8 Weeks Strong...and Growing!

Today was the highly anticipated dr.'s visit and ultrasound (at least for me anyway). Today was the first time we could really see the baby and finally hear it's heart beating! I was very anxious leading up to this point; but once we could see it and hear it and know that it (and by "it" I mean he or she) was really there, I was very relieved. See pics below:




The first picture is flipped, so you can see it better. The baby is actually standing on it's head and just hanging out for now. (Maybe we have a gymnist on our hands, who knows?) I was surprised at how much it looked like a baby at only 8 weeks. You can already make out its head and limbs and what I imagine will someday be some fairly chubby cheeks! :-)

The second picture shows the heartrate which measured at 169. This is fairly high compared to what we've had in the past. I asked Ernie if he thinks it's a girl or boy and he said "girl" simply because I'm not nearly as sick as I was last time and everything just seems different about this pregancy. I'll go with his reasoning, but we'll see. And as far as that goes, we're definately leaning towards finding out the gender as soon as we can. I think we've waited long enough on things like this.

I had a gestational diabetes screen today, so hopefully that goes well. Also, the dr. put me on a round of antibiotics (not real sure what this does), but she said it would be good for me to do at this point in my pregnancy considering our history. Whatever...you're the doctor, not me. I just hate taking any type of medicine even if I know it's okay. I cringe everytime I take the low-dose asprin she prescribed, simply because it says on the bottle, "Do not take if you're pregnant."

So, that's about all the updates I've got for now about our visit. Our next appt. is Tuesday, Jan. 16th; so we'll keep you posted. Until then, keep us in your prayers.

5 Weeks!

A little more than a week ago, we found out we were having a baby! It has been a rough few months for us, but this news is such a huge blessing. We had been praying for God to provide us with a baby in his time, and we are blessed that it has happened so soon. Everything happens for a reason; and although we may not always understand it, He has a plan for us.

After taking a few preganancy tests and still being nervous, we scheduled a doctors appointment. It was still too early for them to see anything on the ultrasound, so they did some blood work to make sure everything was as it should be. On Monday, Ashley went back for more blood work, and we found out yesterday from the blood tyder test that her numbers went up from 348 to around 3,700 in about a week. (The number needs to be around 2,000-3,000 to see anything on a ultrasound, but can be as low as 25 to show up as a positive pregnancy test). Yesterday, we went in for our second ultrasound and everything looks great (See below). Ashley is 5 weeks pregnant and the ultrasound showed that everything was progressing well and gave us postive reassurance:


Everyone at the doctor's office was extrememly nice to us and almost all of the nurses told us that they had been praying and thinking of us. After telling our parents at Thanksgiving and getting a good ultrasound result, we have begun to tell our friends and other family that we're having a baby next summer. Our due date is around July 31, but the doctor said that we'll probably deliver early. We're trying to get back into the pregnancy mode and remember everything we were doing before. The nursury has turned back into our junk room; so we have to get that back in order, but we still have plenty of time.

We thank everyone for their prayers and concern over the past few months and we hope this baby gives hope to you as well. Please continue to pray for us, as we expect this pregancy to be a long, but rewarding 9 months.