#50 - Start talking about children

Well, we just skipped that whole pesky "talking about children" thing and just slammed full-force into parenthood! No, I'm just kidding. We have been talking about kids for a while now, but it's a lot less pressure when no one knows you are trying. And we finally got it right!!

So, this is the long version of the story. That Friday night that Jennifer came over and dyed my hair? I had an inkling that I was preggo at that point, but I've had so many false alarms before (and false hope!) that I ignored that feeling. I had one home PT left from prior months, so I determined to wait until Sunday to test.

August 17 - Sunday morning I tested, and then went on getting ready for church. I did not want to see that dumb one line (negative) another time, so I was just going to ignore the test all together. Well finally I went to pick up the test to throw it away... and lo and behold, there were TWO lines!! I literally just got down on my knees and started crying, and then I would stop and recheck the instructions, and then I would cry again. In the midst of all this I was going back and forth between "Thank you God!! Thank you God!!" and "I wish Stephen was here!!!" See, he was in Georgia that weekend. I had to run, because I was picking Charlene up for church that morning. I'm telling you, it was the longest church service of my life. And then I still had to take her back home, and then I had to go to Dollar General to buy yet another PT (because I was so sure that first one had to be wrong!) I guzzled water all the way home, and got home and took that $1 PT. Sure enough, those two lines popped right up!!! Then I had to begin the waiting. Stephen wasn't due home for a few more hours - the longest hours evvvvvvver.

Okay, long story short, he came home, I told him, and pretty much he was in shock. He just sank down on the carpet and was like, "Are you for real?" Well at that point I became nervous that maybe I had read these tests wrong. Of course I hadn't but I would have felt really awful to get our hopes up and be wrong. Oh yeah, how I told him. Well, every so often, he says to me, "You know, if we had a baby this month, it would be born in "Month"." So what I said was, "Hey, you know what? If we got pregnant in October, the baby might be born near your birthday in July!" And he said, "Oh yeah, wouldn't that be cool!" And then I said, "Or we could just have one in May." And he kind of looked at me weird, and that's when I held up the two pee tests. And that's when he started in with the, "Are you kidding me!?" It was really cute.

August 18 - Stephen wanted me to get a blood test, because I was a nervous wreck that I had had two false positives. My plan was to go to Urgent Care and have it done because I couldn't get an appointment in with my doctor (who acted like I was an idiot for wanting to be sure). So I called Jenn, and I said, "Hey, are you busy?" And luckily, she wasn't. So I was saying, "Do you want to go out with me?" And of course she is like, "Uh, where are we going? How long?" Finally she realized it, because I had updated my Facebook profile to say "Amanda has butterflies!" and she practically screamed at me, "Come get me RIGHT NOW!" and hung up. So I flew over to her office and picked her up and being the most #1 sister ever she sat in Urgent Care with me for like TWO HOURS so I could have a blood test done. And the next day it came back positive. So that's the story!!

August 19 - I announce to Stephen that our baby is the size of a poppy seed, knowing full well he has no clue what a poppy seed is. He furrows his eyebrows and says, "So it's one of those seeds on a hamburger bun?"

August 22 - At this point, when I walk in the door after work, Stephen says, "Hey babies!" instead of his normal, "Hey babe!" Also, when he emails me, he now says, "Morning you two!" (Note: he is still doing this. I love it! Also, dad did it the other day when he offered to take "the two of us" out to lunch!)

A couple of days after that, he called me "Mommy". I said, "Please don't call me that." He, sounding hurt, said, "Why not?" I said, "You already call someone else Mom. It's too weird." He explained to me that when our child is born, he will want to call me Mommy in front of them. That's fine. You may do that. In 9 months.

This was written at 5 weeks - At this point, I have no pregnancy symptoms except for that positive blood test. And my chest is REALLY tender. And I wish I could sleep more. But I've felt like that for a year now, so that doesn't really mean anything.

I have to keep quizzing Stephen on how to spell the names we picked out for the boy/girl we are having. It is going to be really awkward if he misspells our child's name for the rest of their life.

August 25 - Our baby is officially a sunflower seed. It is also beginning to develop it's brain. I noted that last night on the way home from church and Stephen and I both immediately began gabbing to my stomach. At which point I realized I'm not sure if the baby has ears yet.

