Jen, me, and Meredith in Nashville

Baby Raines attended her first Bowl Game (UK vs. Florida State) at the Music City Bowl in Nashville. We won (barely) for the 2nd year in a row....way to go CATS!

Afterwards, we went to Buffalo Billiards. Black was a popular color for New Year's Eve....

We stayed at Joe & Meredith Willialms' house in Hendersonville. They were great hosts!

Merry Christmas....it's a girl

Well, surprising our parents with the news was just as fun as I had hoped. We wrapped little pink gifts to share our news. When they opened the box, it was stuffed with pink shredded tissue paper, a pink "grandma's brag book" photo album, little pink mints that say "it's a girl," and copies of the ultrasound pictures. It took both of our parents a little while to figure out what was going on...they were SO surprised!

We didn't get to make a big announcement this time when we found out we were pregnant, so we wanted to do something special to announce the sex of the baby.

Andy is going to be out numbered.....I hope he likes PINK!

It's a GIRL!!!!!!!

We found out today we're having a GIRL!!! I can't express how excited I am to know whether it's a boy or a girl...no more referring to Baby Raines as "t." The baby is now officially a "she" and we have the ultrasound pictures to prove it!
We were kind of sneaky about it...we wanted to surprise our family with the news on Christmas morning, so we told our friends and family we weren't finding out the sex of the baby until Jan 2nd.

Little do they know, we found out TODAY we're having a GIRL! Andy and I are so excited to share the news with our family. We're going to buy some cute little pink gifts and wrap them up for our parents to open on Christmas morning.....it's finally starting to feel more real...I'm starting to believe that we really ARE going to have a baby. I'm half way through...

Bunco Girls

Our Bunco group got together for a Christmas party. Everybody except Brennan and Amy Silvert made it. We have THREE pregnant girls in the group...Rose Helwig, Libby Johnson, and ME (front row)!

This is such a great group of girls...I look forward to getting together with them every month.

more dreams...

Last night, I spent most of my dreams on the beach. I also remember dreaming that I was going to drive one of those horse taxis. But, of course, when it was my turn, the horse pooped twice! And I didn't have shoes on because I had been on the beach. yuck!

Dreaming Away...

I've been dreaming every night. Here's what I dreamed about last night:

Me, Andy, Nick & Jen Thompson and some others were flying to Germany for 5 days. Then, we realized the flight left in an hour (from Nashville) -- and we were in Owensboro! So, we started calling people to see if we could charger a plane or find a friend who cold fly us to NY, where we would catch up with our flight. In my dream, I was dreaming that Superman would save us and fly us where we needed to go....interesting.

I also had a dream that Candi Brake called me, but didn't tell me who she was. I finally guessed it was her.

Spreading the news...

Well, the news is spreading across Owensboro. We went to Jaime & Jared's Halloween party this weekend and the news was spreading fast. I'm ok with it now, since I'm 12 weeks.

Thanksgiving

We invited some friends to come over Thanksgiving night.
Here's a picture of my 2 closets friends...Leigh Anne (left) & Brennan (middle).

Bethany & Jesse also stopped by (she's pregnant too), and Julie & Jamie Johnson, Kevin Harreld, etc. It was so nice to see our out of town friends too! I love the holidays!

get movin' Baby Raines

I think I felt the baby move, but I'm not sure. I was 15 weeks yesterday. I felt little tiny bubbles like fizz from a soft drink go across my belly. They say that's the baby moving. I'll be more sure of it when I start feeling it more often. How exciting!

good bye waistline!

I lost my waistline today....already at 12 1/2 weeks??? are you kidding me?!?!!??

Bye bye 1st tri-mester...time to share the news!!!

I'm 12 weeks pregnant today...finally! I feel like I can relax a bit more now. Friday night, Andy got sick AND Tootsie peed on my blanket while we were in bed. Then, Tootsie threw up on my comforter (and 3 places on the floor) early that morning.
God must be preparing me for Motherhood...

Go CATS!! We beat LSU!

Baby Raines attended its first UK football game this weekend, and boy was it a good one! UK beat the # 1 ranked LSU -- after FOUR overtimes!!!

We tailgated with Derrick & Heather Ritchie, and a bunch of friends we went to UK with. We went on and shared the news with our college friends (I'm almost 10 weeks). They were SO excited for us...especially Heather!

Sharing the news with our friends is so fun!

Ultrasound # 3 - 9 1/2 weeks

We had another ultrasound today to make sure everything was ok. So far so good! Andy was able to come with me to see some of the first pictures of Baby Raines.

Here's a picture of our little cutie patootie! As you can see, she's standing on her head!

back from paradise...

Wow, St. Thomas was beautiful. We owe a lot of thanks to the Haynes family for letting us stay at their Villa. It was incredible!
Perfect timing for a "baby moon." We enjoyed ourselves so much.

Trip to St. Thomas

We leave for St. Thomas for an 8 day vacation tomorrow. I'm so excited! I'm 8 1/2 weeks right now...I'll be almost 10 weeks by the time we get back. Yay!

I have annother ultrasound the day after we get back (Oct 12th). I'll feel much better after the ultrasound.

Ultrasound # 2 - the Heartbeat

We heard Baby Raines' heartbeat during an ultrasound today. It is amazing how something so tiny is already growing and clearly alive inside of me! Mom went with me to the Dr appt...I'm glad she was there. I'm officially 6 weeks and 2 days pregnant!

How am I feeling??? Well, a little weird, to tell you the truth. I'm not really nauseous, but feel like I could throw up at any minute. I had a terrible nose bleed yesterday before work too. Yuck!

Ultrasound #1

I had an ultrasound today to find out how far along I am. Looks like I'm 5 weeks and 2 days. No heartbeat yet (it's too early), so I'll go in for another ultrasound next week.

Oh BABY...we're going to have a BABY!!!

Well, we've done it again...it appears we have conceived again! My bloodwork confirmed I'm pregnant at Dr Andrea Moore's office today. I hope this one goes well.....

Announcing the news won't be as big a surprise this time--but who cares--we're going to have a baby! I told my parents last night I thought I might be. I'm already pretty bloated!

We'll keep the news quiet for a while this time.

DCHS 10 Year Reunion

My 10 year high school reunion was this weekend....it was actually on Andy and my 5 year anniversary. We had a great time. It was SO nice to see friends we hadn't seen in a while.

But I must admit, I'm glad it's over. Planning a reunion is a BIG undertaking! I'm NOT planning the next one!

just the two of us

Andy and I don't seem to take many pictures together. Here we are at El Toribio celebrating Brennan's birthday.....I LOVE the summer!

Baby Raines is on the way!

It's official...We're going to have a BABY!

Can you believe it?!?! After all this time together, Andy and I are finally ready. Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say "ready," but we're willing!

We're ONLY 5 weeks (and 2 days) pregnant right now, so it's very early in the game. We can't wait to meet our very own Baby Raines. 8 1/2 months seems so far away!

This is my first journal...I'm not sure what to write about, but I'm sure it will get better as I do it more!

Signed,
"mom-to-be"

A Positive Pregnancy Test

How we found out:

My friend, Heather Ritchie called me on Friday, March 2nd, to inform me she was expecting. I was so excited for her. I talked to her about how I was getting impatient waiting to start trying to have a baby. She explained that a pregnancy test can be positive with just a very very faint line and encouraged me to take another pregnancy test.

That I did. The next day was Charity Ball. I definately didn't want to have a drink if I could be pregnant, so I took another pregnancy test that morning. The line was so faint I needed a 2nd opinion. Andy confirmed it was there, but the line was so faint you could hardly see it. Could I REALLY be pregnant? If so, when could we possibly have conceived? It was hard to tell. And, will the prescription I was taking affect the health of the baby?

I spoke with someone from the Dr's office on March 8th, who told me to come in for bloodwork. This was the 3rd round of bloodwork they had gathered in the past 3 weeks. The nurse confirmed it....I AM pregnant!

We were so excited, we just couldn't contain ourselves. We invited our parents over for dinner that evening to announce the news. Read the next blog to find out how...

Breaking the News

Telling our friends and family has been so fun! Here's how we told our parents...

We invited the Raines and the Yeands over for dinner on Thursday, March 8th. They had NO idea we were even trying to conceive, so they didn't think anything about it when we invited them to dinner. Andy grilled ribeyes and I made the veggies.

As we were sitting at the dinner table enjoying conversation, I mentioned that Andy and I had been talking about getting another dog. (That was Andy's cue to chime in.) Then, Andy informed our parents we almost got a miniature pincher, but decided it would be too much with a baby on the way.

Their reaction was priceless! They didn't know if we were serious or joking around. They all sat there for a moment processing the words Andy so nonchalantly spoke. Then, when I began to smile, it hit mom. She started screaming and cheering. She was so excited. I think her reaction was "finally!" Melanie was so overcome with excitement she began to cry. This was definitely cause for a celebration, so both grandma's-to-be had a glass of wine to celebrate! Of course, our fathers were just as excited. They were already planning for Baby Raines' arrival.

It was the BEST night ever. Our parents are going to be WONDERFUL grandparents!

The Heartbeat

I just got back from my 2nd ultrasound this morning. We heard the HEARTBEAT for the first time!!! It was so exciting...The Women's Pavillion is my new favorite place!

The heartbeat was fascinating, and Dr Toler told me I can relax -- a LOT -- after hearing the heartbeat. I even got to take home 2 pictures. I'm 6 weeks today.....Baby Raines has grown to the astronomical size of a pea!