Week 5 (8/8/09 – 8/14/09)

It was an interesting week with only Eric and I knowing the secret. We decided that we were not going to say anything to anyone yet because we weren’t going to the OBGYN until that Friday (8/14/09). The appointment went well but we were in there for close to 3 hours. We got to ask a lot of questions and I had a lot of blood taken. The best part was hearing the baby’s heartbeat. When the doctor first put the monitor on we could barely hear it and Eric got up out of his chair across the room to get closer to my belly. That was the best sound in the world! The doctor was even able to feel and could tell which of my ovaries had released the “amazing egg!” I even got a great Week-By-Week book to read from the doctor. When we left the office we went back home to prepare for the kids to spend the night. Jordon, Maison, Lauren, and Chase were all coming to spend the night with us that night and we were going to tell them the news. We decided that it would be cool if we told the kids in the family before we told the adults. We figured that this generation of kids would be the ones that our children would grow up with so why not tell them first. I went and picked the kids up and we took them to dinner. During dinner Eric told them that we had a surprise to tell them. Jordon and Maison figured it out right away and Jordon said, “I know, I know you’re having a baby.” We told them the news and about how they were the first ones to know. Lauren and Chase sat there for a while not saying too much but were happy. We explained to them that we would be going out of town on Monday and we didn’t want them to say anything to anybody until we left. They promised to keep the secret and thought it was really cool. When we got back home we made banners for the baby and the kids guessed who thought we would have a boy and who thought we would have a girl. Chase was so funny one time as we were laying on the floor making the banner. He came over to me, opened my mouth and said, “Yep Geque (that’s my nickname) I think I can see that baby in there.” We all laughed when he said that. We played games and one of the games, Mancala, had little tiny pegs. Chase kept asking me how big the baby was and I kept trying to tell him that it was very small. I finally told him that it was about the size of the peg that we were playing with so I had all of the kids grab a peg and take a picture to represent the size of the baby at the time. They also helped me brainstorm names for the baby. We had a great time that night.

Telling Eric the News!

The time spent waiting for the doctor’s call was used gathering my ideas for how I was going to tell Eric the news. I began working on some self portraits of my stomach with my hands in the shape of a heart. I had to take about 25 pictures before I found one that I really liked. I printed the picture with the words, “We Love You!” at the bottom and put it in a really nice frame. Along with his picture, I had bought 2 dad books for him. I wrapped them all up in polka-dotted paper and waited. Eric had worked late man on that Friday, August 7th so when he got home he was hungry. He asked if I wanted to go to Rancho Grande, his favorite Mexican restaurant, to eat. I said that would be good but the whole time I thinking that I might not be able to eat because I was so excited. While we were at dinner I told him that I had bought him a present today. He said well what is it and I told him that he would just have to wait until we got home. When we got home he sat down on the couch and I brought in the present. I told him that he had to open the big one first, which was the frame. He slowly unwrapped the big present from the back. When he turned it over he just starred at it with a half grin and half unsure grin. Then he looked up at me and sat the frame down. I remember him saying to me as he sat the picture frame down “we love you.” And I shook my head yes without saying anything. He began to open the books and then looked up at me again with a smile and raised eyebrows and said, “Are you pregnant?” I said yes and nodded my head. Next he just grabbed me and said “Oh babe,” and just hugged me and held me. He was so happy. I just kept saying can you believe it. Then he finished opening and looking at the books. He was smiling so much and tearing up. Then I began to tell him the whole story about how I had kind of known since Tuesday but wasn’t for sure until today. It was a magical night.

Week 4 (8/1/09 – 8/7/09)

