Baby Sink - happy beginning

I've had a "working blog post" in my Outlook drafts since the middle of October.  Though, we haven't gotten the outcome we've been so excited about, these are all of the happy thoughts & experiences we've had for the past two months.

August – the Thursday of Robin’s bachelorette party – last birth control pill consumed!  Our plan is for my body to get used to being off birth control for a few months before we actually start “trying” (ie tracking temperature and all that jazz).   We just want to have fun for a while ;)

 

October – Columbus Day Weekend.  Daniel & I both have a long weekend off from work.  We decided to celebrate Columbus in our nation’s capital visiting our lovely friends.  We spent Friday evening with Robin and headed to Susan’s on Saturday for Hokie football.  We did lots of lazying around – watching TV and eating lots of food that’s bad for you.  In the meantime – Flo hasn’t visited.  I had cramps all weekend, but she never came!  As soon as we got home, Daniel had to go pick up the 4Runner (such a saga!), so I quickly ran up to the Dollar Tree and bought three tests.  I came home, took the first test.  Set the timer on the stove for 2 minutes… the whole time freaking out/shaking.  After a minute and a half, I couldn’t take it and peeked – one solid line, and a faint second line (two lines means positive!).  I quickly took the second one just to be sure, and clear as day – two lines.  My first thoughts “oh shit, this is it”.  My second thought “Daniel will be home soon – need to go grab food STAT!”.  You see, I’ve always told him that I would feed him baby back ribs, baby corn, and baby shrimp to tell him I was pregnant.  (I know you’ve all seen the Full House episode, right?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6lChkMu2V8  Classic).  I ran up to the Hibachi buffet near our house, and I knew they had baby shrimp and baby corn.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have the ribs, so I sprinted over to Martin’s, found some ribs, and made it home – all the while internally freaking out that I was pregnant.  I was growing a baby inside of me.  Whoa.  I thought Daniel would have beat me home, but he was actually taking his sweet time.  I set the food up on the table and paced, and waited, and changed clothes three times, and waited some more.  Finally (after a phone call), he arrived home.  I was sitting at the kitchen table and when he walked in I said “want a snack??”  He looked at the food and said “NO WAY!” I said “Yes way!”  he said “this is real???”.  I started crying and we hugged, and laughed, and kissed and laughed/cried some more.  We were estatic.

 

We were actually on a tight schedule that afternoon since we were taking the 4Runner to CarMax to get appraised (and sold!), and we had Matthew’s birthday dinner.  Yep, we had to spend the evening with his family – keeping an incredible secret!  So after we hugged, laughed, kissed, and laughed, and cried, we hopped in the car and couldn’t stop talking and smiling!  I figured out my due date (June 17^th according to several sources… and that’s my mom’s birthday!).  We talked about how long we are going to wait to tell our families (after the first appointment), how we are going to tell our families, etc. etc.  It was so hard during dinner to not say a word, or even look like something was up.  We didn’t look at each other or talk during the whole dinner.  Soooo hard!

 

We went to bed when we got home, and I started tossing and turning around 4am.  Daniel was too, and I finally said “I can’t sleep” and he replied, “I can’t either”.  We were both so excited, we started chatting, I took a third pregnancy test (positive!), and we watched Parenthood (how ironic :).

 

One of the worst parts of this mess: we have to keep this a secret!  We broke down and told our awesome neighbors, and I absolutely couldn’t wait until I saw Robin in person and told her via FaceTime.  Whew, that’s a sigh of relief.  It’s nice to text someone other than Daniel, and to have others who are so incredibly happy for you.  That’s been the most fun so far.

 

One reason why we are in such shock that I’m pregnant is because we really haven’t been “trying”.  I mean, I know how babies are made, and we hadn’t been preventing it, but you know.  Life has been pretty busy, and we hadn’t focused much on getting pregnant, just going with the flow.  Well, apparently I’m fertile and Daniel has good swimmers.  Who knew!  We are definitely thankful – this could have been a long & challenging road, and we aren’t taking that for granted.

 

My symptoms:

Turns out, the cramps I had all weekend are completely normal, and are as a result of my uterus growing/stretching (yuck, sorry).  Oh, and they haven’t really gone away.  I’ve had lots of cramping and a terrible back-ache ever since we found out.  I’ve also had a terrible time sleeping.  I wake up and toss and turn, I have cramping, stress over raising a kid, etc. and it’s pretty miserable.  I’m exhausted during the day, and have taken two naps in my car at lunchtime.  But, I’m thankful to have symptoms, which (to me) is a good sign.  So far, I’ve only been a little-itty-bitty bit nauseous, but nothing a ginger ale hasn’t helped.

