A Gift from Grandama & Grandpa Nash

Linda, my mother-in-law sent me the most beautiful necklace! The charms are about the size of a dime and are very delicate & detailed! The baby has 2 legs and the stork has an eye & tail feathers! I am going to wear it all the time! Thank you so much!

Love,
Katie

1st visit with the OBGYN 8/9/10

So yesterday Damon and I had our 1st visit with the OBGYN (Dr. Spetalnick) apparently he likes to have you meet with the nurses at first to make sure it is a viable pregnancy. He has been my doctor for MANY years now so I am used to his slight kookiness and vague answers. Example: I say "so, packaged meat...can I really not eat it?" and he say "well, what’s to say you can’t eat something...I mean you can get sick just as he can from eating deli meat." I looked at Damon (who I warned in advance) with a puzzled look on my face...So i guess that is a no??!! hehehe. Even with his vague answers Dr. Spetalnick is one of the best at Vanderbilt.

On an completely awesome note:
We got to hear the baby's heart beat! It was so fast and cute (can an audio clip be cute?) I asked if he could record it for me and he laughed...that’s a no. 150 beats a minutes!

We got to schedule the rest of our visits:
08/31/10
09/28/10 find out the sex!
10/26/10
11/23/10
12/21/10
01/04/11
01/18/11

Love,
Katie

prenatal pills....for a horse?

OHH GEEZE! I am not a fan of taking pills. In fact, I will only take aspirin if I have a slamming headache. I would much rather take 3 little pills rather than 1 ginormous pill! I have to take it with water handy and a little snack (just in case). At least they are a pretty color. :/

Love,
Katie

3 Months Down 7/30/10

I am officially 12 weeks today! This means by nausea should start going away, my energy should increase and life will start going back to normal. Well as normal as can be with a little one inside me!

On the downside I have a crazy cold and it has hit me hard.

Here is a note from Parenting.com:

Dear Mom-To-Be,
Time may be moving in slow motion, but you're about to reach an important milestone--the end of the first trimester. Your baby now weighs about half an ounce and is about 2 1/2 inches long from top to bottom. From toothbuds to toenails, the fetus is now fully formed. He can even open his mouth and wiggle his fingers and toes, though you are still probably not feeling any movement. Development is in high gear, as fetal nerve cells multiply rapidly and synapses start firing.

Results of Genetic Testing

The nurse called me Friday, July 30th to let me know that all my tests came back in the normal range. The chances of me having a down syndrome baby is 1 in 10,000 and Trisomy baby is 1 in 9,530. I said well the odds on that don't seem as good as the first result and she said not to worry it is all in the normal range. :) They will test one more time in the second trimester just to be sure. YAY!

Love,
Katie

Genetic Testing 7/26/10

Morning all!
Today I went in for genetic testing on the baby. They did an Ultra Screen which tests for Down Syndrome and Trisomy 13 & 18 (if this comes back positive then I can carry the baby full term but it will die when it is born). I should have the results in 1 week. Part 1 of the test is an ultrasound that measures the fluid in the neck, the nurse said that was all ok! I have attached a couple pictures of the baby! It actually has a profile-nose & lips! It has fingers and toes! AND it was moving all around , flipping back and forth and wiggling its arms and legs!!! It was so cool!!! I didn’t hear the heartbeat but she measured it and it was 149 beats a minute! Which apparently is it the normal/good range! The first picture is a side profile with the face, neck and some belly. They second picture is a close up of the face with the little hand by the face!!! We see the OBGYN on August 9th!

Love,
Katie

The Cutest Sheet You Ever Did See!

Tired of buying just diapers I wanted to get something cute. I decided to get a sheet, but needed something gender neutral. This is the cutest sheet ever!

Love,
Katie

Putting Together the Crib/Dresser/Changing Table 7/23/10

Mom came over and the 3 of us put together the crib, dresser, and changing table. It was definitely a pain in the butt. They was only a small amount of cursing. I just have 1 question: why in the hell is all of that so hard to put together? I am very skilled with tools and have put together more than my far share of furniture. Damn you instructions! We are missing 3 pieces of hardware (have been ordered online) - I guess that is what you get buying out of a storage unit. The furniture looks great though!

Love,
Katie

Like a Squirrel and Her Nuts

I have been printing coupons and stocking up on diapers/wipes. Kind of like a momma squirrel and her nuts! Right now I am getting both Pampers & Huggies swaddlers and sensitive wipes.