Well up until 8/4/09 I had not yet had any feelings of pregnancy. Since I had been charting my temperatures in an attempt to find out when I was ovulating I had noticed that my basal body temperature was very low. I became concerned and thought that maybe I should go to my doctor for a physical. I didn’t think I had had a physical in my adult life so why not go and just make sure I was healthy enough to get pregnant. My appointment was scheduled for August 4th and when I got in there the doctor of course asked me why I had come. I explained that my husband and I had just started trying to get pregnant and I wanted to make sure that I was healthy. He thought that was great and told me about all of the procedures he would be doing that day. One of the procedures was a chest X-ray. Dr. Charlton asked me if there was a chance that I might be pregnant and I of course said, “well yes there’s a chance but we really just started trying.” He felt better doing a urine pregnancy test anyway before giving me the X-ray. I sat in the room for a while and then they moved me to another room down the hall. When the nurse arrived to prepare me for the next procedure she came in with a smile and said, “well we’re not going to be doing that chest X-ray because you are pregnant.” I was so excited, and the nurse was too, that we hugged one another. She secretly told me that her and her husband were trying too. After that she took me to get blood work and see the doctor again. When Dr. Charlton arrived back in the room he congratulated me and told me that he wanted to do a blood test just to make sure. I had told him that if his test was right I must just barely be pregnant, only by a little over a week or so. He said that the blood test would come back within a couple of days and he would call me. As I left the doctor’s office I didn’t quite know what to think. Was the urine test accurate…was it really true? I decided that I wasn’t going to say anything to anyone (including Eric) until I had the blood test confirmation. I didn’t want to get anyone’s, including Eric’s, hopes up if it wasn’t really true. It was going to be so hard not telling him but I just felt like it was the right thing to do. So after leaving the doctor’s office I drove straight to the cemetery. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and I just sat at my mom’s grave and talked with her. I like to say now that she was the first one I told. I cried a little, smiled a lot, and then left the cemetery feeling very happy.

Week 3 (7/25/09 – 7/31/09)

During Week 3 I didn’t know that I was pregnant yet. I was going along as if everything was the same. I had however already begun changing my diet and eating habits. The books that I was reading had already convinced me that if I wanted to conceive a healthy baby then I needed to be healthy myself. I added about 2 lbs. on to my weight as I worked hard to eat 3 meals a day. As anybody who knows me will tell you I have poor eating habits at times. I don’t necessarily eat bad foods I just go long periods of time without eating or skip meals because I’m too busy and don’t take the time to eat. I had told myself at the beginning of the summer that I was going to start getting better at eating right. So that’s what I had been doing in the weeks since summer started. During this week I went to Sandbridge (as I very often do) and spent time with Mom-Mom and Dad-Dad. It was a quiet summer week, just being lazy, reading like crazy, and visiting them.

Week 2 (7/18/09 – 7/24/09)

CONCEPTION WEEK!!! I of course am not going into anymore details! 

Week 1 (7/10/09 – 7/17/09)

Well, here is the official start of our blog. I had been journaling on paper since before conception but am not posting it all until now. It might take me a while to get it all on the blog but I hope the end result of it all is good! I plan to keep updating week by week. Some weeks are more interesting than others. Hope you enjoy reading about our journey toward meeting Baby Thames!!!

Well, I am not officially pregnant yet however Eric and I had a great week. Week 1 of the pregnancy officially started the day after Eric and I celebrated our 4 year Wedding Anniversary! We had a nice anniversary dinner together at home. We also went for our first massages, a couple’s massage! Eric’s mom and grandmother brought over fruit and flowers which is the representative gift for a 4th anniversary. Eric was on a different shift at work this week and had to go in at 11:00 at night. The nights alone were quiet and lonely for Quila (my cute Chihuahua) and I. We miss him when he works over night.

In the weeks prior to Week 1 I went out of town a lot and did a lot of reading. My reading consisted of books about how to conceive a healthy baby. The reading was interesting and scary at the same time. I was so excited about starting this phase of Eric’s and my relationship. On the first official weekend of my summer break Aunt Erlinda, Aunt Loretta, Amber, and I went to Boston/Cape Cod for Ria’s baby shower. We had a blast. The whole time I was at the shower I was thinking about the joys of being a mom. Ria is going to be such a great mom. She’s so adorable pregnant! The next week I went to Florida with Mom-Mom and Dad-Dad (my grandparents). We were headed to Orlando for a Cheshire family reunion. The time spent with family was irreplaceable. Of course, MANY people asked when Eric and I were going to start having kids. Little did I know it was only going to be a couple of weeks! After Orlando we headed even further south to Sanibel Island. My grandparents had promised me my entire life that they would take me there someday. They had been when I was a child and came back telling me about the beautiful shells and beach that was there. I was so excited that we were finally going to Sanibel. We had a nice weekend on the beach and I of course brought back many beautiful shells. The trip with them is one I’ll never forget! For the weekend of July 4th, Eric and I went to Hatteras Island and stayed with Aunt Cathy and Uncle Doug at their beach house. We met up with friends during the day and had dinners at night with family. It’s always a good time when we go to their beach house!