Mallory's first bath...better than expected

Mallory's first bath went better than expected. I was kind of dreading this experience because I thought she'd scream and cry the whole time. It actually went much better than I expected...especially since I had no idea what I was doing. It was a first for BOTH of us!

During her second bath, she puked in the water. It was pretty gross, but we managed to get through it...

Our precious babay

Here are a couple more pictures of our tiny bundle of joy. We can't help but take pictures of her all day long. She's perfect!

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a first...it's Mother's Day, and I'M A MOM!!! It's kind of strange being on the receiving end. It was a very special day. Andy bought me a "loving mother" necklace and Mallory was dedicated at church today. Here's our first family photo.

Oh yeah, and Happy Mother's Day to MY mom too!

The Proud Father

Here is a picture of the proud father. I love this picture of Andy and Mallory!
We're going to be just fine....

Our first night at home...Andy, that's a pillow, NOT Mallory!!

Wednesday, April 23rd, was our first night at home. During the night, Mallory started crying, so Andy took her out of the bassinet and laid her beside him. He fell asleep and rolled over to his side, so I woke him up and told him to put Mallory back in the bassinet. He got up and grabbed the little red pillow he sleeps with...he literally scooped it up and gently placed IT in the bassinet instead of Mallory! "Andy, that's your pillow...Mallory is still in the bed!"

A sign of true exhaustion.
I guess I didn't realize how tired Andy was too!

It was meant to be...our labor story

I started having contractions at 11:30pm on Sunday night (April 20th). I remember telling Andy my back ached and he mentioned they could be contractions. I dismissed his comment as absurd and went to bed. Then, the contractions began (how is he always right??). We were SO excited when we realized what was happening. We grabbed our "What to Expect" book and read through it to make sure we really were beginning the first stages of labor. We then grabbed our stop watch and began timing contractions. They were about 6-7 minutes apart. The book suggested we go back to sleep in order to get some rest before the "big day." YEAH RIGHT! This was worse than waiting for Santa Clause...there was NO way we were going to get any sleep. We were too excited!

I called Dr Moore's office around 8:30 that morning to report that I was in labor. They informed me that Dr Moore was off that day, so someone else would be delivering my baby. I was disappointed, but what can you do?!? The contractions continued until about 9:30 am on Monday morning, when I told Andy we needed to head to the hospital. I tried to wait as long as I could because the last thing I wanted was to be one of those people who shows up at the hospital in false labor.

Well, that wasn't an issue. When we showed up, I was so lucky to find my friend Susan Johnson (who only works 2 days a week) happened to be working that day. It was SO great to have someone I was comfortable with by my side as my nurse. Thank goodness she was working that day!

By now, I was already 4 centimeters dilated, so they went on and gave me my epidural (which was a breeze, by the way). I got the epidural around 10:30 and little Mallory entered the world about 3 hours later.

Dr. Moore WAS off work that day, but she happened to run into Ann Watson (my boss' wife) at the park. Ann asked Dr. Moore if she had talked to me. Dr. Moore said, "No. Why?" When Ann told Dr Moore I was in labor she dropped everything and rushed to the hospital so she could deliver the baby! She arrived just in time. I had already pushed a few times when she came running into the delivery room. Dr. Moore noticed the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck and her heart rate had dropped for several minutes, so she had to get Mallory out FAST. Within seconds she had vacuumed little Mallory out into this bright new world. Because Dr Moore reacted quickly, Mallory was OK. She came out kicking and screaming (I would be too with all that was going on). I am SO thankful Dr Moore was there to handle the delivery for me!

It was meant to be...

Introducing Mallory Claire Raines

Born: April 21st, 2008

Time: 1:46 pm

Weight: 7 lb 2 oz

Height: 19 1/2 inches

The Nursery is Coming Together

We've been workig on the nursery (also known as the storage room for the past 5 years). Cleaning out that room was a lot of work! Whew, I'm glad it's over. We decided to go with pink and lime green for Mallory's room. Here are a couple pictures...it's a work in progress.

My Growing Belly

Baby Shower

Brennan and LeighAnne hosted a wonderful baby shower for me. It was truly fantastic. I really enjoyed seeing my friends -- and I'm sure they enjoyed my growing belly!

Here are a few pictures from the shower. My due date is 4 weeks away....Baby Mallory could arrive at any time!

Thanks, Brennan and LeighAnne, for being such great friends! You two are great party throwers!

It's official: her name will be MALLORY

Well, we have officially decided on a name for Baby Raines. Her name will be MALLORY CLAIRE RAINES. It's nice to have that decision out of the way, whew! Now, we can practice calling her Mallory so we don't forget it when she's born!

We've been working on the nursery. We painted it lime green! We also bought cute little letters spelling Mallory to hang on the wall. I'll have to post pictures of the nursery soon...

Baby Shower

We had our family baby shower this past weekend. It worked out well because all Dad's siblings came in town for Grandmother's 80th birthday (Happy Birthday Grandmother), so they were there for the shower too! It was SO nice to see all my aunts, and everyone else who came to the shower.

Thanks to Jan & Jaime Martin for hosting the perfect shower for me and Baby Raines!

Getting Ready for the Baby

We've been getting ready for Baby Raines....putting together the crib, dresser, and armoire.

We've also had a little fun with some recent baby purchases--especially Andy. Should I tell Andy that thing on his head is a SWIM FLOATIE -- NOT a hat?!?!?!

He's so silly!

Baby Raines' Name

Deciding on a name has been tough for me. For Andy, it's a breeze. He doesn't care much, as long as he likes the name. And he's happy with ANY of the top 3 names we've narrowed it down to. Here they are: Mallory Claire Raines, Audrey Claire Raines, or Anna Claire Raines. I don't want to officially decide because I guess I'm afraid that we won't like the name later, or maybe she won't look or act like the name we decided on. A name is a BIG deal -- it's PERMANENT!!!

Anyway, I created a "baby poll" to get our friends' opinion. Here's the link to the poll, where you can vote on your favorite name: www.babyzone.com/babynames/bnpoll.asp?pollid=118338.

But hurry....Baby Raines will be here in EIGHT WEEKS!!

Black Crowes Concert

Baby Raines attended her first concert this past weekend....the Black Crowes came to Owensboro!!! I couldn't believe a band that big would make a stop at the SportsCenter in Owensboro, but they DID -- and I have pictures to prove it. They're kicking off a new tour and started in Owensboro with a "practice run."


They were great! Andy and I (and now the baby) are BIG fans of the Crowes. As you can see, we had great seats (any seat is pretty darn good in the SportsCenter). Our friend Julie Moore hooked us up with tickets -- thank you Julie!

The big snow

We finally had our big snow for the year. As you can see from this picture, we got plenty...a little unusual weather for MARCH! Tootsie took a minute to get used to it, but as soon as Andy went outside with her, she was just fine! I think her little belly must have been cold touching the snow! But she did her business like a good girl.

The last time it snowed like this in March, I was a freshman at UK...on my way to Miama, FL for spring break. We got snowed in overnight at the Detroit airport. I'm so glad Christina made it to San Francisco before the snow caused any delays...

Charity Ball 2008

Well, Charity Ball was this past weekend. Not much to say about it.

We had several couples over for dinner before the ball. Here are a couple pictures...

We already love you, Baby Raines!

Baby Raines, you won't believe how much you're already loved! You will be surrounded by friends and family who love and care about you so very much. We already can't wait for your arrival -- and we haven't even met you yet!

Moms-to-Be

Three girls in my Bible Study group are expecting. There must be something in the water we're drinking. It's the first child for each of us, so it's pretty neat that we're all experiencing this for the first time -- together.

Susie Gronseth (left) is due Aug 3rd (my and Andy's anniversary), I'm due May 12th (Mother's Day weekend), and Nicole Martin (right) is due any day now. Her Doctor thinks she might have the baby this week!

Our Bible Study group is literally growing leaps and bounds!!!

Give me some RED HOTS!!!!!

My cravings are getting stronger...I found myself driving to TWO (that's right, two) convenient stores just to find some Red Hots!!!
I've been craving them all week, but just had to have some today. Pretty sad, I know!

As you can see, Tootsie likes Red Hots too!

I'll be 28 weeks pregnant tomorrow.

Ski Trip to Perfect North

We met up with some friends in Louisville this weekend. They all went skiing at Perfect North, but I followed Dr Moore's advice not to ski in my 3rd tri-mester. : ) Instead, I stayed in Louisville and spent my time visiting Bryan & Shelley Duke (& Price), Kasey Jenks' baby (Presley), and shopping.
We had a great time. Thanks to Devon & Andrea Shelton for letting 9 people crash at their place for the weekend! They're great hosts! Here's a picture of the ski crew...

I'm so clumsy!!!

I keep dropping things...and these things are BREAKABLE!! I'll go on and blame it on the pregnancy, but honestly it's a far stretch since I've always been a bit clumsy.

On Saturday, Andy and I were cleaning the house. I dropped a beautiful glass pitcher we got for our wedding and it broke into a thousand pieces on the kitchen floor. I was SO bummed about breaking that pitcher. Thanks, Andy, for cleaning up my mess!

Then, last night, I dropped a coffee pot and --you guessed it--it broke into a thousand pieces TOO! What's wrong with me?!?!?!

At this rate, the baby won't even have a chance to break our nice things...I will have already broken it all!

Hmmmmmm.....I hope I don't drop our baby. SURELY I'll be more together by then. : )

Andy's new skis

I got Andy a set of skis for Christmas this year. He was so excited, he had to try them on in the living room. While we can't make the trip out west with Nick & Jen Thompson this year, we are going to Perfect North soon.

Maybe we can make the trip to Colorado next year. I hope so!

More weird dreams...

A couple of weird dreams I've had recently:

• Dream # 1:

I was holding the baby that was supposed to be in my womb. She wasn't quite done developing yet, so I don't know why I was holding her. And she was frozen, so I held her under warm water to help thaw her out. I then kind of folded her back up so she's feel like she was still in my belly. Weird, I KNOW!

• Dream # 2:

I was planning to breast feed 2 bunnies for some reason. But once I held the baby bunnies in my hands I realized they had teeth! I then learned you're not supposed to breast feed bunnies -- you bottle feed them (of course)! I needed to save myself for Baby Raines anyway.

I mean, seriously, you'd think I'd know these things -- even in my sleep! They're not kidding when they tell you you'll have some crazy dreams...

Mom and Dad-to-be

Bowling Green

Andy, myself, Nick & Jen headed to Bowling Green this weekend to visit Johnny & Kristin Phillips. We had a great time at their house! We went to dinner at an Italian Restaurant to celebrate Kristin's birthday.

We played Guitar Hero for the first time...SO fun!

Here's a picture of the girls at dinner.

Don't drink the water!!

Gosh, I can't believe how many of my friends are expecting right now...I know 14 people who are all pregnant right now!!! 3 of us in my Bible study group are expecting, and 4 in my bunco group.
Here's who's pregnant right now:
Carlie Remole Brown, Kasey Jenks, Libby Johnson, Nicole Martin, Rose Helwig, ME, Bethany Blackstone Hamner, Andrea & Kevin Harreld, Whitney Vanderpool Shelton, Liz Crowe Braun, Amy Silvert, Susie Gronseth, Adam & Rachel Conrad, and Jaime Martin...quite a list....AND 3 other friends have had babies in the past 6 months. Baby Raines will have plenty of friends to play with!

Move baby move

Andy felt the baby move for the first time. She was really moving around at about 10:00 pm (while we were watching the season finale of "24" Season 6. She was probably kicking because my heart was racing from watching the show!

Andy laid behind me on the couch and put his hands on my belly....there she went! He felt about 4-5 good kicks. SO fun! I'm 22 weeks....we'll get to do this for 18 more!

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!