Well, it is official! In May we will become a family of three! This post is long overdue, since Wednesday will begin my 14th week. Matt and I found out we were pregnant at 5 weeks, much to our surprise. I actually took the pregnancy test with little expectations, brought on from the months of negative results before. In fact, I took the test and left it for some time before even remembering to come back to check it. When I did, Matt was confronted with a teary, speechless wife and couldn't understand why!
Matt and I decided to wait to tell anyone until our scheduled ultrasound in the 7th week. (Well, other than the few teachers at school who figured it out!) With this being the first grandbaby on both sides, we wanted to be VERY sure of all the details and hear the heartbeat before getting the grandmothers too excited. So at 7 1/2 weeks we were off to the doctor for the first time and got to see...
So I admit that it looks a little more like a worm than anything, but the heartbeat was music to our ears! It is also not a very good picture, but that is a long story involving unclear directions, a clueless first-time mommy, and an incompetent ultrasound receptionist. We were able to share the good news with the soon-to-be grandparents (who were more than elated) and even the soon-to-be GREAT grandmothers!
Matt and I initially agreed that we would wait until the safe 14 week marker to share the news with anyone else, especially my kids at school. However, things don't always go as planned. The week before this ultrasound morning sickness kicked in. The week after this ultrasound, things took a turn for the worst. At this point, Matt and I had just moved in with Mom and Dad, which is a true testament to God's timing. Morning sickness was in full swing, holding true to its name. I was sick often, especially at 7:00 a.m. Eating became a daunting task, despite many possible remedies - small meals, snacking, hot foods, cold foods, setting an alarm to eat in the middle of the night, crackers, bland foods - everything. In a time where each day was a struggle of nausea and exhaustion, my sweet mom was there to cook and help me out, especially while my poor husband was trying to manage the move to a new home (and the temporary home).
Another saving grace in the toughest weeks was my friend Jana. Being sick at promptly 7 a.m. didn't allow me to get out the door until around 7:45 and some days 8:00, making me late for work for several weeks. Jana and I were able to come up with a system where I could leave the work for my kids at school to get started and Jana gave up part of her prep period everyday for weeks to get my kids started in the morning. For a while I was able to get away with various excuses to my 11 year-olds: traffic, car trouble, a meeting, sick, etc. As I have told Matt often on our cheer sleepovers, it's when the kids are quiet that you have to start to worry. After a few weeks, the kids stopped asking why I was late and even asking me if I was feeling ok when I came in. I should have known then that they knew. The kids who can't figure out what to do if they forget to get a fork when they go through the lunch line had put the pieces together to figure out their teacher was expecting.
So at around 11 weeks and a series of a long, bad night that led into a bad morning that sent me home from work barely able to walk, my doctor finally switched me to a new, stronger medication. Since then, there has been a complete turn-around! While I have still lost close to 10 pounds since the ultrasound visit, I have been able to eat better and keep the meal down. I am sure the weight will come back (and much faster than I expect), especially since the little guy decided to pop out last weekend!
My favorite part of being pregnant has been telling family and friends. Telling our parents was certainly fun. Then there was nothing like sitting around a table at Yogurt Mountain with some of my favorite girl friends explaining the layout of our new house - the bedrooms upstairs, including the one that will be the nursery in May - and seeing their faces and the shocked, "nursery?" "May?"
Then there was the day I got to tell my kids at school. Matt and I painted letters the night before that would be hidden in the library. In pairs, the kids had to find a letter, bring it back to the table, and unscramble the message. In the end, here is what they came up with...
Then there was telling the cheerleaders. After school Jana and I met with our 8th grade girls and Jana did such a great job telling them after their "disappointing practice yesterday" and how their behavior "didn't show the positive role models they could be," they would be completing a brief team-building exercise before going home that afternoon. The girls solemnly began unscrambling the letters, which had been dumped out on a table. The mood completely changed when Amanda was the first to unscramble a word and shout out "BABY!" and Savannah unscrambled "Tanner!"
My high school girls have been the most excited about the possibilities of a baby, asking every time I see them "WHEN?" and leading me to make something up. In scheming with my favorite high school senior cheerleader, Shea and I decided to tell the cheerleaders the same way I was telling my kids. Alison, a pledge sister from college, is the new college counselor at the high school and helped us in getting one letter to each cheerleader through the day. At practice, Shea instructed the girls in putting the letters together and solving the message. Here was the pic and text message I got shortly after 3:00... (note the use of "Furlong" rather than "Tanner" since most of the girls had me as a teacher/coach before I was married)
Overall, pregnancy has been quite an emotional, exciting, unexpected journey with more twists and turns sure to come. At latest, we will find out if it is a boy or a girl the week after New Years. If things go well, maybe we will be able to find out a bit sooner than that!
