I have felt an immediate difference upon entering the second trimester. It has been over two weeks since I have been sick, just a little nausea every now and then. I also do not have to eat every hour like I was before. When I first found out I was pregnant I went right to eating super healthy foods and taking great care of myself, and then the morning/all day/night sickness started. Now I will say that compared to some people who throw up all day every day, i don't have much room to talk. I will say that it was a little bit more than I thought it would be though. My thoughts were more like I would wake up in the mornings, throw up and then be normal the rest of the day. This was not the case, so I went into survival mode. I mainly ate carbs! All I wanted was toast, crackers and potatoes! I did my best to add some fruits veggies and proteins when I could, but I ate a lot of crackers.
Now that I am feeling better I am trying to eat healthier. I haven't had any weird cravings which I'm kind of sad about because EVERYONE asks about the cravings and I really want to have something cool to say. I also have found my version of ice cream. What I mean is I hear a lot of people say they ate a lot of ice cream when they were pregnant, and while I don't mind eating ice cream, I would much rather have something else...cereal! Now I have ALWAYS been a big cereal girl, you will typically find about half a dozen boxes in my cabinet, but it's typically stuff like: go lean crunch, autumn wheat, homemade granola, cheerios, grape nuts, etc. What I am wanting right now is the cereal I was typically only allowed to have twice a year, on my birthday and when we stayed at the cabin at Thanksgiving. Last week I quickly took out a box of cinnamon toast crunch and this week I am working my way through captain crunch, both the one with crunch berries and the peanut butter kind. I am trying to limit myself to one box of the sugary stuff a week, because other wise I think I would eat one a day!
So, thanks to the baby I am currently sharing my belly with, and all those carbs and cereal, I have made my way into maternity pants. And I must say, they are wonderful! I'm thinking about wearing them forever, who needs zippers and buttons when you can just have pants that fit nice and comfy and just pull on! I promise to put pictures up here soon so you can see my expanding belly, but I am not on my computer with the pictures.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Telling My Sister and Joey's Family
It's been a few days since I have had a chance to write. We have had services late every night at church, my dad came last night to stay with us and then tomorrow we leave for a super quick trip to Dallas to take one of our youth to college, and I worked some at my part time job, all this makes the pregnant lady very tired! So thankful that I am only working 10-15 hours a week!
So back to the stories of telling our families. I forgot to include the story of how I told my little sister. My sister and I have been very close for the last 10 years or so and I don't get to spend much time with her when I am home because she lives in Alabama and has a big girl job! We had previously arranged to meet for lunch half way in between while Joey and I were home for our little anniversary trip. My dad was so cute, he called me while he was on his vacation to tell me he had been thinking about it and thought I needed to tell Christy in the parking lot of the restaurant because she might squeal! Because I did not expect to be pregnant, I had just purchased a whole box of tampons. I put them in a gift bag with a note on them that said, "I won't be needing these for at least the next 9 months so I thought you could use them....you are going to be an aunt!!!!!!!!!" I did give her the gift in the parking lot and sure enough she did squeal very loudly and then she started crying and hugging me. Ryan (her boyfriend) looked at her kind of strangely and then joined in the celebration when he heard the news. It was so a great moment and so fun to be able to share in person.
We had already planned that we would come back to Louisiana from our trip on Father's Day. Joey's family was getting together that evening and we knew it would be the perfect time to tell everyone because we wanted to do it all together anyway. We arrived a little later than planned and everyone had already finished eating. We had our plan in place for telling them and were waiting for the right moment. We were both so nervous we thought we were going to throw up! Not long after we got there my father-in-law walked out the front door and was gone for almost an hour! I kept anxiously looking at the front door waiting for him to come back. Then when he did finally come back in, Joey's grandpa walked out the back door! When he came back in they decided to do desserts. I thought we would burst from keeping the secret any longer. It had already been two weeks and we were around them almost everyday during that time and didn't tell them.
