Welcome!!!

Welcome to my blog I have decided to start to document Miss Avery's life! I hope you find it enjoyable and please look over my rambling as being pregnant and not working leaves lots of time to think and do meaningless stuff! And please forgive me, but this will probably be a long blog as I have lots of catching up to do! I was such a slack pregnant lady that I really didn't document a lot of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences being pregnant so this may just be the place for that to happen.

It all became real on February 18, 2012. I had this feeling for a couple of weeks that I might be pregnant, but I was scared to face the reality and take a test. Finally, after Kaylon begging and pleading with me, I finally took the test on the Saturday after Valentine's Day. Kaylon and I had planned to go stay at a nice hotel in uptown Charlotte to celebrate Valentine's Day, and since we would be drinking some, I thought it was best if I went ahead and took the test just to be safe. I peed on the stick (great image, I know) and almost immediately the infamous + sign appeared. I started crying, but they weren't tears of joy at the time. I was terrified. I didn't have a job, I didn't have insurance, we lived in a 3rd floor apartment. It just wasn't what we had planned. But being the great husband he is, Kaylon assured me everything would be fine and I tried my hardest to make him believe that I believed him, although I was still very unsure in the back of my mind. It put a little damper on our romantic evening as it went from being about the two of us to the three of us. We had a lot of work to do before she came, and we were well aware of that. It would involve financial strains as well as mental and emotional strains. We would have to move, which we had wanted to do anyways. But it was something we were getting excited about and when Kaylon got me added to his insurance a couple of days later, my worries turned to sheer joy and excitement.


Since I found out I was pregnant, my wonderful husband and I have had to make a lot of choices. The one that has been the most rewarding, but also the cause of a lot of stress, is for me to be a stay-at-home mommy. Don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely thrilled to have the chance to be home with my little angel and help mold her into the precious little girl I know she will be. However, the financial toll this is going to take on our family is significant and definitely not something we decided on overnight. We prayed and it just seems like the thing to do. With me being due in September, the likelihood of me finding a school that would hire a new teacher who would have to be out for 6-8 weeks at the beginning of the school year for maternity leave was slim to none. So we just decided that I would stay home, which has always been a dream for me and Kaylon anyways. I'm excited, a little bit bored (for now), and anxious for her to be here!


To start the blog off, I want to share our first experience at the OB/GYN.


We had our first appointment at Midtown OB/GYN (LOVE) on April 2nd. This visit had many special moments because it was such a huge blessing to be able to actually see what God had blessed us with!


Funny story about that visit...I got the recommendation for Dr. Parket at Midtown OB/GYN from a friend who was seeing him for her pregnancy as well. While Kaylon and I were in the waiting room before our appointment, a handsome, tall doctor walked out to another area of the office. I made the funny remark, "I hope that's my doctor!" Kaylon just laughed at me because he loves me and knows I was anxious about the appointment. Well, who walks in to the exam room while I'm lying there exposed on the table but Mr. Handsome Himself! Kaylon just gave me that sideways grin and sat there enjoying my embarrassment as the visit proceeded.


Possibly my favorite part of the appointment was when Dr. Parker was examining my belly. Kaylon, being nervous and not sure of whether or not he was supposed to stand by me or stay diligently in his chair, was sitting against the wall as Dr. Parker was pressing on my belly doing the routine exam and trying to estimate how far along I was. Dr. Parker was standing so that Kaylon could not really see what he was doing, but I could see Kaylon from where I was laying. Dr. Parker got out the Doppler stethoscope (what they use to hear the baby's heartbeat) and placed it on my belly. The sound of her heartbeat came out immediately, strong and fast. Kaylon had no idea that the doctor was doing that at the time and when he heard that sound tears immediately came to his eyes and began running down his cheeks. As his wife and the mother of this precious life we created, that was the most touching moment we have had together. I wish I could have captured it on camera, but the picture will always be in my mind.


Dr. Parker estimated we were about 16 weeks along from feeling my belly, but since we weren't sure and actually thought we were only about 13 weeks along, we had our first ultrasound. To our surprise we were actually 16 weeks and 1 day already (good guess Dr. Parker!) and our wonderful ultrasound tech was able to determine the sex of the baby then! Here are the pictures from that day...

The first two are of her profile. She was really moving a lot that day so our ultrasound tech was able to get several great shots!

