Birth announcement

Today at 10:01 AM our daughter Karis Olivia Blankenship was born via c-section at roughly 32 weeks old.  We will report more later on the ordeal but I wanted to let you know that both mom and baby are doing well.  Karis weighed 3 lbs 14 oz and measured 17 1/4" long.  The doctors are telling us that she is developmentally further along than she should be which means that they are not having to do a whole lot to help her breathe, etc.  She will be in the NICU for at least 3-4 weeks as she continues to develop and be closely monitored.  She is so beautiful and precious and we will be posting some pics soon, I promise.

Mom is doing well too.  As I am typing this she is sleeping soundly for the first time since Friday night.  Hopefully I will do the same tonight.  Thanks to the many that prayed for us as they found out.  Sorry to those of you who have found out unexpectedly, just know that things were crazy and we wanted to keep communication to a minimum.  We would appreciate your continued prayers for mom and Karis as mom heals and Karis continues to grow.  Dad is doing well.  He is very relieved that this crazy journey is finally over and is now trying to get used to fact that he is a father.

Baby shower!!!!

Last weekend Holly and I were given a baby shower at her parent's house.  In attendance were many family and friends from the area.  We had a great time and received some cool gifts as well.  Thanks to all of you who were able to come out.  Below are some pictures of the event.  Notice there are men at the shower...Holly likes for there to be men there to even out all the estrogen :)  Thanks Brenda, Marina, Lori, Ash and Lynz for planning such a fun afternoon!  [gallery]

And the gender is.......

It's a Girl!!!!!!!

Gender wars

To date we have 19 votes on the gender of our baby.  13 of you have voted for a boy and 6 have voted for a girl.  From all of the comments, facebook postings and email we know that you are dying to know.  While I cannot say anything just yet, I can tell you that we will make our announcement by Monday.  So hang on and think about all of the gifts that you are going to shower our baby with.

Baby's first pics

So we had an ultrasound last week and can now share with you our baby's first pics.

Here is the baby's profile picture.  Isn't it cute?  It actually looks human!

Here is a profile shot that is a bit further away.

The baby's mouth is open in this picture.  If you can't tell the face is in the middle of the picture and the dark circle is its open mouth.  It kept opening it's mouth like it was yawning and telling us to stop bothering it.  Holly said that baby was singing like daddy.  I think it was probably talking like mommy.

There are more pics that show vital organs, the spine and such but these are the best.  We know that some of you are dying to know the sex of the baby and we will tell you, in a couple of weeks.  We want to notify the grandparents and close family first.  Holly's parents will be with us next weekend and we will tell them then in person along with my parents on the glorious invention of ichat.  So hold on to your horses.  Below is a fun exercise in seeing if you can predict what we are having.  Enjoy!

[polldaddy poll=1054362]

Prego Premiere

Ok, so many of you are really far away from us and have not witnessed Holly's transformation into a pregnancy.  As of today, we are 18 weeks along and things are progressing smoothly.  Our due date is March 2 (or March 6, depending on who you ask).  The first trimester was actually fairly uneventful, with the exception of about 2 really rough weeks.  During those 2 weeks, she was nauseous, not eating hardly anything (except peaches, some eggs and popsicles), and was simultaneously doing last minute cramming for her last set of medical school boards, experiencing migraines for which she could not take her migraine meds, and I was hundreds of miles away in Pascagoula, Mississippi doing annual Katrina relief.

We are now a few weeks into the second trimester, and Holly is starting to feel the baby move.  She was away in Knoxville, TN for the month of September, and the first time she felt the baby move was when I came to see her for a couple of days.  She claims that the baby heard its Daddy's voice for the first time in a few weeks and got excited.  She also thinks the baby may be residing in her bladder instead of her uterus, since she has been visiting the bathroom very frequently since a few weeks into the pregnancy.  Several of you have inquired about past food cravings, so here they are:

First Trimester:  peaches (this was the strongest, longest craving), eggs (only lasted a week or so, but was strong), anything icy, and the really cheap pizza at the grocery store, you know the 10 for $10 type, not the kind with fresh ingredients or even DiGiorno's!

Second Trimester (so far):  Indian food (which she had only had maybe 2 or 3 times in her life before), rice crispy treats, peppermint flavored things that are cold/icy, but not actual peppermint now :)

More interesting than the food cravings has been the fact that since the first trimester, Holly has not wanted to eat, smell, or see anything chicken, especially "processed chicken."  The smell of chicken (not that it's strong) turns her stomach.  If you know Holly, you know that this has always been the main staple of her diet, so trying to come up with meals we can both eat together has been challenging, considering her new list of restrictions!  Also interesting is the fact that since the first trimester, she has put Chili's the restaurant on the "No List."  She still refuses to step foot in that restaurant, which she used to like.

We will find out the sex of the baby in a few weeks at our 20 week ultrasound, and are very excited.  So without further ado, here is Holly at 16 weeks, with more pics to soon follow:

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