Finally I looked at Joey in desperation and he asked if the cards had been opened yet and got up to get all the cards for his dad to read. Joey put our card on the bottom. No one was paying much attention because Mr. Leonard was reading his cards to himself. Finally he got to our card and we were on the edge of our seats. See earlier in the week Joey had asked Mr. Leonard what he wanted for Father's Day and his reply was "oh a couple of grandkids running around." So we made a card that on the front of it said. "Dad, we wanted to get you something really special for Father's Day and so we thought long and hard about it and finally decided to get you what you really wanted...(on the inside we had taped an apple seed) this is an appleseed and is the approximate size of your grandchild that is growing in Tiny's (Joey's nickname for me!) belly happy Father's/Grandfather's Day!" Mr. Leonard read the card and then quietly asked if we were serious and if anyone else knew. So at that point people started looking over at him. We told him to read the card out loud. When he got to the end everyone started screaming and shouting and jumping up and hugging us and crying. So many were exclaiming, "I've been praying." We celebrated with them and showed the pictures of the ultrasound. After things calmed down a bit Mr. Leonard asked my brother -in-law if he would lead the family in prayer of thanksgiving for the child and for the pregnancy. It was such a precious moment!
We did have to ask them all not to say anything to anyone because there were still family and friends we had not told and didn't want things to get out on facebook. Plus we wanted to tell our church family ourselves. I really wasn't ready to tell people just yet, because it was still so early in the pregnancy, but I knew they wouldn't be able to keep the secret for long!
So back to the stories of telling our families. I forgot to include the story of how I told my little sister. My sister and I have been very close for the last 10 years or so and I don't get to spend much time with her when I am home because she lives in Alabama and has a big girl job! We had previously arranged to meet for lunch half way in between while Joey and I were home for our little anniversary trip. My dad was so cute, he called me while he was on his vacation to tell me he had been thinking about it and thought I needed to tell Christy in the parking lot of the restaurant because she might squeal! Because I did not expect to be pregnant, I had just purchased a whole box of tampons. I put them in a gift bag with a note on them that said, "I won't be needing these for at least the next 9 months so I thought you could use them....you are going to be an aunt!!!!!!!!!" I did give her the gift in the parking lot and sure enough she did squeal very loudly and then she started crying and hugging me. Ryan (her boyfriend) looked at her kind of strangely and then joined in the celebration when he heard the news. It was so a great moment and so fun to be able to share in person.
We had already planned that we would come back to Louisiana from our trip on Father's Day. Joey's family was getting together that evening and we knew it would be the perfect time to tell everyone because we wanted to do it all together anyway. We arrived a little later than planned and everyone had already finished eating. We had our plan in place for telling them and were waiting for the right moment. We were both so nervous we thought we were going to throw up! Not long after we got there my father-in-law walked out the front door and was gone for almost an hour! I kept anxiously looking at the front door waiting for him to come back. Then when he did finally come back in, Joey's grandpa walked out the back door! When he came back in they decided to do desserts. I thought we would burst from keeping the secret any longer. It had already been two weeks and we were around them almost everyday during that time and didn't tell them.
Finally I looked at Joey in desperation and he asked if the cards had been opened yet and got up to get all the cards for his dad to read. Joey put our card on the bottom. No one was paying much attention because Mr. Leonard was reading his cards to himself. Finally he got to our card and we were on the edge of our seats. See earlier in the week Joey had asked Mr. Leonard what he wanted for Father's Day and his reply was "oh a couple of grandkids running around." So we made a card that on the front of it said. "Dad, we wanted to get you something really special for Father's Day and so we thought long and hard about it and finally decided to get you what you really wanted...(on the inside we had taped an apple seed) this is an appleseed and is the approximate size of your grandchild that is growing in Tiny's (Joey's nickname for me!) belly happy Father's/Grandfather's Day!" Mr. Leonard read the card and then quietly asked if we were serious and if anyone else knew. So at that point people started looking over at him. We told him to read the card out loud. When he got to the end everyone started screaming and shouting and jumping up and hugging us and crying. So many were exclaiming, "I've been praying." We celebrated with them and showed the pictures of the ultrasound. After things calmed down a bit Mr. Leonard asked my brother -in-law if he would lead the family in prayer of thanksgiving for the child and for the pregnancy. It was such a precious moment!
