Lee's Other Birthday Present

When I was little, I liked presents. Uh, I still like presents by the way. So, on my brother's birthday, I would always get a little something too. And on my birthday, he would get a little something. I honestly don't remember if this was something my parents did, or if it was my grandparents. I'm thinking my grandparents, because they spoiled us, but I'm not positive. So, how much did it suck when that finally stopped? A lot.

So this year, on Lee's birthday, I was so excited that we BOTH got a present. And no, i'm not talking about this. (Although he was really surprised and he did love it!) (this thing is huge by the way, it's almost as tall as i am!)This is what I'm talking about people! We found out that I am pregnant!!!!
It was a complete surprise, although it wasn't necessarily unplanned. I stopped taking my birth control the last week in August. We wanted to try and get pregnant in December (or at least that's when we were going to start trying), and I wanted to stop taking my bc a little earlier so that my body could go back to it's natural cycle and so that we could do all of the fun charting stuff! I'm weird, I like to make charts and graphs, whatever. I even printed off an ovulation chart and had it waiting by my bed for as soon as I started my period. Well, it never started. (clearly) About a month after I stopped the bc, Lee asked me when I was supposed to start again and I was like, hmmm, actually right around now, come to think of it. So we waited. Nothing. Quite honestly, I didn't think much of it. I had heard that it can take a couple of months for your body to get back to normal after quitting bc, so I just thought it would take a couple months. (hence my wanting to stop taking it a little earlier than when we wanted to get pregnant) Then I started getting really bad cramps. Like really bad. So I thought, oh, I'll start any day now. Nothing for like 2 weeks. I seriously didn't think anything of it!

So on Lee's birthday, we were laying around waiting to meet my parents for dinner. I was talking to my friend Jenny, who has a baby, and she brought it up because I had mentioned to her that my period was taking it's sweet time returning. I told her about the cramps and that I was sure it would happen any time now. Her exact words were "Uh, you're pregnant!" Haha, I was like, huh? How? Apparently there is a little-known pregnancy symptom of "phantom menstrual cramps" She explained to me that it happens for like the first month or so of pregnancy. I thought she was crazy. There was no way that I could already be pregnant. But still.... So when I got off the phone, Lee, who had been sitting right by me, said "does she think you're pregnant?" (I will say here that Lee seriously thought I was pregnant the entire time, so he was like, see, I told you!) I told him what she said and we decided that I would take a test that day or over the weekend. Well, obviously I couldn't wait a minute, let alone until after dinner or the next day!! So we ran to the store and got a test. I would just like to say, that for the record, I felt like a teenage girl sneaking alcohol (or a pregnancy test!) when we went in to buy it. Like I was doing something wrong! Funny how even as a married woman who has every right to be pregnant, and even wants to be pregnant, you can still feel like that!

We got the one that had 3 tests in it, just in case. And, sorry if this is tmi (or if all this talk about cramps and periods is tmi), but I hadn't even finished peeing on the thing before the "pregnant" line appeared. But then the control line was really faint, so I wasn't sure. I called Lee into the bathroom and made him look. I said "I can't tell if I'm reading it right!" He said "You're pregnant" And we sat there staring at the little stick and then the instructions. Haha, we were completely in shock! I can tell you right now that was never how I envisioned finding out I was pregnant, or how I envisioned telling Lee! I thought I'd be all happy and crying and all that. But, no, I was freaking out. How could this have happened so soon?! Were we really ready for this?! I took the other two tests and they were the same. I was freaking out. I told Lee that we should have gotten the digital test that said the word pregnant or not pregnant on it because how was anyone supposed to read these stupid little plus and minus signs?! I really wanted to go get one of the digital ones, but Lee told me that I was crazy and that I was obviously pregnant and there was no need to go get a fourth test.

We had to rush around to get to dinner and it was silent in the car. We were both in shock. You know, like this-is-too-good-to-be-true and i-sure-as-hell-hope-we're-as-ready-for-this-as-we-thought-we-were shock. That's pretty much what it was like for the next 24 hours. I didn't want to let myself get excited about it because I wasn't sure. (yes, even though it was obvious from the tests) I just always felt like I would know if I was pregnant. And I didn't have a clue! And I never in a million years would have thought that it would happen so fast. I also always thought that it would take a long time for me to get pregnant. I have no reason for thinking that, it was just a feeling I always had. And then I started worrying about everything in the world. My weight, money, the house, how we wouldn't have a guest room anymore, could we really raise a baby?! And then I did the math. We will have a baby and our first wedding anniversary in the same month!!!

Lol, I was a crazy basket case for the next several days, but it did finally sink in! And obviously we are (and were when we found out!) so so excited! I have wanted to have a baby since I knew what a baby was!

As far as morning sickness goes, I have had it but it really hasn't been unbearable. Yes, I am nauseous pretty much 24/7, but I have only gotten sick once, and I'm pretty sure that it was because my stomach was growling all night and I was too tired to eat. (I have found that a can of pringles before bed works wonders to fix that :) ) Really, the hardest part for me has been how incredibly exhausted I've been. That was really surprising to me. For a while there, I would take a nap during lunch, sleep for a couple hours after work, then be awake for like an hour and then go to bed at a ridiculously early hour (like 7:30 or 8) and sleep until my alarm went off in the morning. I am really glad that the fatigue has gotten considerably better in the last week or 2.

We went to the doctor today for our first "real" appointment. We had an ultrasound and got to hear the heartbeat! Dr says everything looks great which was a relief to me. For some reason I have been such a worry wart about everything being okay. I am not usually a worrier so that was hard for me. We had originally thought that I was due June 4, but the ultrasound showed me at 9 weeks and 4 days (as opposed to 10 weeks and 4 days as we originally thought) so my official due date is June 11! That's only 9 days before out wedding anniversary :)

I do have a few belly pics. We started taking them in week 8 because it was so obvious to me that I was showing. And I really was, even it it was the tiniest bit.

This was from week 9

And this was on Monday, week 10. Yes I was in my pajamas. A huge difference and no, none of my pants fit. Jeans I can get to button while I'm standing up, but work pants, no way. I guess that means I have to go shopping!