Friday, May 14, 2010
These last twelve weeks have actually flown by. Of course I didn't know I was pregnant until about week six, so I'm sure that helped a lot. So much has happened in such a short time.
Let me start at the beginning...
Saturday, April 3, 2010
I kind of got suspicious that I might be pregnant since it had been awhile since I'd had that time of the month. I'd talked to my husband about taking a pregnancy test and he suggested that I wait a week just in case. So, according to his schedule, I would have taken the test on a Tuesday morning. I woke up abruptly on Saturday morning the day before Easter needing to use the bathroom like crazy and thought, "I might as well take it today. I always run late and if I'm trying to take a test and get to work on time, it's just not going to happen." So, I proceeded to take my pregnancy test. Keep in mind, my husband is still in bed sleeping. Well, I waited the 5 minutes or so that I was supposed to wait and realized that it had tested positive. So now I'm worried, not because my husband would be upset that we were having a baby, but because I took the test without him. I immediately started looking up baby stuff and waited until it was a more reasonable hour to wake my husband up to let him know. I finally woke him up realizing that by telling him the news our lives have now changed forever.
I don't remember the exact words I told him, but basically I said, "Congratulations! You're going to be a daddy!" He grinned and said, "I figured you were pregnant."
Since it was Saturday, I didn't call any OB/GYN office because I figured they wouldn't be open anyway. The rest of the day was spent with me reading as much as I could about the baby and what to expect in the upcoming weeks, what I should be doing, etc. I had narrowed my search for an OB/GYN office down to two and decided I'd just wait until Monday to call and schedule a confirmation appointment.
Monday, April 5, 2010
That Monday, I woke up and decided that I really needed to do more research on the OB/GYN offices, so I started looking more stuff up. Long story short, the two I'd narrowed it down to were out because they only delivered in downtown Pittsburgh and were about 45 minutes to an hour away from my house. I started all over and found a OB/GYN group that would deliver at the hospital we generally go to and called and scheduled an appointment. I could have gotten in that Wednesday in Butler (which is about 45 minutes from my house), but I opted to wait until the following Tuesday and go to their office in Cranberry.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
That Tuesday, I went to the restroom and had some spotting. I came back to my computer and started to do some research to find out if I needed to contact a doctor or if just a little bit (which is all I had) was not a cause for concern. From what I read, it said that if you have two consecutive days of heavy spotting call your doctor, otherwise don't be alarmed this is normal for a lot of women.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
That Wednesday, I went to the restroom and had a little more spotting. From what I'd read the previous day I wasn't really concerned because it wasn't a lot and it hadn't been a consistent thing, though just to be on the safe side I stopped working out and decided to take it easy.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
My appointment was at 9am, so I drove Jon to work and went directly to my Doctor's Appointment. I was given tons of information and had the usual stuff done. Weigh-in, blood pressure, going to the bathroom in a cup, etc. Since it was my first visit, I had to have all sorts of tests done (Pap smear, blood tests, etc.) While I was talking to my doctor, she asked me if I had had any spotting and I told her about what had gone on the week before. She immediately got upset at me and told me I should have called their office. Just to be on the safe side, she ordered an ultra-sound for me for that week on Thursday, April 15th at 1pm. Before leaving the office that day, I decided to get my blood tests out of the way while I had some time. My doctor had ordered a test to see if I had diabetes which meant I had to drink some syrup stuff and then wait for an hour to have my blood drawn.
When I got back in to the office, Kim B. one of my co-workers put two and two together and figured that I was pregnant since I'd been at the doctor's office all morning. In order to get her to be quiet I told her to "shut up, yes I am." Nice I know, but she kept getting louder and louder.
We stopped by Jon's parents' house on the way home so that Jon could share the news with them. He had written a list of things that we needed help on around the house with the last one being converting the guest bedroom into a nursery. His dad skipped to the end and asked if we were trying to tell him something. His mom didn't even read the list and said, "I'm guessing we're going to be having another grandchild?" Marc just happened to be over there picking up his desk, so Jon showed him the list. At least Marc went through every little thing on the list asking why we needed help with each item. When he finally got down to the last item, he just looked up at Jon with a shocked look on his face. We told him he could tell Liz, but he said that he wasn't going to we could do that.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
This day was absolutely crazy because I had to drink tons of water for my ultrasound. Then, as soon as the ultrasound was over, we were going home to quickly pack and drive up to MI to see my family (a trip that was planned even before the baby was conceived).
