First Trimester

Artie and I wanted to wait until the first trimester was over to tell anyone the big news, but I HAD to tell my parents. So, we went to visit and brought them a gift that we got them on our trip to Pensacola. It was a frame with baby ducks on it and, inside the frame I put a note that said "Picture due to develop in February 2008." My parents were stunned, to say the least. You have never seen two people more excited to be grandparents in your life! I made them promise to keep things under wraps until August, which was torturous for them.
The first weekend in August, we had everyone over to my parents and announced the good news to them. Naturally, they were stunned. Two days later, Artie and I had to go to a perinatal specialist. Unfortunately, we received horrible news. Flash had cystic hygroma (a watery tumor) and didn't have a good prognosis. There was a 65-70% chance the hygroma was caused by Down's or Turner's Syndrome. There was a 30% chance that it was caused by a genetic defect that would make Flash not make it very long. There was a less than 5% chance that everything would work itself out. We were so blessed when the genetic results came back all clear; Flash was just fine! Originally, we weren't planning to find the sex of Flash, but we knew 100% (due to genetic testing) that Flash was going to be a girl!
Other than that horrible event of cystic hygroma, I was very lucky to only have two bouts of morning sickness (once, after eating pasta too fast. The second event came from smelling Appalachian Chinese Food at a leadership retreat)!