This Is Me

I live in a world that is not my own that I succumb to in many ways. I live by a code that leaves me to find joy in the small things in life. Not take advantage of anything. Love and learn from everyone I meet in my journey. And especially to learn what it means to be selfless in more ways I thought possible. I am a Army wife. It is what I do. I have a love hate relationship with what I do. But do I regret it? No way.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

So, We're Pregnant!

This has been a long past couple months, but this pregnancy story starts up exactly where my last post ends! On the plane back from my cousin's wedding/visiting my grandma I texted John I was late and we needed to talk when I got home.
We knew there was a chance I could be pregnant, so this wasn't necessarily a real shocker, but at the same time it's a surreal experience to think about in a realistic sense.


Where we trying?
Well, we weren't not trying.
We had decided when John came home from deployment we didn't want to try right away because he just got home and we wanted to have the chance to reconnect and just get to know each other again. After our Florida trip and finally getting back into the swing of things schedule and work wise, we decided we weren't going to not try, just see what happens, and let nature take it's course.
Well, needless to say three weeks later, I was pregnant.
I was only two weeks along when I took the pregnancy test.
When John picked me up from the airport he greeted me with pregnancy tests, lol.
I made him buy me Chipotle and take me home first.
I took the first test and it came up positive, but the 'cross' line was somewhat faint, so we didn't know what to think. I went and took a shower while John called Karen, our sister in law who is a nurse and helps deliver babies, and when I got out she confirmed to John that any cross line is a cross line, therefore pregnant.
John was immediately excited and just had this huge smile on his face.
I cried. For a while.
It took me about 48-72 hours to really get my head out of clouds and come back down to reality.
Once I came back down, I was surprisingly at peace and instantly was very excited.
We told our families a couple weeks later by sending collage frames that had our pregnancy announcement in it. Everyone had the reaction we thought and telling our story over and over and over to each of our family members just made me a billion times more excited about Baby C. :)



How are you feeling?
Ten times better now! In the beginning I was so sick. I never actually threw up but was nauseous with just about anything and everything. I'd make dinner and not even want to be in the same room as it. The only things I really survived on was lots of water and crackers for the most part. 
The bloating stage began a week or two before I left for wedding #2 in OKC in June. I was the Maid of Honor for this wedding, so I was really worried about feeling so sick and bloated would interfere...but I pulled it off ok, and yes my dress fit!
Once I got home from that wedding it was like someone flipped a switch, and overnight the bloating went away and I felt like I had my life and body back. Well, except now I had a pooch without the bloat. It was a little pooch, but it was there, and it definitely counts. :)
As of today, first day past the first trimester, I feel fantastic. I joke with John if it weren't for my growing tummy I would forget I was pregnant at all.

Have you had any weird cravings?
Y.E.S.
I am currently in love with all things spicy and salty which is horrible. It seems like everything I cut out of my diet is what I crave. Chips. Crackers. Red meat. If it's salty, give me seconds. I've really had to make a concious effort to keep this in check, especially since I haven't been able to work out the same way I used to. Drinking tons of water, eliminated all coffee again, back to lean meats and am also have cravings for lots of fruits. Living in good ole NC is perfect for that with plenty of fresh fruit options to keep me occupied. I finally able to get back to my lean meat habit which helps a lot. I have also added things back into my diet I had eliminated. I am drinking milk again--well, on cereal. I add salads or a veggie of some sort to every meal I make and treat it as my main course rather than the side. All I have to do is treat John's meals in the opposite respect, and we are usually good to go.
Luckily I'm not craving any of his guilty habits such as cookies or soda, so that's awesome.

Are you going to find out what you are having?
Yes we are, and yes you'll know. We find out in a month what we are having and are so excited. We both agree we have no preference on gender, but we cannot agree on names for anything. We have totally different vibes and thought processes for this, so for now we are holding off on the name lists until we know the gender. Now, we are planning to not tell the name of the baby until it's born, so that is something, as of now, we are not going to tell, but as far as the gender we cannot wait! We got to see a sneak peak of our little butterbean this week at my doc appointment. I was days short of twelve weeks and we knew we'd get to hear the heartbeat but were not sure we'd get a sonogram. Since John is leaving this weekend for the next three months, it was either we guilt them into making it happen, or he'd just have to see pics that I sent him. Luckily our midwife was really cool and had no problem showing us our  little alien.

Baby C at 11 weeks 5 days. :)
The little squirmer had the hiccups and either was extremely camera shy or has major morning attitude. The midwife let John man the picture button trying to capture a picture and this was the best we got. It just would not hold still for anything. John was so elated. Between the hearing the heartbeat and seeing this little thing squirming around I half expected him to start skipping around the room. I couldn't see much of the ultrasound cause John's face was all up in the screen looking at things and asking questions, but to me that was the best seat in the house. :)

We had our third and final wedding of the summer over the first weekend of July. I was really glad I actually looked pregnant as opposed to an overeater at this event! Luckily I wasn't actually in the wedding, so that took some of the pressure off!

As I said before, John is leaving for the next three months. He is going to K9 school in San Antonio, TX and gets back sometime in October. He will miss pretty much all of the second trimester, but thanks to Skype, he'll only miss some things. We're making the best of it. :)
He's been so supportive in my manic mood swings and my new narcoleptic sleep patterns, I couldn't ask for a better husband and future daddy of our baby.

Here's random progression shots so far...I've been really bad at remembering to take them. I'll get better once John leaves, he won't let me not send pictures to him of his baby growing!

5 weeks 2 days


6 weeks 2 days BLOAT GONE!

Bloat finally gone
for the most part!

















10 weeks 5 days :)
(ignore my
unbuttoned pants !)