How far along? 8 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: 3 pounds already!!
Maternity clothes? (at 6 weeks, I answered this question: "Definitely not yet". At 8 weeks, I am trying to find a night to go shopping for maternity pants!
Stretch marks? not yet!
Sleep: I want it all the time, which isn't unusual for me. It's easy for me to sleep still, so I'm taking advantage!
Best moment this week: (I answered this question 2 weeks ago) Gabbing at my stomach with Stephen and then laughing, because we aren't sure that the baby has any hearing organs yet! Best moment this week was telling work, church, and Facebook!
Food cravings: nothing yet
Gender: don't know yet!
Labor Signs: hah. NO!! Hopefully not for 7 more months!!
Belly Button in or out? still in for now
Wedding rings on or off? on for now
What I miss: the occasional glass of wine, and now I've found out I'm not supposed to eat hot dogs? Say what? Nooooooooooooo! Dog Nationnnnnnnnnnn!
What I am looking forward to: playing with the baby! I know that will be quite a ways in the future!
Weekly Wisdom: Sleep late if I need to, go to bed whenever I'm tired, even if I'm in the middle of a very good book. Don't lift heavy stuff. And don't feel guilty for not carrying kids around.
Milestones: we had our first ultrasound on September 12! We saw it's little heartbeat!

August 29 - Last Wednesday, a couple of the youth group kids talked me into playing Wall Ball. Stephen was in play practice, or I would not have been allowed to do this. The game is - there is a ball thrower. Everyone else runs along a wall, the thrower throws the ball at each person and if you get hit you're out. So, there I am, running along the wall with my back facing the thrower, saying, "I really don't want to get hit in my stomach!" and just acting like I'm a scaredy-cat, because we haven't announced my pregnancy yet. Everything's fine, because I obviously suck and I keep getting hit in the arm, the leg, the back. Suddenly, more kids show up and the game gets bigger and more competitive. I go for my last turn, and then I'm going to go inside and get ready to teach. And it happens. The thrower absolutely chunks the ball at me, I turn the wrong way, and it slams into the right side of my stomach. Tears come to my eyes, mainly because it really HURT but also because I am really paranoid of getting hurt. I ended up making some excuse and going inside, where Stephen goes back and forth between asking why in the WORLD did I play Wall Ball and am I SURE I'm okay?? On the way home he also forbids me from riding the mechanical bull in September at Grace Church's youth retreat because "the baby could get bucked in the head by the bull". Okay.
Then, my hormones kick in. I cried three times, three times, during the lesson. And I'm teaching! And it wasn't an emotional topic!! Luckily, no one noticed (because they're teenagers, and also because I had them doing a project) and Stephen said he only noticed one time. But I was able to cover it up. On the way home, we start talking about what we're going to have for dinner and I start crying again. About dinner, I presume.
One day, about a week and a half ago, we're driving along and Stephen asks me how I'm feeling. He asks me that several times a day now, whereas two months ago he couldn't care less. Okay, I'm kidding! I tell him I'm feeling good. He asks me when the morning sickness will begin. I brush him off with a wave of my hand and say, "Pshaw, if I was going to have morning sickness I would have had it by now. I'm good!"
Little did I know. Did you know that many women don't get morning sickness until week 6? Which I have just approached? Did you also know that it's not morning sickness when it lasts all day? But the funny thing is, when I start feeling a little nauseated, I drink a little Pepto and eat something, and that seems to settle me down right away. And I feel fine in the morning. Come see me at noon and about 7pm, then we'll talk about how good I'm feeling. But it's worth it if it means that baby is making itself at home in my belly.

August 29 - Tonight we told mom, dad, Granny, and Granddaddy. We went out to eat and gave them Grandparents Day cards. It was so exciting to tell them! I'm so glad at times like this to be living so close to all of them. Granddaddy bought us dinner, telling us to "save our money for baby shoes!" He also told us how hard it was for him not to tell our cashier! Haha, way cute!

September 3 - Today is our third anniversary. So far, only 5 people know besides us - Jenn, mom & dad, and Granny & Granddaddy. I wish I could tell everyone that even though we're not doing anything that exciting for our anniversary tonight (we have youth group at church), we will always remember this anniversary because of my new belly! But I can't tell anyone that. Today I wore some of my most comfortable black pants. Elastic black pants. I have already had to roll them down because the elastic is too tight. What's the point of elastic if it doesn't stretch to the breaking point?? On the other hand, I have caught myself rubbing my belly today because it's poking out over the elastic. Not drastically, but just enough that I can see it.
Later update - I showed Stephen when I got home from work why I had to roll my pants down today. This was our conversation that followed:

Stephen: (rubbing my belly) Awww, is that him?
Me: Or her!
Stephen: Or... them!
Me: Or my BLT from lunch!
Hehehe.

September 16 - Okay, now I'm pretty much updated. Two weeks ago we went to Georgia for our anniversary, and we told Stephen's family while we were there. It is hard to get that many people together in one room at one time to tell them news!! But we did it. They were all so cute - especially Jennifer! She's going to be a fun aunt.

So now, it's public knowledge. We have a pool at work already for the sex of the baby and the due date. The doctor told me April 20 for the due date, but we'll just see. I'm sorry for such a long post, but as you can see, I've been updating it pretty much since the day I found out! So that's a lot of catching up to do!! Kudos if you made it this far.