We did have to ask them all not to say anything to anyone because there were still family and friends we had not told and didn't want things to get out on facebook. Plus we wanted to tell our church family ourselves. I really wasn't ready to tell people just yet, because it was still so early in the pregnancy, but I knew they wouldn't be able to keep the secret for long!
Monday, August 20, 2012
Lindsay's Family
Joey and I were so excited about our news, but we had decided not to tell our families until we had everything confirmed by a Dr. Though he did tell our pastor because he just couldn't hold it in! I most defnitely did not want to tell my family over the phone, not only because this is their first grandchild, but because after two years I wanted to celebrate with them. We made a plan to get down there without them suspecting anything because we had just been there a few weeks before for Mother's Day. Our anniversary was on the 18th and my parents was on the 17th, they had planned a big trip for their 40th and were going to leave early Friday morning and be gone for a week. We told them we wanted to come down to the coast for our anniversary just to get away and have some alone time and we wanted to stay at their house while they were gone so we wouldn't have to get a hotel and so we could just relax.
I was able to schedule my Dr. appt for early Thursday afternoon, I also had Nacho at the groomer's that day so we could just pick him up right after our appt and be on our way to Mississippi. So we went to our Dr. appt and I didn't know what to expect. The lady on the phone told me they don't schedule the first appt until you are 8 weeks (which I just think is crazy because especially for first time moms, you don't know what to do and not do and just need to be reassured!) but then the lady scheduled me for just under my 6 week mark, I didn't argue! I didn't know if they would do an ultrasound because I knew I was pretty early, but I was so excited when they brought the machine in! My Dr. came in and told me that we might not see the baby or hear the heartbeat, but that we should see a sack developing. But even though I wasn't even 6 weeks yet, we saw the baby (measuring in at a whopping 2 millimeters!) and we heard Figlet's heartbeat, it was amazing. I just wondered how anyone can argue that at that age it's not really life, but just cells. We were in awe and just so amazed. She said everything looked good and then talked to me about all the details of what to do and what to avoid. When she left the office I just burst into tears and held onto Joey, I couldn't believe this was real.
So we went and picked up Nacho and headed to the coast. Side note: Nacho had the worst grooming experience ever! It looked like I cut his hair and it looked like they waxed his eyebrows! Nacho was a bit traumatized over the whole thing and stayed pretty quiet through the trip. We picked up a pizza and went to my parents house by about 8 that night. I told my parents I had an anniversary present for them before we ate dinner. My heart was beating a million miles a minute, I didn't know why I was so nervous! I had a little box that I handed my parents and a note on the outside. The note said we wanted to get them something really really special for their 40th anniversary and after thinking about it for a while we finally decided on this. When they opened the box there was a small plastic king cake type baby inside. The look on my mom's face was priceless, I will never forget it. Her eyes got really wide, she gasped, smiled and asked if we were serious. My dad started crying and began to talk of how he had been praying for us every week at his men's Bible study. It was an incredible moment! My dad immediately started talking about what he was going to build the baby and my mom started talking about what she needed to sew for the baby's bed! My parents didn't want to even leave on their vacation. They were going to North Carolina and were going to be visiting the Biltmore Mansion on Father's Day and my dad was going to get in free. I asked how they would know he was a dad and my dad said he was bringing his little box with the baby in it to show them he was a grandpa!
I was able to schedule my Dr. appt for early Thursday afternoon, I also had Nacho at the groomer's that day so we could just pick him up right after our appt and be on our way to Mississippi. So we went to our Dr. appt and I didn't know what to expect. The lady on the phone told me they don't schedule the first appt until you are 8 weeks (which I just think is crazy because especially for first time moms, you don't know what to do and not do and just need to be reassured!) but then the lady scheduled me for just under my 6 week mark, I didn't argue! I didn't know if they would do an ultrasound because I knew I was pretty early, but I was so excited when they brought the machine in! My Dr. came in and told me that we might not see the baby or hear the heartbeat, but that we should see a sack developing. But even though I wasn't even 6 weeks yet, we saw the baby (measuring in at a whopping 2 millimeters!) and we heard Figlet's heartbeat, it was amazing. I just wondered how anyone can argue that at that age it's not really life, but just cells. We were in awe and just so amazed. She said everything looked good and then talked to me about all the details of what to do and what to avoid. When she left the office I just burst into tears and held onto Joey, I couldn't believe this was real.
