Friday, July 2, 2010

a HUGE tiny Blessing

I'm so excited to say that we are moving on to the next chapter in our lives...parenthood! Yes- Sean, Baby and I will be a family of 3 in January. I'm so happy to nearly be finished with the first trimester, and the pregnancy is going really well so far. I'll stop right there, though, because I guess I should start at the beginning of the story...

I actually found out on Mother's Day, so that was really neat. Upon seeing the word "Pregnant" pop up on the test, I immediately dropped to my knees by my bed in prayer. I was so happy and scared at the same time, but I was also thankful that I have a loving Heavenly Father who I can trust to guide me through this entire journey...from now, to the birth, to the first steps, to the first day of kindergarten, to high school graduation, to his/her wedding, and everything beyond and in-between. After that I was just excited and at peace with the whole thing. It was so fun telling Sean we are going to have a baby, and he was just as thrilled as I was.

Then came the phone call to my parents...it was so soon since I hadn't been to the doctor yet or anything, but I just couldn't resist the opportunity to tell my mom on Mother's Day...I wish it could have been in person, but it was still so much fun on the phone. At first she didn't believe me - she has been waiting a looong time for this - but when Sean chimed in and said we were not kidding, she finally believed us and started crying tears of joy...in the middle of WAL-MART...LOL:). I couldn't believe it took Sean's convincing her to believe me...that would have been a pretty mean joke on Mother's Day! I guess I can't blame her too much, though - I do enjoy a good joke, and she always says I'm a pretty convincing "storyteller". ;) Anyway, then she gave the phone to my dad (they were out in the parking lot by then, haha) and we told him. He was just beaming with joy as well...it was so fun telling them the good news!

Next we went to dinner with Sean's parents for Mother's Day. We had fun telling them too. Larry (Sean's dad) gave us high fives from across the table...it was really cute how happy he was. :) We are so blessed to have such loving and supportive parents. This baby is going to have some FUN grandparents! Not to mention the awesome Aunts and Uncles-to-be! Kami actually predicted that I was pregnant before I even told her...I have no idea how she knew...I guess it's just that sister's intuition. :) Our awesome families truly do make this experience even more exciting than it already is...I love each and every one of them so very much!

Since then, I started feeling more and more pregnancy side effects as the days went on. Luckily, summer was just around the corner, so I only had a few days at school where I really wasn't feeling great. I feel so fortunate, though, because I never even got sick...I was just queasy pretty frequently throughout the day, and that could usually be helped by laying down for a few minutes. Probably the most annoying thing was my lack of appetite. I normally LOVE eating...I mean, I'd say it's a hobby of mine...but not for the past 6 or so weeks - I pretty much just ate because I had to. It was never really good or enjoyable. Now if I were on a diet or something....PERFECT! But I'm definitely not (other than just trying to eat more nutritiously), so I'd prefer to have my full appetite. I didn't really have that many cravings - I loved watermelon for awhile, but that only lasted a few weeks - mainly it was just food AVERSIONS. All of a sudden I cannot stand most meats...I can handle beef in small quantities, but chicken, pork chops, fish, etc. = BLAH! All of a sudden those things sound (and look and smell) so gross to me. I guess Baby must already be a true Texan, preferring beef and all. Fortunately, my appetite came back and the queasiness went away almost completely as of about a week ago (just in time for my bday!)...I'm still not eating chicken, fish, etc., but hopefully that will come back to me soon as well. Overall, I feel like Baby's been pretty good to me - especially since the majority of the queasiness, etc. went away at the 11 week mark, which is BEFORE the end of the 1st trimester! Other than a weird deal where I felt like I was about to faint in the shower yesterday, everything has continued to go very smoothly this week. Woohoo! Thank you sweet Baby! :)

Now for one of our first baby pictures....this is the ultrasound pic from 8 weeks. It's not all that clear, but if you look closely you can see his/her head at the bottom and feet pointing up. I think it's cute already, but I'm a little biased. ;)



I had an appointment on Wednesday and was hoping to get another peek at the baby to see how much it's grown, but I was disappointed to hear that my next ultrasound won't be until the 18 week mark. However, I did get to hear the heartbeat which was so fun! It was beating so fast! I think most moms get emotional and maybe even tear up a bit when they hear the little heartbeat on the doppler device for the first time, but what did I do?...I laughed! The nurse probably thought I was crazy, but I couldn't help it...I have no idea why! Nevertheless, I just loved hearing that precious little heartbeat, and I wish I could have listened longer! I have another appointment on July 28th, but the one I'm REALLY looking forward to is on August 16th at that 18 week mark. That's when we'll (hopefully) get to find out whether it's a boy or girl! I can't wait! It is my first day back to work, so that definitely gives me something to look forward to at the end of the summer!

Well, this has been a really long post, but I think I have summed up most of the pregnancy so far. But in the interest of "keeping it real"...I just keep on thinking about how different our lives are going to be from here on out. Some things I will REALLY miss...like being care-free, going out and having fun with friends...having free time to myself...lots of things really, and yes, most of them are selfish...I just kind of feel like the days of my youth are ending, and I don't know if I'm completely ready for that. BUT I know that this precious little one is going to make up for all of those things and more. I think it's like this with almost any major life change. It's always a little bittersweet closing one chapter of our lives and opening another...but in this case it's mostly SWEET. One thing I know for certain...I'm already more in love with this baby than I ever thought I could be, and I know that love is only going to grow infinitely from here. And that's a cool feeling. :)

2 comments:

  1. Shayna! I'm so excited for you! I had a very similar experience as far as the food aversion thing. Although I was very sick from 5 weeks until 16 weeks:( And I reacted the exact same way when I heard the heartbeat for the first time! We are so blessed!

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  2. Congratulations Shayna!! We are so excited for y'all! Enjoy every minute of your pregnancy, it goes by so fast :)

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