 

The plan to tell THE WHOLE WORLD:

So we basically want to get on the highest mountaintop and shout that we are having a baby!!  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way, so we have to come up with a creative & clever plan.  So far, we know we would like to do something with a Baby Sink (get it?  Baby Sink… yeah, we are clever).  I mean really, not many people can incorporate their name into a fun reveal.  So Robin sent us our very own baby sink!  We haven’t figured out the logistics, but will take some sort of picture holding the little thing.  My first appointment is on November 7^th, and we plan to tell our families that next weekend, and our friends after that.  I will be almost 9 weeks at that point.

 

Daniel is amazing.  Really, he’s incredible.  I knew that when I started dating him when I was 17, I knew that when I said “Yes!” and “I Do!”, and even more so now.  He won’t let me lift a finger (it’s actually kind of dramatic), he cooks and cleans and is looking out for me.  He talks to the baby, and is doing whatever he can to make me feel better.  I’m thrilled to be sharing this experience with my best friend, and to be raising this little pumpkin alongside someone who will be the best dad in the world.

 

The picture:

 

 

Our fabulous neighbor, Kim, took these cute little photos showing off our new addition: a baby sink! (on Halloween)  This picture is how we told both of our families, and they are all estatic!  Telling people has been so much fun.  Everyone is so excited for us, and we are so blessed to have such amazing family & friends, and knowing this baby is so very, very loved.

We had our first doctor's appointment on  November 6th.  We were given a "real" due date based on how Baby Sink was measuring in the ultrasound, and June 24th is the magical day.  Our appointment went amazing - we were able to see that little blob on the ultrasound, and the doctor answered all of our questions.  We are both so very excited.  June can't come soon enough!

10/15 – 4 weeks

How far along: 4 weeks

Total weight gain: 0

Maternity clothes: nope

Sleep: not bad, yet.  Well, except for the night we found out we were having a baby, and we were up at 4am talking and watching Parenthood!

Best moment of the week: finding out about Baby Sink!  And, definitely the look on Daniel’s face when I told him

Worst moment of the week: keeping it a secret!

Miss anything: not yet

Movement: nope

Food cravings: nothing

Symptoms: …..nothing….

Looking forward to: telling the whole world!

Baby’s size:

Weekly belly pic:

 

….extreme exhaustion, nausea, and down-right feeling bad prevented me from finding any motivation to update you guys… but it was pretty uneventful.  I felt crappy, I still worked out, and I eat all day long.  That’s about it.

 

11/26 – 10 weeks

How far along: 10 weeks

Total weight gain: 1 pound

Maternity clothes: not yet

Best moment of the week: telling people!  It’s so fun, when people are genuinely excited for you

Worst moment of the week: feeling bad.. I had two rough days in a row, but then things got better

Miss anything: waking up because I have to pee, and not being able to go back to sleep

Movement: nope

Food cravings: not really… I just like to eat

Symptoms: feeling like death-warmed-over

Looking forward to: Thanksgiving

Baby’s size: kumquat

Weekly belly pic:

 

12/3 – 11 weeks

How far along: 11 weeks

Total weight gain: 3 pounds

Maternity clothes: need to bust out those things!  Today, I successfully sat at my desk with my pants unbuttoned (and pants that were a little loose pre-BS).  I wore maternity leggings for Thanksgiving, so naturally, I could eat more.

Best moment of the week: Thanksgiving!  I love being around family, eating delicious food, and making good memories.  Oh, and Abby says “Kim” almost every time on queue.  Makes my heart smile.  Oh, and running 2 miles on Thanksgiving.  Two big accomplishments – running two miles (never ran more than 1.75), and working out on Thanksgiving!

Worst moment of the week: ummm, nothing.. I had a great week

Miss anything: it’s an interesting mental shift… to go from working out/getting healthy and seeing the scales go down/your body shrink… to working out/getting healthy and seeing the scales go up/your mid-section grow

Movement: nada

Food cravings: not really

Symptoms: just a growing belly!  Thankfully, I’ve felt pretty good lately

Looking forward to: our appointment next week, and my birthday!

Baby’s size: fig

Weekly belly pic:

 

12/10 – 12 weeks

How far along: 12 weeks

Total weight gain: haven’t even thought about stepping on the scales J

Maternity clothes: yep, in them a lot of the time

Worst moment of the week: not feeling real well on Thursday/Friday.  The worst is waking up in the middle of the night feeling like death.

Miss anything: I missed ordering a drink last night on my birthday!

Movement: zilch

Food cravings: not really

Symptoms: occasionally feeling like death, but otherwise not too much

Looking forward to: so much Christmas & fun happening – lots of good food, family, and friends!  Today we have our 12 week appointment

Baby’s size: lime

Weekly belly pic: