Sunday, September 25, 2011

Adjustments

the baby bump is finally making its appearance! Its exciting to be wearing maternity pants and actually start to look pregnant. Can I tell you how comfortable maternity pants are?! They are delicious, de-li-cious.

However, the bump comes with some other uncomfortable adjustments including sleeping positions. I was a very happy back or stomach sleeper, both of which are on the no-no list. Although we did already get a body pillow, all I want to do is lay on my back! Hoping that I'll adjust to the change soon. Tonight I was giving myself a little pedi and this was harder than I thought. So even though the bump is small, it is definitely making its presence known!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Telling the Family and Due Date

Sorry for the delay in updates, but you know, life happens.

We had found out we were pregnant that last week in June just before the July 4th weekend. For the long weekend, we had already planned a trip home which made for a perfect opportunity to tell our family and close friends.

We arrive late on Friday night to my parent's house and gave them a little present. Earlier in the week I had made a onsie that said "i love my Doogie & DeeDee". These were the grandparent names that we had talked had come up in past conversations with my parents. To say the least they were surprised and thrilled with the news. We told Nick's family by showing them Nick's new ipod and the accompanying baby socks. They were equally surprised and so happy about the news. We asked both family's to keep the news a secret until I got further along in the pregnancy. And they did such a good job holding in such an exciting secret!

At my first appointment the doctor had estimated a due date of Feb 18th which would put me at 7 or 8 weeks for our first sonogram. Well, when this exciting sonogram finally arrive, here's our little baby bean sprout:

Definitely measuring more like 6 or 7 weeks, moving our due date out to March 3rd. Ugh! Another couple more weeks longer in the dreaded first trimester!

Seems like the real 'morning' sickness hit the next week. Who named it that anyways?! More like 'several weeks of all day nausea' sickness! I didn't have it as bad as some; I only tossed my cookies a few times mostly because of my own fault for egging it on by brushing my tongue (a big no-no now days!). Luckily I have an amazing husband who did everything he could to help me out: Cooking dinners, making sudden trips to the store for cokes and mac n' cheese, diligently praying for and encouraging me through out the day. He was a life saver for sure, and made those tough weeks bearable.

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Big Reveal

Around 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning, after staying up all night putting the final touches on my qualifying exams, I (Nick) was delighted to go to bed t
o get some much needed rest. After a week of nothing but writing, I had absolutely nothing left in the tank. That last night was grueling - it got to the point where I literally could not look at the computer screen for more than a few seconds at a time without feeling sick. I would type out a sentence and then have to look away or get up and walk around. Ask Kim - it was bad. She saw it firsthand as she got up in the middle of the night to come check on me. She just sat with me for a long while, supplying me with much needed doses of encouragement and support, as I strung together spurts of letters that I hoped were coherent enough. Needless to say, I was elated yet exhausted when I finally turned in the exams.

I woke up around 12 pm and saw a text message from Kim. She asked if we could get together before she had to go to her bible study later that night. Her reason: She wanted to see me, which was an argument that needed no justification or explanation - even though I was completing my exams at home, I had functionally been a prisoner sentenced to solitary confinement in a room full of books. I gladly agreed to meet her. And where might you ask? Steak & Shake. Nothing against the place, BUT, in hindsight, if I knew what was going to be happening there (aside from the customary ingestion of burgers, fries, & shakes), I most definitely would have modified my selection.

"I got you something." Kim placed a gift bag on top of the table. "I really appreciate and am proud of how hard you worked this past week." After some momentary digging, I found what I thought was the gift: An iPod nano. Sweet. I showed my genuine excitement and proceeded to give the normal nonverbal cues to Kim that reflected my ignorance and need for her expertise concerning electronics. She gave me a brief update on what made this iPod special. And then..."There's something else." I dug around more and couldn't find anything. "It's in there. It's something small." Finally, my fingers touched it, and I had no idea what it was until I pulled it out.


Stare. Silence. Disbelief. "No way." Smile. Look up. Kim nods her head in affirmation. Tears coming down her cheeks. "I'm pregnant." All I could do was smile and shake my head, still in shock even though I obviously knew we were trying to get pregnant. "Six weeks. The doctor confirmed it at my appointment yesterday." "Six weeks? Already?" More disbelief. And more smiles.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

The Biggest Secret

I had started to wonder towards the end of June that there might be a bun in the oven. I had already scheduled (back in May) a yearly check up appointment for the last week of June and had decided that I should take a pregnancy test before the appointment just so I could inform the doctor either way. Therefore, I had resolved to take 'the test' Sunday morning before my appointment on Monday.

But this wasn't the only thing going on in our lives: Nick was in the middle of his week-long, grueling PhD qualification exams. He had been working incredibly long hours, and by Sunday getting very little sleep as he tried to finish before Tuesday. If the test was positive, I knew Nick would be thrilled but suspected it would be incredibly difficult for him to maintain focus and finish his exams in time. So when I decided to take the pregnancy test, I decided to do it in secret.

Sunday morning arrives and while Nick is getting ready for the day, I sneaked away to our other bathroom, took the test, and hid it underneath the extra toilet paper. Classy. Three looooong minutes later, I found this:


Bam. Pregnant. I'm pregnant. Big smile to myself. I promptly hid it again, and told Nick I was going to mow the yard. Totally out of character, but luckily Nick didn't ask too many follow up questions!

This was by far the biggest (and most exciting!) secret I've ever kept. The doctor confirmed the pregnancy on Monday, but I had to wait until Tuesday to tell Nick. Aaagh! Those 3 days were possibly the longest days of my life! When Tuesday did finally roll around, Nick had stayed up all night both Sunday and Monday, and after turning in his exams, was asleep when I left for work in the morning. It was killing me, but I was going to have to wait a few more hours before telling him our happy news. 

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Baby Makes Three

Well its true! Nick and I are expecting our first child early March 2012! We are both thrilled about our coming little one. I do have to say it still all seems a little unreal, but I'm sure that will begin to change as my belly starts to grow and I start noticing little kicks and nudges.

Currently I'm just beginning week 13, so I'm starting to feel quite a bit better than I have the last month or so. Nick and I will be using the next few posts to get everyone caught up on how this all went down starting with the pregnancy test which I decided to keep hidden for a couple days (Why?!? Isn't the suspense killing you!?)

Excited to share this journey with all of you!