Jon had taken work off as well so that he could be there for the ultrasound. I had to go to the bathroom so badly and then the ultrasound technician just kept pushing on my bladder. It was pure torture!!! I was a little scared because when she told me what I would be having done that day she just told me that I would have an external ultrasound where she'd rub a jelly on my tummy and then she'd be giving me an internal ultrasound where she'd give me a wand to put inside of me. My only thought was, "how in the world am I going to be able to hold it, if I need to put something inside of me too?" I was so glad when she told me that I could go to the bathroom before the internal ultrasound. Once the internal ultrasound began, she kept having to stop and tell me to use the bathroom because my bladder kept filling up so fast. It was so neat to see the baby (even though it did just look like a little speck) and to see it's heart beat. I was also glad because she told me that I didn't need to drink nearly the amount of water for my next ultrasound.
After getting our picture of the baby, we headed home to pack and travel to my parents' house. I kept coming up with different ways to tell them, but finally decided that since I had just gotten our cruise pictures developed, we'd slip the ultrasound picture in with them and have them look through them.
We got to their house a little after 9pm. I was hungry, so I nibbled on some food and then we sat down at the kitchen table to look at pictures. My mom got to look at each one first. We'd tell her what was going on in the picture and then she'd pass the picture on to my dad and then he'd pass the picture to my sister Lynnette.
When my mom got to the ultrasound picture, she just seemed really confused. She started asking us why we had somebody's ultrasound picture mixed in with our vacation pictures. Who's picture was it, etc. We said, "did you see the name on the picture?" She told us she didn't have her glasses on, so I told her it was my name. You'd think that that would have been enough, but then she started saying, "are you guys trying to tell us something?" My dad is just laughing at her because "Yes! obviously we are trying to tell you something."
Well, eventually my dad and Jon went downstairs to the den and Mom, Lynnette and I stayed upstairs but moved into the living room. We talked for quite awhile and then went to bed really late.
Friday, April 16, 2010
It was so nice to sleep in! Needless to say, I was getting incredibly exhausted from being pregnant and my morning sickness was really starting to get worse. We just hung out at the house and played Rummikub with Lynnette waiting for Tom, Amanda and Brooke to arrive. I was trying to figure out how to tell them, but they ended up getting a late start and didn't get to the house until after 8pm. I had arranged with Tami and Steve to have a video chat with them that night.
Since Tom and Amanda got in so late, we were already talking on Skype with them. We were trying to be quiet about it since Tom and Amanda were upstairs putting Brooke to bed and didn't know anything about our news. So, Jon just put the ultrasound up to the screen - at this point it was just Tami and Andrew. Tami understood right away, but Andrew wasn't sure what he was looking at so Tami told him that he was going to have another cousin.
We had started to talk about other things and I'd put the ultrasound picture away just in case when Tom came down and sat next to me on the couch. Shortly after that Melissa and Ashley came into the room and Andrew said, "Aunt Carrie tell Ashley and Melissa what you told mom and me." So, I was trying to figure out how to say it, since now Tom was downstairs but he didn't know either. I told them we were going to be having a baby and Tom asked if it would be a human baby or if our female cocker spaniel was the one having a baby. I grabbed the ultrasound picture and showed it to him.
He looked at it and then I put it at the back of the vacation pictures since Amanda and Steve still didn't know what was going on. Steve was outside shoveling snow, so it was awhile before he came in, but Amanda came down and started to look through my vacation pictures. Unfortunately, she had to look through all 75 pictures before she came to the one of the baby. As soon as she saw the picture, she started asking me all sorts of questions.
Steve eventually came inside, but right as he got on Skype cut out. While we were trying to reconnect my dad said, "Now Carrie, don't be too disappointed if Steve doesn't act super excited, you know that he doesn't usually show a lot of emotion." I was like, "Dad, I know, I'm not expecting a whole lot."
We finally got reconnected. Once again, Jon put the ultrasound picture in front of the camera. I must say, I think Steve acted the most excited out of anybody. He was just like "Really? I'm so excited for you? How are you? Are things going well?" We talked for a little bit more and Steve was joking around and said that he couldn't tell what the gender of the baby was. Jon said something about it was a 50/50 chance it was a boy or a girl. I piped up and said that we weren't sure on that, but I was 100 percent sure that it would be white. Andrew immediately said, "But what if it's not?" Everyone got really quiet, not sure how to answer a 10 year old little boy. Finally Tami (his mom) said, "Well, if it's not Aunt Carrie has a lot of explaining to do." We eventually got off with Tami and Steve. By then it was pretty late, so we all went to bed.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Not really a whole lot of baby news. I sat around at my parents' house and looked up some things for the baby and read some baby articles. It was just nice to relax and hang out with family.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
We went to my parents' church before we headed home. I got so sick at the end of the service I thought I was going to have to leave. Dinner was delicious and didn't cause any issues with my crazy tummy. We had roasted turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and homemade rolls. After dinner was over we got on the road and headed home.
