Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! The last week or so has been a challenge to say the least, and now that things have calmed down a bit (at least for the time being), I've decided to start this blog as a way to share my experiences and as a way to look back on all that we have been through so far, and all that we have left ahead.

Our "story" started back in June/July when Lance and I found out we were expecting our first child. We had been trying to start our family for about 8-9 months, and were on the verge of seeking professional help, when we got the good news. Needless to say we were ecstatic! About a week or 2 after we'd gotten "the 2 pink lines" on at least 5 pregnancy tests, I started spotting. It scared me to death! I called my Dr's office on my lunch break on a Monday morning, and was told to go home immediately and put my feet up. I was on bed rest for 3 days straight.

Lance had recently been to Brownsville, Texas for work, and picked up what we are both now convinced was the swine flu. Lance was the first to get sick, and ended up getting a course of IV antibiotics for pneumonia, and within about a week he was feeling well enough to at least go back to work. It was definitely the sickest he's ever been, and I think it really scared him. I, on the other hand, went from being on bed rest for bleeding/spotting, to being bedridden with whatever it was that made Lance so sick, only I ended up with bronchitis and a nasty fever for a solid month! Let's just say we've both had better summers, but eventually we both recovered and things went pretty well from there on out.

As far as the pregnancy, my biggest issue until recently was "morning sickness", which in my case was morning, noon, and night sickness. Zofran became my constant companion and my miracle worker. My monthly checkups went well, and by 20 weeks I had finally started to gain weight after the 10 lbs I had lost being sick over the summer.

We had our ultrasound on Oct 12th. Lance met me at the hospital for our 9 am appointment, and the U/S tech spent a good 30-45 minutes trying to get a look and what the doctor's needed, and what we desperately wanted to see. This was our first glimpse into what we were in store for with out little Rylee. We left the ultrasound not knowing if we were having a boy or a girl. Apparently, she wasn't in the mood that morning to reveal herself to the world, and preferred to keep the umbilical cord held snugly between her legs! That morning I got to make the uneventful phone call to my mom letting her know that we were definitely having a "baby". Instead of calling her our little girl, that morning Rylee became "our little monkey"!

Luckily, I took advantage of my lunch break that day to go and see if I could get a copy of the few worthwhile pictures we did get, and the tech said he would be happy to give it another shot if I had the time. This time Rylee was a good little girl, and we got beautiful pictures of her little face, feet, arms, legs, and the million dollar "money shot" that we'd been anxiously awaiting. I was so excited to finally know, but I still wish that Lance could have been there to see her in action.

From that point on the pregnancy was going really well. I had much less morning sickness, I was starting to show more and more all the time. Around the start of week 24 I started noticing what I thought was a bit of urine leaking whenever my bladder was really full, or when I would stand up after sitting for a while. I just thought it was one of those glamorous pregnancy changes, and joked about "peeing my pants" with friends and family. It continued to get more and more prominent as I worked through the week, and by the weekend I started to get an uneasy feeling.

Saturday, the 14th of November was a big day. Our family got to go to the temple and be together as Livie was sealed to Erika and Dave! Her and her big sister Addi looked like little blonde-haired angels. It was a special day for the entire family. After we ate lunch and visited for a while at Erika's house, Lance and I went on a shopping mission. Finally at 25 weeks I broke down and bought my very own maternity wardrobe! I had a good time trying on clothes and picturing how I would look a few weeks and months down the road. I even tried on the extra padding for my belly that's supposed to add 20 weeks!