last few weeks, which was unfortunately lasting ALL DAY. It got pretty bad last week and I got a bit dehydrated. Luckily my OB/GYN gave me some Zofran and its working wonderfully. I havent gained any weight yet (thankfully), and have even lost a few pounds due to the morning sickness.

04/11/07 I havent been very good about updating this page. I havent had another doctors appointment since the 8 week one. I go for an appointment tomorrow (I'll be 13 and a half weeks), hopefully we'll do an ultrasound then. I just want to make sure everything is ok. Although my morning sickness hasnt gone away completely it is improving. Right now I get nauseous if I dont eat something every hour or so. I feel like I'm constantly snacking lol but I guess its better than throwing up. Does anyone else feel the same way? I'm worried having to eat so frequently will make me gain too much weight. I think so far I've gained about 3 pounds, but I will know for sure after my appointment tomorrow.

04/19/07 We had our last appointment last week on the 12th. We had another ultrasound and my hubby swears its a boy :). I was just under 14 weeks at that time so I assured him it was too early to tell. I'm hoping for a girl, but of course will be happy with either one. I have another doctors appointment on the 17th, but she is sending me to the perinatologist for my next ultrasound so it wouldnt be until like 22 weeks. I've decided thats too long to wait to find out the sex so we're going to the 3d/4d ultrasound place on the 8th of May at 17 1/2 weeks to find out the gender. I'm so excited. The nausea is a little better, as long as I eat on a regular basis. I feel like I'm up most of the night going to the bathroom lol, I didnt expect that to happen until much later in the pregnancy. The funny thing is, my husband has developed that sympathy pregnancy symptom. LOL. I tease him about him now having the bladder of a pregnant woman. :) I'm going out of town today, my grandmother is having surgery. I'm not looking forward to the drive, I seem to get car sick much easier than I used to. Hope everyone is doing great!

05/06/07 We have our gender appointment on Tuesday. Just two more days until we find out the sex of the baby. I'm soooo excited. :) I've had a feeling all along that its a girl, but the last two weeks or so I've had dreams about it being a boy--so who knows. My husband was supposed to be training on that day and was going to miss the appointment, but we just found out he'll actually be there. I'm so happy. I've been feeling the baby alot lately, it started with a flutter every once in a while, but now I feel it several times a day. Its a wonderful feeling. I feel like I'm starting to bond a lot more with the baby and so is my hubby. He has been out training for a week, but I put my phone up to my belly when he calls each night and he tells the baby goodnight. Its very sweet.

ITS A BOY!!!!

05/08/07 Well....we went this afternoon for our gender ultrasound. The tech was able to see the sex right away, definately a boy. We are 17weeks 3days today, but they said the baby is the size of most babies at 19weeks.(guess thats why I'm able to feel it all the time). On the 3d ultrasound we were actually able to see him smiling as he bounced around. He is an active, happy boy. So, we had a girls name picked out, but no boys name. Let me know if you have any ideas

06/11/07 It has been a rough month. I was hospitalized for pyelonephritis about a month ago, then the next week I wrecked my truck and once again ended up at the hospital. Two weeks ago I started having severe headaches, swelling, nosebleeds, dizziness and high blood pressure. I felt bad all the time and finally went in to the doctor. I was admitted to the labor and delivery department a week ago for preeclampsia. My doctor has now put me on bed rest and I have to take blood pressure medicine 3 times a day. I'm worried about the baby, but everytime he is checked he looks great. We had an appointment with the perinatologist for an systems and organ check and she said he is very healthy. We are definately thankful for that.

07/06/07 We started registering at Babies R Us today. Unfortuantely when we got there they told us that their scanning system was down and that we'd have to write everything down by hand. Ha, like thats going to happen lol :). So we decided just to do the bigger stuff, stroller/car seat/high chair/monitors and stuff like that. I'll add the rest online, or return another day for it. My hubby leaves tomorrow for recruiting school and wont be back until the end of August. :( We were wanting to do all the registering together, but looks like I'll be doing the rest with the help of my mother and sister. My best friend has a baby shower planned at the beginning of September, and my sister is throwing a "couples shower"/bbq for us around that same time. I'm excited that I get two showers, and my hubby will be back in time for them. Hopefully these next two months pass quickly. Its amazing to think that by the time he gets back it will be almost time to have the baby! Everyday he comes home from work and rubs my belly and says its gotten bigger from the day before. He sure is going to be surprised in what a big difference two months will make in the size of my belly

07/25/07 Went to the doctor today and had WONDERFUL news. I passed my glucose tolerance test, my blood pressure was controlled on the medication and the amount of protein in my urine has decreased. Looks like all this bed rest is paying off. :) She is even letting me decrease my blood pressure medicine to just once a day. She is sending me to the perinatologist next week for an in depth ultrasound. I'm so excited!

07/30/07 I went to the perinatologist today to check up on our little one. They did and in-depth ultrasound to make sure the baby is growing good. They did a full organ check and everything looked great. He weighed 3lbs 6oz which she said is above average (64 percentile). They also did a non-stress test and she said he is a healthy active boy. Unfortunately I almost passed out on the exam table during the ultrasound. Apparently he is pressing on an artery. When I lay on my back I get dizzy and everything goes black. Guess thats more motivation to stay sleeping on my left side.

08/10/07 Had another doctors appointment today. Time is going by so quickly now that we're on the "every two week" schedule. My blood pressure was 104/70. THATS AWESOME! Thats the lowest its been in forever. I'm so happy. My uterus is measuring at 31 weeks today and the baby was super active as always. The doctor was listening to him and said, "Whats he doing in there? Running a marathon?!?!?" lol. I just laughed and was like, "yes, he's always moving" I go back in about a week and a half. I get to go a few days early because I'm flying to SC to see my hubby. So she'll check me on that day and clear me to travel. And then I'm on my way to see my honey after being apart for two months. I cant wait!

08/13/07 I have been in so much pain today. My hips ache and my pubic bones feel like they are tearing apart. Does anyone else feel this way? I hate night time because I know I'll toss and turn all night and not be able to get comfortable. Do we really have nine more weeks of this???? On a happier note, only 9 days left until I get to see my hubby. I'm so excited!

08/27/07 My hubby is home and I am soooo happy. He surprised me with a new 'mommy mobile" this weekend. So sweet. We had our first baby shower yesterday. It turned out great, we got tons of stuff and it was a lot of fun. We saw the perinatologist today. The baby is big...5lbs 5oz and very healthy. Unfortuantely my blood pressure was up some today (148/80) so she wants me to come in every week for an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid levels and do NSTs. Oh well...I'll get to see my baby every week from now on.

08/30/07 We got great news last night. We will be moving to Florida soon so Charles can start work as a recruiter. This means he wont be deploying to Iraq in December, and will actually be "non-deployable" for three years. I'm sooooo thankful that he'll be home to see our baby grow up. (On a side note, I was back at the doctors today with a kidney infection. Last time they admitted me to the hospital over it. So far this time I only have to take the antibiotics, hopefully they take care of the infection. I never had kidney problems before this baby :(

Grr....where did my last two months of updates go? How upsetting. Just a quick update. My new, rescheduled induction date is this coming Monday, the 8th. Just a few days left....

BIRTH STORY

We went in at 7am Monday the 8th for our scheduled induction. I was already 2cm dilated and 60% effaced, so the doctor only ordered pitocin, there wasnt any need for the cervadil. By 7:30am I was already having contractions. They continued 3-4minutes apart for the first couple of hours. By 12pm I was maxed out on pitocin and my contractions were a minute and a half apart. I was in excrutiating pain. I hadnt received any pain meds or epidural at that point, much to the nurses surprise. By 2:30pm I was vomitting from the pain and finally decided to give in and get the epidural. There wasnt any recovery time between contractions and the vomitting made it impossible to function. The doctor came in and started the epidural about 30minutes after it was ordered. He messed it up and had to stick me twice. On the second time he hit a nerve on the left side of my spine, but was eventually able to get it correct. I was so happy to finally experience some relief. At 5pm my doctor came in to check me. I had only dilated from a 2 to a 5 in 10hours. The babys head was stuck in my pelvis. The doctor was very concerned because his head was swelling. She decided we needed to do an emergency c-section. I was rushed into the operating room. At that point only my left side was numb. The doctor had to once again fix my epidural so that I would be numb all the way. Unfortunately it made my blood pressure drop so low I started throwing up and passing out. He got that under control and the procedure began. Our baby was born at 5:25pm, he was 8lbs 2oz. While the doctor was sewing me up she found a nodule on my fallopian tube that they have sent off to pathology. Once in the recovery room they had a hard time controlling the vaginal bleeding and had to give me a shot to slow it down. The whole experience was upsetting, painful and unexpected, but well worth it. We have a beautiful baby boy we named Rowan. We now know that any future children we have will also have to be born by c-section due to my small pelvis. We got released from the hospital yesterday evening and are at home resting now. My breast milk is already in, any Rowan is eating great now. He had some problems latching on in the hospital and lost down to 7lbs 5oz, but as of his pediatrician appointment this morning he has gained back two of those ounces. We are so lucky, he is such a good baby, rarely cries and is so alert.