Earlier this month we shared our big news! it has been exciting & so special to share with our loved ones, but being the expectant Mama, it is so nerve wracking and once you put the information out there it changes everything. We kept things quiet as long as we could, but as a RN you have inform work quickly due to infectious diseases & medication administration safety + it was such a HUGE secret to keep! it was so challenging! I have loved how excited & supportive everyone has been, but I’ve also felt very protective and wanting to keep things quiet as we navigate this critical period. Once you get that 1st ultrasound it makes everything so real! We are prayerfully preparing for this next chapter in our lives & taking one day at a time. It’s very conflicting to feel so thrilled & so tense simultaneously, but reaching the end of 1st trimester is a very encouraging milestone! I realize this is just the beginning, but I am so proud of us so far, bring it on second trimester!! 🙂
HOW WE FOUND OUT
My Grandma was very ill and my family & I were her immediate care team… I was able to take some time off of work and be with them 24/7 for two weeks, it was exactly where I needed to be and I am so thankful for this time however, challenging, sad, discombobulating, and difficult it was. I left for 1 night so I could take Lucy to her grooming appointment (in this area these are booked months in advance, never to be rescheduled, especially in the Summer!) I woke up in the middle of the night sobbing! As exhausted as I was there was no way I would choose to lose sleep to cry?! This went on for hours & I slept terrible! Super weird for me, but I just equated it to Grandma stress/grief… I moved on with the day feeling just as tired as ever doing laundry & other household chores, when my health app on my phone alerted me! “You have not logged a period this month” I thought, oh well who cares?! Too stressed! Then I thought?! Maybe I’m pregnant? I took a test, left it on the counter & took a shower. As I was getting dressed I thought “Oh, yeah… I should check that pregnancy test” …sure enough it was POSITIVE! I was 5, almost 6 weeks pregnant?!! I could not believe it??!!!! I had only been off birth control for 2 months?! I was shocked!! …. totally in the BEST WAY! There was no way I could keep this a secret from Dillon, but I also had no idea what to say?! So I just walked up to him in the kitchen and handed him the test, no cutesy pre-planned onesie or clues like I would’ve thought I would do LOL funny enough there is video, the Furbo recorded him saying “You’re Pregnant??!!” Of course, I was crying & we were so excited!! It is such a wild feeling finding out your pregnant for the first time- instant giddiness, panic & joy!
HOW WE TOLD OUR FAMILIES
The very first person I told the immediate next day was my Grandma, exactly 1 week before she passed. I had to be super sneaky to tell her in private. She was so excited!!! I had to whisper it in her ear a couple of times and when she finally understood me her eyes were so big & she immediately started rubbing my belly, crying, and squeezing me tight!! She had been asking me about a baby for weeks and talking about me having a baby, she knew! Sadly, the next few days to follow were very hard days for her & my family…. I waited to tell them about the baby news until a couple of weeks after Grandma’s funeral, after our confirmatory ultrasound, at 9 weeks. It was such a difficult thing to keep a secret but I’m glad I held the news for a while, I wanted to be respectful to Grandma (even though she probably would’ve rather me tell Mom immediately! lol) We shared with Dillon’s side of family a little earlier at his grandparents birthday party, it was fun to surprise everyone with the news! They were so shocked & couldn’t believe no one else knew! It was special to be able to tell everyone in person and we tried to tell as many people as we could face to face, but that was no easy task either! You realize how tricky it is to be in the same place & how many people you love when you’re trying to tell them all! We shared with our closest friends and family and then publicly revealed at the end of the 1st trimester. I would’ve kept waiting, but everyone was bursting at the seems to talk about it! Our baby is the 1st grandchild & 1st great grandchild all around, so this is a very happy time! 🙂
HOW I FEEL
Overall, I feel thankful & amazed by how fast time is passing! To the naked eye I don’t look pregnant, but I have quickly learned that just because you don’t LOOK pregnant doesn’t mean you don’t FEEL pregnant! 😉 I am generally EXTRA hungry, sleepy & have a lingering nauseous feeling, but I luckily don’t vomit too much. I am sweaty, waking up early, congested, and exhausted. I’ve already needed to buy larger bras & I’ve gotten used to tenderness & soreness feelings for now. I have continued to exercise at Neighborhood Barre but I am struggling to work overtime. A typical day of work consists of me sprinting from the parking deck & up 3 flights of stairs, but I get way toooo sweaty & short of breath doing that now… I started taking the elevator, but the lurches between floors make me so nauseous!! Early busy mornings at work are hard, I feel sick until about 10am usually and by 7pm I so ready to get back home. My tastes haven’t changed too much, Cravings- all the carbs! Pirate’s Booty Popcorn, chicken tacos, strawberry yogurt, FREEZING COLD drinks, graham crackers, cereal, Goldfish, Cheez-its, PB&J.
~Be sure to check out my {FIRST TRIMESTER- MUST HAVES} post to see what all has helped me through!
MEMORIES & MILESTONES
Hearing baby’s heartbeat for the 1st time, meeting with the genetics counselor & getting a good report all around, + sharing the baby news with our family & friends, are all cherished moments I will never forget! In the first trimester baby has- gone to the beach, lake, drive in theater, 2 funerals, 3 birthday parties & 1 girls night sleepover! I pushed through graduate school coursework & your Dad got a new job! We also attended the pre-dry wall meeting for our new house & secretly carved our names into the beams, envisioning our family inside with a new baby made the new house feel even more special!
We have so much to learn & prepare for, I am praying for a good anatomy scan & more energy to come! I love having Dillon & Lucy by my side every day to make things better, we are moving right along! 🙂
