First blog entry! About us, and the pregnancy so far..

Well this is my first blog entry! I am a little late on starting a pregnancy blog, but I figured better late than never! We are expecting our first child, a baby boy named Raine on October 6, 2008! Our journey so far has been wonderful. We are incredibly blessed that there have been no complications with our baby or my pregnancy so far. Fo those who do not know us personally, let me bring you up to speed. I am Katie, 21, I'm a Veterinary Technology student. My significant other is Ian, 23, he works full time for an automotive company and is also an aspiring musician. We live in Fredericksburg, Virginia.. about an hour from both Washington DC and Richmond. We live together in a large apartment, and are moving to a townhouse/house in less than a month due to our expanding family. I was born and raised in Virginia, Ian moved here from Iowa. So hes a Midwest boy, and I'm an East Coast girl! We have a gang of animals, 4 cats and a chihuahua.. sometimes they drive us crazy but mostly they are a ton of fun to have. Ian is pretty outgoing, I'm more of a homebody. I'm very close to my family, they mean the world to me. We both have a passion for hip hop music, thats actually how we met. We started talking a little over 3 years ago on an internet message board for an indie hip hop artist. We spent hours (literally 10 sometimes) on the phone and he finally came out here and met me, and the rest is history (okay it wasn't that easy, but you get my drift). We have been through quite a bit together, and at the end of the day I feel very blessed to have him in my life. We are incredibly loyal to each other, and I feel incredibly blessed to have found someone who loves me as much as I love him. Below are photos of us and our pets, so you can put faces with names! We need to take new photos of us together, we just never really think to take them. We are getting some professional photos done while I'm pregnant soon though!

Me & Ian:

In order from top to bottom: Mini Mani, Muse, Mello, Miles, & Merlin

Our pregnancy journey actually started around 9 months ago. I got pregnant, but miscarried at about 7 weeks. We were broken hearted and I was convinced it was a sign that I may never be able to successfully carry a child. That combined with my history of ovarian cysts made hope look grim. When I got the positive result on my pregnancy test on February 10th, I was happy but very scared that the same thing would happen again. I just couldn't take the heartache of another miscarriage. To my surprise weeks went by.. and more weeks, and everything was fine! I got morning sickness, cravings, and it was looking like this pregnancy would stick! At around 7 weeks of pregnant I saw something on a Discovery Health show about miscarriages, and the doctor on the show explained that many early miscarriages are caused by not enough blood flow getting to the placenta. He had a patient with over 10 miscarriages, and that turned out to be what was causing them. He told her to take baby aspirin daily to thin her blood. Well she did, and she had a successful pregnancy! I'm not too fond of taking your health care into your own hands, but I thought it couldn't hurt if I did the same. So I started taking the baby aspirin daily. I don't honestly know if thats what made this pregnancy "stick", but I certainly think its a strange coincidence if not! I am just so happy that this is working out. My one goal in life has always been to be a mother, as long as I can remember! I am finally going to be blessed with a bundle of joy.. my own little baby boy! Yes, thats right we are having a boy! We actually just found out on May 23rd at the 20 week ultrasound. Its neat to me that I am having a boy. I lost my "boy" shortly before finding out I was pregnant. My loyal, wonderful, amazing dog Armani passed away unexpectedly not too long before I found out I was pregnant. I was absolutely crushed. He meant the world to me, he was so much more than a dog to me. I have his son, Mini Mani, who is his little clone.. but I still miss him dearly. Its funny how things work out, a life is lost and another one is created. Here is a photo of my beloved dog Armani that passed away in early 2008:


We had our first ultrasound when the baby was 13 weeks. I was so nervous going into the appointment. I was convinced something would be wrong.. that the pregnancy would be ectopic, or there wouldn't be a fetus, or something of that sort. Ian and my Mom of course came with me, they tried to reassure me everything would turn out fine but I just had convinced myself otherwise. I got there, peed in a cup, etc.. then headed to the ultrasound room. My OB/GYN office is really nice, they have a great ultrasound room with a big flat screen mounted on the wall so that everyone in the room can see the images on the screen. It was a trans vaginal ultrasound with a probe, and 5 seconds after inserting the probe, there was my beautiful baby. 10 fingers, 10 toes, perfect.. absolutely FLAWLESS! Out came tears of joy, relief, absolute happiness. I swear that the moment I saw that image on the screen has to be the best moment of my life, ever. I couldn't believe we had created something so beautiful.. we had created life. There was our baby, WAVING at us (yes, waving!) and wiggling his legs and toes (he looked like he was dancing!). Absolutely amazing. He was measuring perfectly, everything looked great. Here is our ultrasound photo of the baby at 13 weeks:


After a long wait, we finally got to have another ultrasound on May 23rd at 20 weeks of gestation. We had waited for this for so long! This time it was a normal ultrasound, not trans vaginal. Once again, there on the screen was our little baby! This time not as little as before! He was being very lazy, his legs were sitting "indian style" (crossed) and he was laying with his head all the way back/down. The ultrasound lasted quite some time because this is the most important ultrasound. They check every vital organ and every part of the baby. After being patient through all of the technical things, we found out the gender! As plain as day there was a little penis and testicles! I had a strong intuition that it would be a boy, and so did Ian. Well, we were right! Yay! A healthy baby boy! After the ultrasound we met with the doctor, and to our great relief we found out he is 100% healthy. Every part of him is absolutely perfect and normal! I am so incredibly grateful for that, as a healthy baby is the most important thing, and I had worried myself to pieces about something being wrong. She said the baby is average size but not large, estimating him at about 7 pounds give or take. Both Ian and I were around that weight at birth as well. I can't say enough how happy we are to be having our little boy. We decided a long time ago if we had a boy we would name him Raine. Here are Raine's 20 week ultrasound photos:

Thats all for today, I have a lot left to write, but since this one is so long I'll save that for tomorrow!