Love,
Katie

Only with Damon & Katie - A Crib Story

I love a deal. Seriously-I am a coupon cutter. Maybe even obsessed. If there is something nig that I want to purchase I know that if I go online I WILL be able to find some sort of coupon or a place that is having a deal. So, once I knew what kind of crib I was looking for I started my online search. I went to craigslist and *BAM* the first post was the exact crib that I wanted (brand new in the box) with the matching dresser (also, brand new in box)! Buy the crib get the dresser free. FREE! To make a long story short we decide to get it. Damon and I trek it down to Nashville/Antioch to a storage facility that is near the airport. Yeah, sketchy. The guy is super nice a little high energy and says "hey you know what, I will give you a free changing table too!" I was like "word." So he opens all these storage units that are stock FULL of baby stuff all new in the box and I felt like I died and went to heaven! I seriously wanted to buy 1 of everything! The guy says that he gets everything from stock overages and store closings but Damon is convinced that it is all "picked up" off the back of a UPS truck. Ahh the adventures of us. Classy.

Love,
Katie

Shopping with Mom

Mom & I went shopping at Target just to look around and have fun! I discovered that there really is not a lot of neutral gender stuff that is cute. Plus, if you know Damon you know that he HATES the color Green! We decided that we had to get something so mom got a complete matching outfit: hat, mittens, onesie (with footies), swaddling blankets. She also purchased a baby matress and we looked around at the furniture. Target online is much better! This is the set we are going to go with: DaVinci Kalani Collection in Espresso.

Love,
Katie

1st Doctor's Visit 7/12/10

Everything went well at the doctors. The baby is alive and looking good so far. It measures an inch long and is 9 weeks 3 days old. I had a bunch of blood work done and lots of information to read up on. Damon and I are in the process of deciding if we want to go ahead with genetic testing, going to see what insurance covers first. We are also going to talk with a financial planner that will look at our insurance and tell us how much it will be and we can go ahead and start paying monthly now. I have attached the ultrasound! Its so cute!!!

Love,
Katie

(Technically) Damon's 1st Father's Day 6/20/10

Father's Day came very soon for Damon. I wanted to surprise him with something sweet and meaningful. This was very hard to do as I have really never done this before. I decided to get him a cute little onesie that could be used for both a boy or girl and some cookies. For added fun I threw in some Toy Story 3 mac & cheese. I think Damon was surprised that I did anything and all and was amazed at how little the onesie was!

Love,
Katie

Itty Bitty Newborn Diaper

So I had to purchase SOMETHING! When I first started looking I had no idea what to get to quench my urge to BUY BUY BUY! I decided to get a pack of diapers. Then I could resist - I had to open them! - They are the smallest little baby diapers ever! I am so excited to see its tiny little baby butt! There is even a little cut out at the top for the umbilical cord!

Love,
Katie

6/5/10

Not many people knew that Damon and I have been trying to have a baby since Thanksgiving of 2009. Every month I would get my hopes up and every month I would be disappointed. April was a really rough month on me emotionally as I was really expecting to be pregnant(details we don’t need to put on a blog). So in May I decided to forget about it for a while and start training for a half marathon and start going out more while I was still young. My monthly visitor was scheduled to visit me on June 3rd (I am positive of this as I have been tracking it for months), even though I decided to move on deep down I was nervous/excited/hopeful that I would not see my monthly visitor. Come Saturday (June 6th) I just couldn't wait anymore, I had to pee on a stick. I had hope but was skeptical since at this point I have spent a small fortune in pregnancy tests and have peed on a gazillion sticks (never believing just 1 stick). The line did not take long to appear. At first it was very faint. Damon was outside on the deck with the dogs and I ran out of the bathroom (at this point I was crying) instantly Damon was on alert "what's wrong?" "what is it? Katie!?" I hugged him and said "we are having a baby!!!" He said "What??!!" "really" then something along the lines of "oh god" "oh my god" I said "are you shocked?" he said "yes" I was like boo-we have been trying to months! He said "yea, but now its real." (teehhhee) I wanted to tell everyone and their mother but Damon said "wait, we have to find out if its real or not." I was like HELLLOOO-DO YOU SEE MY STICK??? He said well do it again in the morning...they say the morning is more accurate. So I did and again 2 lines!

Love,
Katie