Pregnant!

Well, my blog has been quite boring for a long time now - and the REAL reason for that is that I'm pregnant! Phew, it felt good to get that out :) I'm copying Kristal at Good Food, Good Friends, Good Life on the questions I'm answering in this post, as they are pretty much the same ones I've gotten. So here are all the details (that I am willing to share at least! :)

Warning - this post may be slightly TMI to some, but hey - I'm an open book. So whatever.

Due date?/How far along?
I am due February 3rd, and as of today am 14 weeks and 5 days pregnant.

When did you find out?

May 24 - day before Memorial Day, day after the 1st Pedal Pub :) I planned to take a test that day if my period didn't come... so I went downstairs fairly early to go to the bathroom - nothing yet, so I decided to take a test since my cycles were every 26 days like clockwork. It was a VERY faint line, so I had to get a 2nd opinion ......

How did you tell Ben?

...... so I went upstairs and woke Ben up from his hungover stupor and said "hey, is this a line?" and he was like "no, definitely not" and I said "I think it might be - what else would that be? it says on the box that a line is a line...." and he just said "well, obviously we'll just have to get a digital since neither of us are going to trust this one" So then later in the morning after he got up for real, I had to pee again so I said "hey, I have to pee - maybe you should go to CVS and get me a digital test" and like a good husband, he did - I took it, and we both watched "Pregnant" come up (after what felt like a long wait of watching that stupid hourglass)

The first questionable test (taken later, so a line had shown up that wasn't there initially), and the 2nd definitive test

Was it planned?
Come on now - what in my life isn't? It was a little surprising (to me at least - not to Ben) that it happened so quickly. I feel VERY lucky for that, especially since I have heard many heartbreaking stories of couples dealing with infertility.

When did you tell your family?
At first Ben and I talked about waiting until after our first appointment/ultrasound at 8 weeks - well, that lasted about a day until I first told my sister, and then my parents - I just called them to tell them. I was (am?) really nervous because many people close to me have recently had miscarriages so I didn't want to get too excited just yet. My parents didn't believe me at first, but are both very excited - especially my dad, who has been letting us know that he'd like a grandchild for quite some time :)

We told Ben's family at Pedal Pub Part 2 because they would have asked me immediately if I didn't drink... again we got a few "are you kidding??" responses and then everyone was excited - it will be the first grandchild on that side too!

First ultrasound, 8 weeks - looking like a nice gummi bear

When did you tell friends?
I told a few close friends pretty early - about 6 weeks. I had a breakdown one day because I had no one to talk to about anything, and decided that it would be ok (and wouldn't "jinx" anything) if I told a few people. We ended up telling probably 6 or so of our close friends right around 7 weeks, before our ultrasound. After that I pretty much told people as I saw them, with the last group FINALLY being told just yesterday! :) I found that it was just much more fun telling people in person - there were a few I told on the phone because I couldn't wait to see them :) and then there was ONE (KATE) who found out by finding a post by me on a message board :) and then was scared to tell me she knew for a whole WEEK!

What were some good reactions?
Everyone has been really happy for us - we are among the first of most groups of friends to get pregnant so people are excited. Some were a little shocked, some got a little teary, some screamed :)

Will you find out the sex?
Yes. Ben doesn't want to, I do. As usual, I won that battle. My reasons are really that I honestly don't see the point in waiting. I feel it will help us to bond with the baby more before it is born (and stop us from having to refer to "it" or "the baby" which is just annoying) and I don't think it will be "fun" to find out after however many long and horrifying hours in labor. There are only 2 options here, so it really doesn't even seem like that big of a "surprise". Plus, I hate surprises. I read the end of books, and read all the episode descriptions of TV shows that I'm starting. Ben just thinks it would be cool to wait. As a slightly compromise, we are going to have the ultrasound tech put the sex on a piece of paper in an envelope so that we can then go somewhere and find out alone instead of while I'm on my back at the doctors office.

Do you have a preference for boy or girl?
Not at all - I thought I would prefer a girl, but after these first few months of just being worried about staying pregnant, ALL I care about is finding out this kid has all it's parts in working order.

Do you have names picked out?

We have a boy name chosen, and are still working on a girl name... we have 3 options that we both really like a lot.

How are you feeling?
It's been a rough few months, that's for sure. My morning (all day) sickness started at exactly 6 weeks and has been waning slightly but is still there, 8 weeks later. For me, it is worst when I'm hungry - I get very nauseous. I haven't actually thrown up too much - one night it was hourly, but other than that it's just been randomly here and there after a few meals that didn't agree with me. Feeling like this has been a little depressing, and to the point where I wonder if I'll ever feel normal again. I've also been getting bad headaches (nothing new - I got those pre-pregnancy) and am only allowed to take the completely ineffective tylenol for those. My energy level is at a low I didn't think existed. So yeah - it hasn't been a glowing time for me, but I can only hope it'll eventually get better. My symptoms do reassure me that everything is going ok in the ole uterus, so that's good I guess!

Any weird cravings or aversions?

No real strong cravings - I have been wanting carbs a lot though. Any kind of pasta sits well with the tummy, and I'm loving bagels and cream cheese. One of the most devastating moments of my pregnancy thus far was the day I discovered that I had missed 2 weeks of our "bagel Fridays" at work. We get free Brueggers Bagels and cream cheese every Friday and SOMEHOW I had forgotten about it. I made an outlook reminder now, so all is well with the world :) I realize this means that my pregnancy has been a-ok if this was one of the worst things that happened :)

How are you decorating the nursery/where will it be?
We will be keeping it gender neutral no matter what the sex is, so that we can reuse things with the next kid. I haven't even started thinking about decor yet. We'll probably have the baby upstairs in our bedroom for quite awhile, since the idea of coming down for feedings during the night does not sound appealing to me. As a reminder, we have a 1.5 story, our bedroom is upstairs and the other 2 are downstairs. But since we remodeled, our bedroom is huge and can easily fit some baby stuff, so that will be nice! We haven't decided yet if we'll use the office (the stairs to our room are in the corner of our office) or the guest bedroom for the nursery. On one hand, it'd be nice to have the baby right at the bottom of the stairs, but on the other, if (like me) they are not a sound sleeper, I wouldn't want to wake them up when we went upstairs to go to bed...

Are you showing yet?
Well, you tell me - here are the pics I've taken thus far. There are a few where I thought I was - but I'm pretty sure that was just being bloated combined with the fact that my torso seems to be weirdly curved. I'm not going to pretend I had a perfectly flat stomach pre-pregnancy - not working out for the past year+ will do that to you :) I am still not wearing any maternity clothes yet, but I have had to wear the Bella Band (thanks to Leigh, Jamie and Kelley for that lovely present!) once due to wearing jeans that just came out of the dryer :)

The day I took the test (like 3 weeks pregnant), and then 9 weeks


10 weeks, 11 weeks


12 weeks, 13 weeks


and finally, 14 weeks - I didn't want to show my face due to wearing my glasses and not wearing makeup :) Ben said something like "I definitely think your belly is looking big today"

That pretty much sums it up :) If anyone has any other questions, feel free to leave a comment!