So we went and picked up Nacho and headed to the coast. Side note: Nacho had the worst grooming experience ever! It looked like I cut his hair and it looked like they waxed his eyebrows! Nacho was a bit traumatized over the whole thing and stayed pretty quiet through the trip. We picked up a pizza and went to my parents house by about 8 that night. I told my parents I had an anniversary present for them before we ate dinner. My heart was beating a million miles a minute, I didn't know why I was so nervous! I had a little box that I handed my parents and a note on the outside. The note said we wanted to get them something really really special for their 40th anniversary and after thinking about it for a while we finally decided on this. When they opened the box there was a small plastic king cake type baby inside. The look on my mom's face was priceless, I will never forget it. Her eyes got really wide, she gasped, smiled and asked if we were serious. My dad started crying and began to talk of how he had been praying for us every week at his men's Bible study. It was an incredible moment! My dad immediately started talking about what he was going to build the baby and my mom started talking about what she needed to sew for the baby's bed! My parents didn't want to even leave on their vacation. They were going to North Carolina and were going to be visiting the Biltmore Mansion on Father's Day and my dad was going to get in free. I asked how they would know he was a dad and my dad said he was bringing his little box with the baby in it to show them he was a grandpa!
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Telling Joey
I found out I was pregnant on my mother-in-law's birthday. While it would have been a really nice surprise for her, I knew we would want to wait and make sure before we told anyone. Joey was already at their house cooking steaks while I was running around town buying pregnancy tests, so he had no idea! There was no way I was going to be able to get him to come home for me to tell him and I knew if I told him at his mom's house there would be no way we could keep it a secret. So I kept the hardest secret of my life from him for 5 hours!!!! I kept looking at him all night and telling him I love him and smiling really big, which is not all that abnormal for us, but I still thought he might think I was being a little weird. He told me later he just thought I was so happy about quitting my job! Usually when we are at my in-laws we are done by about 9 because everyone has either been working all day or we have church the next day. But this evening drug on for what felt like FOREVER and we stayed til 10! At about 9:30 I looked over at Joey and told him I had a surprise for him when we got home. I knew he immediately thought it was an iphone. He hates surprises and I love them! I was hoping telling him that would cause him to be ready to leave but we stayed a little longer. Finally everyone started to leave and I ran and jumped in my car and rushed home. Joey was right behind me. I had tried really hard to think of something really creative to tell him, but since I had no time to prepare anything or go get a baby outfit that said something about "I love my daddy," I wasn't left with many options. Joey came in ready for his present and I had him sit at the kitchen table and close his eyes. I put both pregnancy tests in front of him and told him to open his eyes. He looked around confused, trying to find the iphone he was certain I had bought him, and he finally laid eyes on those two strange objects. He asked what that was and I told him it was two positive pregnancy tests. He looked me in the eyes and totally shocked asked if I was serious and then he started to say are you serious again and broke down in tears. We just hugged and he cried (for me my emotions wouldn't be displayed until after we heard the heartbeat.) We agreed we would wait to tell our families, but the next day we realized just how hard that would be! In order to help us contain our excitement we just kept telling each other over and over again that we were pregnant and everytime it was exciting to think about!
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Finding Out
Many people have asked about how we shared the news with our families. Since Joey and I had made it clear that our desire was to start a family right away and our families were happy about this, everyone was anxiously anticipating hearing that we were expecting for the first few months we were married. When it was obvious that this was not going to happen in our timing and our way, our families and friends stopped asking us about possibilities of pregnancies because they knew it was painful for us. So after two years, everyone was very very surprised!
