Pregnancy Journal 1

I've got lots to say.  No seriously, this could end up being the longest post ever.  And my guess is that my mother and perhaps two other people will be the only ones who make it through.  You see, ever since we found out I'm pregnant (October 10 to be exact), I've wanted to sit down and write about my pregnancy......but those dang pregnancy hormones.......they've just gotten the best of me (more on that later).  So here we are, almost 19 weeks in, and I have so much to say.  Brace yourselves, this could be a strange mixture of hilarity and strangeness.

Finding out:  It was a brisk fallish day when I first took a pregnancy test in October.  Scratch that.  I took 5 pregnancy tests over the period of 2 days.  Not because I was in shock and wanted to confirm, but because I kept doing it wrong.  Yes.  If you've ever wondered, yes, you can take a pregnancy test wrong.  Something about avoiding shaking it.  Whatevs.  After the fifth test, I still was only slightly convinced.  So I didn't even tell Daniel - although I thought about it, I wanted to be sure I was pregnant before I told him.  I almost told him in frustration after the ordeal.  You see, we were in the middle of "taking care of the leaves" season and I was tasked with starting to bag the leaves as soon as I got home from work on that particular Thursday.  And by the time he got home (at his usual time, he wasn't running late), my back was already sore and I was hating everything about what I was doing that I almost said, "I hate this so much and I can't believe I have to do it BECAUSE I'M PREGNANT!!!"  But I believe the Lord worked a miracle and closed my mouth so as not to ruin what would otherwise be a beautiful moment. Moving on.  Three days later I took another test....you know, just to confirm...and what do you know, the plus sign was big and bold.  Hooray!  When I showed Daniel the test, his first words were, "It worked!"  TMI?  #sorrynotsorry  Ha!  Then we went to church (it was a Sunday) and I don't remember anything about the service.  Not a thing.  So blissful.

8 weeks:  I took yet another pregnancy test.  By this point I had literally had zero side-effects.  (Sorry mamas who have horribly painful/uncomfortable first trimesters.)  Yep, still pregz. 

10 weeks:  First doctor's appointment.  The midwife struggled to find the heartbeat.  There were a few terrifying seconds when she said, "Are you sure you're pregnant?"  I wanted to scream, "YES WOMAN!!!  I TOOK 7 PREGNANCY TESTS AND DID AT LEAST 2 OF THEM RIGHT!"  Again, the Lord held my tongue and I just said, "Yes."  They proceeded to do a sonogram and then we saw and heard the little bean.  Whoa.  What a powerful moment.  Heartbeat - 181.  And smiles all around.  I even swear I saw the bean smile.

10 weeks, 2 days:  We FINALLY got to tell our families.  Daniel and I decided to wait until after the first appointment to tell our people and, let me tell you, it was the longest 6 weeks EVER.  It was so fun to tell my family about the first grandbaby and Danz' family the 8th grandbaby.  I literally could not sleep the night before we told because I was so excited...and so strangely nervous!  I'm super sentimental, so I just had to have an object with which to announce.  My family is all about shoes, so we told my family using baby shoes.  And Daniel's family plays this card game called Priscilla so we used that to our advantage (see pics below).  Fun memories.

11 weeks:  This is when the nausea began.  To this day I still haven't thrown up, but OH MY WORD I felt like passing out every moment of every day for about 10 days.  My cure was eating one Saltine (Daniel thinks it was placebo...whatevs) right when my alarm went off in the morning.  Worked like a charm.  Consider that nausea beat.  Curse you, nausea.  You are never welcome back.  Mamas who battle nausea all throughout pregnancy, I salute you.

12-15 weeks:  Holy exhaustion. Without a nap after school every day, my bedtime was 8 pm.  Not even kidding.  And holy hunger.  At least 3 snacks in between breakfast and lunch and often just as many between lunch and supper.  Poor students.  They still didn't know at this point so they probably thought I was just chubby and hungry.  On the last day before Christmas break, I told most of my students.  Aaaaaaaand it was hilarious.  Many clapped.  Some cheered.  Some didn't care and were annoyed (remember, these are teenagers).  One girl said she wished she had known earlier so she could've thrown me a shower (awwww).  I assured her that I still had 6 months to be pregnant, so there would be plenty of time for such festivities.    

16-18 weeks: Sleeping is a total B.  I'm on my feet most of the day and moving almost constantly that I think the little blueberry doesn't know what to do when I go to bed.  It's all, "Um mom, this is not okay.  I have lots of energy and would prefer that you keep moving.  Mmkay, thanks."  And I'm all, "Sweet little blueberry, I'm done for the day.  Feel free to move about the uterus, but I'm just gonna stay put.  Mmkay, thanks."  (Um, ladies, how fun is it to talk to something inside you?!?!?  Let me just say - that's one of my favorite parts of being pregnant.)  I've had lots of back pain and hip pain and stomach cramps and leg pain, but it's totes okay because baby bell pepper (sis-in-law Roxanne's current nickname and baby's current size) is HEALTHY and active.  And I couldn't be happier about that.

Miscellaneous:

• I'm due June 22.  That gives me 4 weeks after school gets out and 6 weeks before school starts again.  And since babies ALWAYS come on their due dates, this will work out perfectly...as all my plans do.  LOLZ.
• We're not finding out the gender. (Gasp!  Yikes! Sigh!  What!?!  You crazy.)  Yes to all.  We're seriously looking forward to the "it's a......!!" moment.  Yep I'm a planner and yep this is totally unlike me.  But I'm pretty pumped.  
• I am indeed headed back to work in the fall.  The awesome part about having a baby in the summer is that I'll be able to take as much time off as I want without using all my sick leave (that's the way our district works maternity...if you want it paid, you cash in sick days).  I'm planning to go back mid-September, so I'll only miss about 4 weeks with students.  Perfect, no?
• Daniel is a champ.  I have been an emotional disaster for the past 6 weeks and he just takes it all in stride.  When I burst into tears at dinner, he just listens and then lets me lay on the couch and cry while he cleans up.  Sounds pitiful, I know, but it's really okay.
• My students have been hilarious. Several times a week they ask how big it is.  A few weeks ago one of them touched the belly without being authorized.  One asked, "Is it ever weird that there's something ALIVE in you!?"  Many are irritated that we're not finding out the gender.  

So there you have it.  Seriously, I will be impressed if you made it here.  Consider this the first of several pregnancy journals.  I'm sure I'll be back with more hilarious and ridiculous things that occur over the next 21 weeks.  What a journey!  We're loving every bit of it. :)