A little diva already, Miss Avery had her hand up to her head almost the entire time as if to say, "I've had enough, leave me alone!"

Being the big Tar Heel fans that we are, Kaylon and I loved this shot of her foot :)

And here is the first photo to embarrass her...that is her little Choochi right there haha!

And here she is waving good bye :)

At that appointment, I had blood drawn to test for all sorts of genetic disorders. It is very standard procedure, so I really thought nothing of it. The next morning, I got a call from Dr. Parker who left a voicemail asking me to call him back as soon as possible to discuss my results. Of course, I panicked! I was home alone because Kaylon was at work, so I called Dr. Parker and he knew it was me as soon as he picked up the phone, which made me even more nervous. He began explaining that the tests they ran measures for various things, including the risk of having a child with Down's Syndrome. I can't remember the exact numbers he told me, but I believe he said 1:5000 is the normal ratio of the risk of your child having Down's if the results come back normal. My results came back with a 1:150 chance, meaning that the chance my little girl would be born with Down's was 1 out of 150, which is significantly higher than the 1 out of 5,000 but still less than a 1% chance. Regardless of the very small risk she would be born with it, I was freaking out! Dr. Parker scheduled me an ultrasound with maternal fetal medicine for the following week to have a Level 2 ultrasound, where they use machines that are more advanced than the normal ultrasound machine and can pick up the exact due date better as well as measure the anatomy of the fetus better, which will give more insight into the health of the baby. I called Kaylon, freaking. I called my mom, freaking. I called my dad, freaking. And then I cried. A lot. How scary is it to be told your child might have Down's? Of course, I know Kaylon and I would love her the same but you want everything to be perfect and when that fantasy is put into question, it just turns your world upside down. My brother, JR, called and gave me the most reassuring words I could have heard at that time, especially coming from the stoic person that he is. He told me (and I am paraphrasing), "Jessica, I really don't think anything is wrong with her. We were told a lot of scary stuff with the twins and they are just fine, but even if she does have Down's, our family will love her no matter what." Coming from my big brother that meant a lot and it brought me to tears...again. But he was right, the love we all felt for that child would not change regardless of anything that could go wrong. The next week went by so slow as I awaited that appointment. I researched and read a lot of stories of people in my same situation who had no problems, but I was still uneasy.


The following week, we went to our appointment. After waiting an eternity (or at least it felt that way), we were finally called back. While we were there for a scary reason, it was so good to get to see our little girl on that screen again! And this time, the screen was huge! It was not like some old 9" black and white television, this was the mac daddy 47" HDTV flat screen, so we got to see her in all of her glory!! She had the hiccups, which was so funny to watch. Obviously I couldn't feel her at this point, so  it was funny to think that was going on inside my belly and I had no clue! The ultrasound tech looked at various parts of our baby and measured everything...I mean everything! Arms, legs, fingers, toes, neck, head, you get the point? She was telling us about all of the indicators of having downs that can be seen from an anatomy standpoint and our little girl looked completely healthy and normal. She did reaffirm that it was a girl at Kaylon's request (he was really hoping for a boy, but he is thrilled with the girl)! The doctor then came in and did his own measuring and looking. He said that she looked healthy, but that the chance was still 1:150 and that wouldn't change. He gave us the option of scheduling an amniocentesis, which is where they draw amniotic fluid from around the baby with a HUGE needle and test it, which is a definite yes or no as to whether she has Down's. We chose to not have that done, simply for the fact that it wouldn't change anything about the pregnancy. We are having this baby regardless, delivery would be the same, so what was the point of putting her at risk? Granted the risk was very low that anything could go wrong, but we just did not want to chance it. We pray that she is healthy, but we really won't know until we get to meet her in September. The good thing about that appointment...we got more pictures!!! Most of them were just of her arms, legs, hands, and feet. They did get one of her profile, but I thought she looked kinda like a gorilla lol. I'll share it anyways :)

Our beautiful baby girl (gorilla looking or not!)

Well, that is all I am going to write for now. I think I gave you plenty to read and if you made it all the way to the end, I'm sure you are bored by now! I will post more about my pregnancy and hopefully get caught up to being current. Don't worry, I'm not going to do a day-by-day, just the important things that happened along the way! Thanks for reading and please pray for us as we embark on this exciting, life changing journey!!!