I'll start with how I discovered I was pregnant. Because at one point we were really trying to get pregnant and that meant lots of tracking and timing, I am very aware of my body and the changes that take place each month. Even though I know what my body does, I still somehow convinced myself that I was pregnant each month and then had to deal with the disappointment that came when it was obvious that I was not. I think I was able to do this because the symptoms of early pregnancy are pretty close to those of being about to start your cycle. So this particular month was no different. I thought I was pregnant, even though pretty much everything in my body was reacting exactly as it had for the previous two years. I also did not think I was pregnant because I had taken two tests earlier that week. Whenever my family was near I always tried to take a test because I really wanted to tell them in person. They were visiting the week before and so I took a test, knowing it was early and it was negative. Then the last day they were visiting, Joey cut his ear pretty bad and I was helping him clean the wound and I got very sick. I am not that way with blood normally and so I was surprised that it took me longer to recover than it did Joey to get cleaned and banaged (which my dad had to do, cause I almost passed out!) My dad suggested that I was sick because I was pregnant and so I took another test just in case, and it was negative. So that Friday on my last day of work I kept praying all day. I would say, "Lord, you know that I think I am pregnant, and You know that I am not, please give me the grace and strength to deal with not being pregnant yet again." I kept praying that and praying that anticipating that at any moment I was going to begin my period. As that Friday came to a close and we had my good-bye party at work, I was driving home thinking of how happy I was for this new season to start and to not be working full time any more. I thought about how I still had not started my period and that maybe I would take a pregnancy test when I got home because it would be funny as this chapter closed that maybe another one would start. I finally decided I would and as soon as I got home I did. As I was washing my hands I leaned over and looked at the test and my heart stopped beating....there was a second line!!!! I didn't know what to do and i couldn't believe it, I ran and took a prenatal vitamin! As excited as I was in that initial moment, I knew the test I was using was kind of cheap and that there was no way I could tell Joey and get his hopes up unless I was sure. He was not home and so I grabbed my purse and headed to the store. Since we live in the country and I didn't want to drive all the way back to town, I remembered they had recently opened a Dollar General store about 10 minutes away. I went looking for the tests and hoped no one would see me! I got to the aisle and I could not believe it, there were NONE! I could not believe it. Then I noticed a little card with a picture of a pregnancy test on it. Apparently people are known to take pregnancy tests off the shelf, go to the bathroom and take them without paying, so they have to keep them behind the counter! This was hilarious to me, because I could never imagine doing such a thing! I bought two tests and a bottle of water, which I chugged on the way home so I would be able to take the test. Right away a plus appeared on that little strip and I knew I was indeed pregnant! So many emotions and so many thoughts, but mostly it was all shock. People had told me they thought after I quit my job that the decrease in stress might help me to get pregnant, so I was thinking that sometime after quitting my job it might happen, I was not thinking 30 minutes after and I would be pregnant! I kept saying, if all I had to do was quit my job to get pregnant, I would have done that a long time ago!
So this ended up longer than I expected so I will continue this post later this week with how I shared the news with Joey and then our families.
I'll start with how I discovered I was pregnant. Because at one point we were really trying to get pregnant and that meant lots of tracking and timing, I am very aware of my body and the changes that take place each month. Even though I know what my body does, I still somehow convinced myself that I was pregnant each month and then had to deal with the disappointment that came when it was obvious that I was not. I think I was able to do this because the symptoms of early pregnancy are pretty close to those of being about to start your cycle. So this particular month was no different. I thought I was pregnant, even though pretty much everything in my body was reacting exactly as it had for the previous two years. I also did not think I was pregnant because I had taken two tests earlier that week. Whenever my family was near I always tried to take a test because I really wanted to tell them in person. They were visiting the week before and so I took a test, knowing it was early and it was negative. Then the last day they were visiting, Joey cut his ear pretty bad and I was helping him clean the wound and I got very sick. I am not that way with blood normally and so I was surprised that it took me longer to recover than it did Joey to get cleaned and banaged (which my dad had to do, cause I almost passed out!) My dad suggested that I was sick because I was pregnant and so I took another test just in case, and it was negative. So that Friday on my last day of work I kept praying all day. I would say, "Lord, you know that I think I am pregnant, and You know that I am not, please give me the grace and strength to deal with not being pregnant yet again." I kept praying that and praying that anticipating that at any moment I was going to begin my period. As that Friday came to a close and we had my good-bye party at work, I was driving home thinking of how happy I was for this new season to start and to not be working full time any more. I thought about how I still had not started my period and that maybe I would take a pregnancy test when I got home because it would be funny as this chapter closed that maybe another one would start. I finally decided I would and as soon as I got home I did. As I was washing my hands I leaned over and looked at the test and my heart stopped beating....there was a second line!!!! I didn't know what to do and i couldn't believe it, I ran and took a prenatal vitamin! As excited as I was in that initial moment, I knew the test I was using was kind of cheap and that there was no way I could tell Joey and get his hopes up unless I was sure. He was not home and so I grabbed my purse and headed to the store. Since we live in the country and I didn't want to drive all the way back to town, I remembered they had recently opened a Dollar General store about 10 minutes away. I went looking for the tests and hoped no one would see me! I got to the aisle and I could not believe it, there were NONE! I could not believe it. Then I noticed a little card with a picture of a pregnancy test on it. Apparently people are known to take pregnancy tests off the shelf, go to the bathroom and take them without paying, so they have to keep them behind the counter! This was hilarious to me, because I could never imagine doing such a thing! I bought two tests and a bottle of water, which I chugged on the way home so I would be able to take the test. Right away a plus appeared on that little strip and I knew I was indeed pregnant! So many emotions and so many thoughts, but mostly it was all shock. People had told me they thought after I quit my job that the decrease in stress might help me to get pregnant, so I was thinking that sometime after quitting my job it might happen, I was not thinking 30 minutes after and I would be pregnant! I kept saying, if all I had to do was quit my job to get pregnant, I would have done that a long time ago!
So this ended up longer than I expected so I will continue this post later this week with how I shared the news with Joey and then our families.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Got to See Figlet!
This week I had a Dr. appointment in the afternoon. I really had no
idea what they were going to do as my first appointment just determined
that I was indeed pregnant and the second one was my first prenatal
appointment. Both times I did get to see pictures of the baby, though
they were tiny and really just a small dot. The first picture the baby
was only 2 millimeters!! That's the size of an apple seed! But what
was so amazing to me was that the baby already had a heart beat! Since
the beginning of this pregnancy I have been amazed at God's creation and
His detail of knitting us together in the womb.
So anyway, I wasn't expecting to get to see the baby again, but maybe just hear a heartbeat, but she did bring the machine in and we got to see Figlet. And this time it actually looks like a baby!!! We were able to see the head (which did look a little like an alien with the eye sockets!) the body, the heart beating and the hands and feet. Figlet was even moving his/her hands and it looked like he/she was waving! Sooooooooooo neat! I was sad Joey didn't get to go with me this time and see our little one, but I was glad my mother in law was there to see her little grandbaby!
Here is a picture of my belly as of last week at just over 13 weeks. I will work on trying to get picture of the ultrasound/sonogram (what's the difference?) up too, but not really sure how to do that. Our next appointment at the beginning of September will determine if we are having a boy or a girl, or as Joey says, a Figlina or a Figster!!!
So anyway, I wasn't expecting to get to see the baby again, but maybe just hear a heartbeat, but she did bring the machine in and we got to see Figlet. And this time it actually looks like a baby!!! We were able to see the head (which did look a little like an alien with the eye sockets!) the body, the heart beating and the hands and feet. Figlet was even moving his/her hands and it looked like he/she was waving! Sooooooooooo neat! I was sad Joey didn't get to go with me this time and see our little one, but I was glad my mother in law was there to see her little grandbaby!
Here is a picture of my belly as of last week at just over 13 weeks. I will work on trying to get picture of the ultrasound/sonogram (what's the difference?) up too, but not really sure how to do that. Our next appointment at the beginning of September will determine if we are having a boy or a girl, or as Joey says, a Figlina or a Figster!!!
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