First Comes Love, Then Come Marriage, Then...

I'M PREGNANT!!!

And holy hannah but I haven't blogged anything for a while. In my defense, I'll say that the first trimester of pregnancy was not exactly a cup of tea and I basically have not had blogging energy until now. But...now that I am feeling better (and we've officially passed the first trimester of miscarriage uncertainly) expect a LOT of posts henceforth!

Without further ado....I'M PREGNANT!!! :-)

After Nate and I got married we decided that we didn't want to wait to have kids. We figured that we both knew we wanted kids in this marriage, that we didn't feel the need to be married a certain amount of time before trying to have kids, and well, we weren't exactly spring chickens either with Nate being 31 and me 29 at the time of vows (totally got the married before 30 in!). Mom kept telling me that from the time we started trying to conceive it would take us between six months to a year to finally get the Big Fat Positive (BFP) pregnancy result. So, with this in mind, we sorta-kinda started trying right after the honeymoon. By this I mean we had fun and waited till the end of the month to see if a baby was created or not.

About 3 months after getting married (later part of June) I realized that my time to start was quickly approaching but I wasn't having any of the normal symptoms. I'm a 'one and done' type of cramping girl and frankly I was feeling constant little cramps all day long. When it came to the time that I was a week late I took a pregnancy test thinking that maybe I was pregnant. Nope, test came back negative. Oh, well, I'd start soon. Well, the next morning I just had to take another pregnancy test. Again, negative. By this time I was a week and a half late and that's just not something that happens. I decided to wait a few more days until I was officially a week and a half late (giving myself three extra days to start just in case). Friday morning arrived with great anticipation. This time I decided to try a little experiment. Previously I'd been testing with these free pregnancy test strips that came in the mail and no matter how badly I needed to use the restroom I was never able to fill the cup enough to reach the test's Max Line. I figured I'd be sneaky this time. I tested with two strips! One I bent a little so that the Max Line was reached and the other I didn't bend in the cup at all so that it was kept straight (wondering if the bending was causing problems) about 1/8th below the Max Line. Waited the three minutes and this time even the Test line didn't show! Both tests were dummies! Well, I'd had enough. I got dressed and headed to Wal-Mart with a plan to buy a digital test no matter the cost. Then I had to go home and wait 2 hours to, well, have to go again.

The two hours took forever! Finally it was time to test again. I did my business then set the test on the counter telling myself not to peak. Okay, I peaked just to make sure the hour glass was turning to make sure the test worked. A few seconds later I totally peaked again and what I saw made my heart explode with joy, my eyes start bawling, and my mouth thanking God again and again.

A POSITIVE pregnancy test!!!

My first 'belly' picture.

5 Week Belly

I'M PREGNANT!!! The next part was hard because I didn't know if I should call Nate right away and tell him, if I should tell him before heading out to join friends at Cool Desert Nights for the evening, wait until after we got home, or even keep the info to myself for a while. I ended up keeping the secret all to myself until we got home later that evening from hanging out with friends. It was funny because the whole day people kept joking about when we were going to get pregnant and Nate kept sassing them right back. Little did they know that the secret smile I had on my face wasn't because I was looking forward to being pregnant but because I WAS!

That evening as we were getting ready for bed I told Nate that I had a surprise for him. I plopped a toolbelt onto the bed as the first 'gift' he was going to get that night. I told him that it was because he was going to be doing a lot of fixing up around the house in the future. With him having a confused look on his face I then pulled out the positive pregnancy test and told him I was pregnant. Oh, how I wish I'd been able to take a picture of his face. It was a face that was so surprised and filled with such joy. I guess I'll just have to cherish the memory I'll always have of this moment. After telling Nate I was pregnant he was just so adorable. Immediately started questioning how I was feeling, if him having a little cold might hurt the baby, could I feel anything move, and over and over repeating that he was going to be a dad, that I was pregnant, and hugging me. It was honestly the best, most awesomest response he could have given. The next day he started right in on the house to-dos with putting up my kitchen counter lights (see previous post!).

From this point on the next three months were exciting, and well, lots of feelings of sick and tired. I felt pretty good for probably another 2-3 weeks after finding out we were pregnant, but by week number 8 I was down for the count. I rarely threw up but golly did I feel nauseous all the time. And by golly do I mean all the time. I would wake up wanting to throw up and go to bed the same way. Getting through a nine hour work day took up all my energy. I would come home and lay on the couch until it was time for bed. On weekends it was normal to get up after ten hours of sleep then go down again in a few hours for a two-four hour nap. I felt like I was sleeping all the time and I know I was slacking on the housework. Thank goodness for Nate. He recognized my state of being and graciously took over the cleaning, laundry, cooking, and somewhat the grocery shopping. I honestly don't know how we would have survived those weeks without him stepping up without complaint.

12 Week Belly

Now that I've officially entered the second trimester I'm feeling great, so long as I don't do anything stupid (as Nate says). I'm even back to working out with my trainer! I'm officially in maternity clothes 100% of the time but thanks to some great friends (thanks Caren and Monica!) I've only had to buy a few pants. Otherwise I think I'm covered until baby gets here. I guess at this point in time the 'weird' things that I've noticed are crazy, vivid dreams (Planet of the Bears anyone?), a belly button that no longer looks or feels the same (my innie/outie is now a larger innie only), and a general feeling of being big. Once again it's Nate to the rescue as he reminds that I'm he still finds me sexy and that I'm supposed to feel this way. I suppose it's just a little hard because I weigh more now than I ever have (even at my heaviest post college), so the feel-good reminders from him do a lot for my self-esteem. Oh, the other 'weird' thing is that I can't turn over normally anymore. I sort of have to heave-ho my body to one side then turn as fast as I can to the other to get out of bed. Hee. It's a fun ritual every morning.

16 Week Belly

At this point I'm feeling a little bit more urgency for baby shopping for cribs, bedding, etc but mostly I'm still a little too worn out from work to do much on the computer when I get home at night. I'm hoping that the weekends will be a little freer for baby time! Some of the next big purchases need to be a crib, a few bedding pieces to get color ideas, then paint that matches the bedding pieces to repaint the nursery. Internet searches will be on cloth diapers (Nate really wants to give this a try, so I'm willing), pediatricians, and car seats. I still have months left so I'm not too worried. Besides, I always work best under pressure. :-)

So that's my pregnancy story so far. I'm actually really glad I finally got this blog up because now I feel like I can actually talk about stuff without having to keep quiet about the baby. Plus, with feeling better I can post more than "Didn't puke today - yeah" stories.

I did want to finish by saying to all mom's out there, your advice is welcome and appreciated. I'm a newbie at this so if you're more than 17 weeks along, have an infant, or have multiple kids you're more experienced than I and I look to you for advice. Bring it!