February 28, 2010

First Baby MUST-HAVE!!

This is the first of many, I'm sure...but if we have a little girly-girl, you can COUNT on her rockin' these....

You + Me...and BABY makes 3!

I know...I know...I am terrible at keeping up with my blogging. When I really think about all that has happened in our lives over the past year that I HAVEN'T blogged about, I feel like a world-class loser! I promise to be better. I HAVE to be better, because...

WE ARE HAVING A BABY!!

That's right...we are going to be parents on (or around) September 17, 2010! We have known for about eight weeks now, and it is still just as exciting to say it as it was when I walked out of that bathroom with a positive pregnancy test in my hand! We were so shocked...so excited...and SO SHOCKED!!

We have been "trying" to get pregnant...well, really just "not preventing" it...since we got married. If you know me well at all, you know I am not a proponent of birth control. Not for any religious reasons, but just not being completely comfortable in my spirit with it FOR ME. We also want as many babies as God wants to give us (hence the reason I LOVE the Duggars!). We had actually stopped "trying", using ovulation strips, etc. in December when we closed on the house. We knew this dwelling was going to take every bit of energy, time, and resources we had, so we just put it on the back-burner. I also had a much-anticipated appointment with a hormone specialist in January that would tell us for sure if we were ovulating correctly and hopefully FINALLY explain my spotting between periods for the past two years. Out of that appointment, they confirmed that my progesterone levels were "normal" and that I had ovulated in January. They sent me skipping away with the word that we should be good to go when everything settles down for us, and "to pretend like we were 16-year-old's in the backseat of a car because they don't want to get knocked up and they do." No joke. The doctor said that to me.

The week after that appointment, I was EXHAUSTED! We had been working for nearly two months on the house and I was plumb tuckered OUT! I was also STARVING like I never had been before...craving the most random things at the same time...which is not too far off for me since I am a food junkie at her finest. Something inside me just kept asking, "are you pregnant?" But I KNEW I wasn't because of the doctor's appointment the week before...so I dismissed. Finally, one Sunday when I couldn't even pry myself off the couch to go to church that morning, I asked Dan to pick up a pregnancy test on his way home from church. Now, had we been really trying and expecting, I would have taken the test by myself and surprised him with the results somehow. But, I KNEW it was going to be negative, so I just hopped up and went in the bathroom and took it, with Dan on the couch watching some man show. The next steps go like this...

1. Pee on stick
2. Notice dominant pink stripe coming through
3. Wait a few and don't see anything else coming through, confirming what I thought
4. Get up and wash hands
5. Out of the corner of my eye see not one, but TWO pink stripes in the window of the test...PREGO!
6. Emerge from bedroom
7. Yell, "Dan! You better get in here! That thing is positive!"
8. Assume it was user error and plan on taking the second test of the 2-pack in the morning
9. Take another test the next morning which is VERY positive!
10. Make appointment with family doctor who confirms the results with a blood test and informs us that we are about five weeks pregnant.
11. Jump, scream, shout, thank Jesus for giving us this baby, pray for health, swear each other to secrecy for the next 10 weeks until we are in the clear

Over the next weeks we found out that my progesterone was IN FACT low, not "normal," so I am taking progesterone for 12 weeks to even me out. That explains why the hormone specialist didn't know I was pregnant when I was in. My progesterone LOOKED "normal" to them, when in fact, it was high for me since I was pregnant. We have also seen our little chicken nugget twice since then, the last time being last Monday when it had its foot in its mouth and the heart beat sounded like a racing horse. (See pic below) Now we are just basking in the thoughts and dreams of being parents...and trying to put together a plan to get this house that we thought we had all the time in the world to finish, finished in 6 months! Not to mention a nursery! (Monetary donations and donations of time are being accepted)


I have never been this sleepy in my life. I have never spent more time in my pajamas, hair in a pony tail, and no make-up in my life. I am just lethargic. It's all I can do to get in the door and in my pj's after work. Praying that part goes away soon, because I am a busy-body at heart and this is killin' me. I have not been that sick though...can I get a hallelujah?? I have been pretty consistenly nauseas, but never sick, sick, sick, proving that God is not just good...He is GREAT!

I have dreamed of this since I was little girl. I am a mother at heart, and have always known it. If you have kids, I have probably loved them as if they were my own at some point in time. I have a heart for children, and have longed for nothing more in life than to be a wife and a mother. God gave me both in a little over a year. Mmmm....so sweet.

So now, we just wait and pray for our little one. Pray for it to grow, grow, grow into a healthy, beautiful, sweet little thing. Pray for it to experience love from us and Jesus before it even enters the world. Pray for it to have a life of joy, passion, purity, kindness, and love for Jesus and others. We have loved this baby since it was just a thought, and pray it feels that already.

Thanks for celebrating with us. YAY! Stay tuned for more baby bid'ness!