It's a girl!! At least that's what we've been told :D
Rhylee is the winning name in our home even though I really like the name Presley. I've still got some time to try and sway my family. I did however get to pick her middle name which is Michelle. This name is so special to me because it's the middle name of one of my dearest friends, Lisa. We've been friends since we were 7 and 8.
I'm the cute one on the bottom :D
Lisa introduced me to Jarrod and when my nerves got the best of me, she was the reason I made it down the aisle to get married :o) So without her, our baby girl wouldn't be here.
Jarrod and I had been trying for over 2 years and I was a little frustrated to say the least. Jarrod however, being the patient man he is, would assure me that it would happen in God's time and that there was a reason for everything. At the time the positivity made me want to ring his neck but now I appreciate his patience :D We had many fertility tests done and found out that there was no medical reason why we weren't conceiving. Instead of devastating me it reminded me and gave me a new found appreciation for how much God is in control.
Jarrod and I found out we were expecting when I was about 4 weeks. We met with the doctor at 6 weeks and were able to hear the heartbeat which I thought was amazing!! Our baby looked like a blob but it already had this strong beating heart.
Once we heard the heartbeat and felt comfortable that things were alright, we began to worry about all the important stuff...you know like what our nursery theme would be...what names we liked, etc.
All of those things became very trivial on the evening of July 25th. A week earlier I had some genetic screenings done and the results were in....our blood work showed that our baby was at risk for having downs.
Jarrod and I were at a loss for words. The doctor told us our options for additional testing and wanted us to go to Duke in the following days. After the shock wore off, Jarrod and I sat down and talked about what we wanted to do.
As a wife, you love and admire your husband but there are moments when you look at him in complete and utter love and admiration and it just melts you....this was one of those times for me.
His very first reaction was she's ours....regardless of what, she's our daughter and this isn't the worst thing that could happen.
Two days later when we went to Duke, we both felt confident in whatever God's plan for us was and that we weren't going to have any of the more invasive testing because they did pose a slight risk to our girl. We both knew that the results didn't change anything so why chance it.
A very nice genetic counselor at Duke sat down with us and explained what our risk was and what all the numbers meant. They scheduled a level 2 ultrasound for us at the end of August. This will measure the babies bones and check for heart defects and other markers for downs. The test is only 50% accurate so until our little girl makes it here, we won't know.
Without hope in Christ, I'm not sure how people handle things like this. I already had dreams for her and in my mind I could already see all the girly things we would do together.
I love my sister Melissa and when I told her what was going on her immediate reaction was, we're going to love her and paint her fingernails and take her to the American Girl doll store and do all the things we were going to do because this doesn't change anything.
Our family was also just as supportive. We are so blessed by all the support we have. Another blessing is that one of my great friends and sister in Christ is living with us right now.
Nicole was one of the first people to know what was going on with our baby. She was home the night we got the call about the test results. I love that she's here and I could walk right into her room and unload. We cried and laughed and she encouraged me. She understood that my tears weren't from hopelessness.
Jarrod and I have decided that we won't give into any fear or anxiety because we both know God is bigger than any of this...we're just going to focus on the joy of having our little girl and on the dilemma of naming her Rhylee or Presley :D
Dawn
Things went really well at Duke this morning!! Although they can't rule out downs 100%, they did say that based on all of Rhylee's measurements her risk is cut in half!!! 