We got on the road a little bit and I called Liz to let her know what time we'd be home. I told her about the baby, but she told me that Marc had already told her. Since we'd told him he could, I didn't really care. I got off the phone with Liz and then we called Missy and Sean. Sean told us they had a crib they'd give to us, so that was nice! Then we put a call into Janell and Jocelyn. Neither of them answered the phone, so we waited for them to call us back.
Jocelyn called back first, so we told her the news and chatted for a bit. Then, Janell called. By the time we got home all of the people that we were planning on telling at that point had been told.
Monday, April 19, 2010 to May 11, 2010
I'm clumping this all together because quite frankly I've had such bad morning/all day sickness that it all is one big blur of upset tummy and fatigue. Jon and I did go out one Saturday to some garage sales and were able to get a changing table for $5, but other than that not much stands out about this past month. I've really enjoyed reading about what is going on with my baby each day and finding out what kind of development it is going through. Another memorable occasion was when I got a hold of my dear friend Walt and was able to tell her our exciting news!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Today was my second check-up. It took place in Butler, so Jon and I went straight there after work. I dropped Jon off at Marc and Liz's house and then Liz went with me to the doctor's office. I guess it was your typical second visit. I got to weigh-in, go to the bathroom in a cup and have my blood pressure taken again. I actually had my blood pressure taken twice because the first time it was really high and when the nurse asked me if I had a history of high blood pressure and I told her "no, not at all" she decided to go get another blood pressure cuff that is more accurate. Sure enough, there wasn't an issue.
I met another doctor. This doctor was named Laurie Powell and was really nice and down-to-earth. She read through my results from the testing and told me that everything that should be positive was and everything that should be negative wasn't. I'm not a carrier for cystic fibrosis. My blood is O+, which is the same as Jon's. I don't have diabetes. She asked me some questions and then I got to hear the babies heartbeat! She had a little bit of difficulty finding it at first and when she asked me if I could hear it, all I could still hear was the crackling of the little machine she was holding. I lifted up my head to listen closer and then heard a whir-whir-whir-whir noise. I said, "Oh, it's more of a whir noise than what I was expecting." She started laughing and lost the place where the baby was and had to find it again. She also told me that since I've now heard the heartbeat that my chance of miscarriage had gone to almost 0 percent. Since that had been a concern of mine, that was great news to hear!
Liz and I drove back to her place and I finally got to eat some supper. Jon and Marc were playing video games. Liz wanted to know if she could tell my cousin Carrie (who was one of my best friends through college) now. I was like "NO!! It's my baby! I'm telling Carrie."
Jon and I left their house around 8pm and got home a little bit before 9. I called my parents to give them the update and to let my mom know that if she wanted to she could tell people (Who am I kidding? She's been dying to tell people!) I then called Jon's mom to let her know the same news.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Today was the day I told my boss that I was expecting. I was so incredibly nervous to tell him mainly because my baby is due during our company's busiest season of the year. He took it really well and was super excited! He was one of the first people to know at the company, which is what I wanted so that he wouldn't hear it from someone else. Once I told him, we told our Payroll person who is a good friend of mine. We also wanted to know when to switch my insurance into Jon's, so she talked to us about that. I told my co-worker Connie since she sits right next to me and that was pretty much it (at least during the work day).
We had to leave work early because Comcast was coming out to our house. Once they came, we had all sorts of errands to run and once those were run we started to call people to let them know. I went to bed early because my tummy was really bothering me.
Present Day, Friday, May 14, 2010
So, I'm finally caught up to today. I came into work today and shortly after that Christine and Ashley came to my desk. They were both so excited for us. It was great talking to them. I was able to get a hold of my cousin Carrie this morning, so for now mostly everyone that I wanted to talk to specifically know about our exciting news! Today has been a pretty slow day at work, so I got all of my work done this morning and have just been reading things about babies all day. It's so exciting to think that in a few months I'll have my own little one to hold and to cherish. We have so much to do before that though: new roof needs to be put on, bathroom needs to be finished, office needs to be put together and guest room needs to be converted into a baby room. Oh and to top that, this Monday my parents are coming to stay the night and my house is a disaster construction zone. Fortunately my parents are coming to see me and not my house!
I think that is pretty much everything. Now that I'm feeling better I'll try to post little tidbits and thoughts along this wonderful journey!
