The First Weeks

So I am now 6 weeks and 2 days pregnant!  I've known for almost two weeks, but it seems like an eternity!  How am I going to keep this a secret for another month or more???  Mike and I decided that we wouldn't tell anyone for a little while (which, like I mentioned before, didn't really work.  Currently 5 people know the news!  Not bad though, eh?).  We didn't have any specified number of weeks that we wanted to wait, but I know that the risk of miscarraige is so much bigger in the first trimester, so I kinda wanted to wait until almost 13 weeks.  However, it's important to us that we tell our families in person, and we don't see them often enough to be that specific with our time frame. 

My mom is coming to visit June 10-14 and we decided we'll tell her at that time.  Then the following weekend we are going to my cabin with my dad, grandparents, and Mike's parents for Father's Day, so we decided to share the news with the rest of them there.  And unfortunately we'll have to tell Mike's sister over the phone, because we won't see her until the 4th of July, and people will not be able to keep it from her until then.  But I told my sister over the phone too, so it's all good.  I'll be in the middle of my 8th week when we tell my mom, and the middle of my 9th week when we tell the rest of the fam.  I think we'll probably wait a few more weeks until we announce the news to the general public.  So that's the plan for now.

I bought a little bib the other day for my mom that says "Grandma loves me", and I'm going to wrap it and tell her it's a late Mother's Day gift.  There is a cute little baby announcement card that I'm going to give her too.  Then, since we're seeing the rest of the family on Father's Day, I got "Grandpa" Father's Day cards for our Dad's.  They'll be so confused, but I'm going to write "Congratulations!  You're going to be a Grandpa!" on the inside, and sign it "Love, Mike, Jess, and Baby "H".  I can't wait!!!!  This will be the first grandchild on either side of the family, so anything with the words grandma or grandpa will really throw them all for a loop!  I also got a great-grandfather card for my grandpa, which will be fun to watch him open.  So there's my plan for telling our big news to the family!

So, like I mentioned before, I love when I have something to study up on.  Mike says that I baffle him, and he doesn't understand why someone who likes to study so much has no desire to go back to school.  It's because I love my job.  I really do, and I have zero desire to do anything else.  If I did, I'd go back to school.  Simple as that.  Anyway, I digress.  When we got Daisy I got a bunch of books on how to train dogs, when we decided to do something with our lawn I got a bunch of landscaping books, and now.....pregnancy books!  The most exciting of all!  I bought the obligatory "What to Expect When You're Expecting", and also "Your Pregnancy Week By Week".  I like them both a lot.  Probably because they are both semi-technical, and I like to hear the facts.  Some people find these books scary, and say that they give too many bad scenarios, but working in the PICU, I see bad scenarios on a daily basis.  It's almost comforting to me to read about them, because it does talk about how rare most of the genetic defects are.  I see kids with congenital and genetic defects every day at work, and sometimes I forget that it is the minority of the population that I am working with.  So, I love both of these books, and maybe "Your Pregnancy Week By Week" just a little bit more.  It's hard not to read ahead, but I have been good!  I have only read through week 6.  I read it aloud in bed at night to Mike so that he can share in what is happening both to the baby (or sac of cells, as he currently calls it) and to me.

As far as symptoms of my pregnancy so far, I really haven't had many.  The very first thing that I felt was breast soreness.  I actually felt that before I knew I was pregnant and before I knew that it was a symptom of pregnancy.  I went running about two and a half weeks ago and my boobs were really sore during the run.  I figured my sports bra was getting stretched out or something and didn't think much of it.  Then boom, two days later, I found out I was pregnant!  So that was my very first symptom! 

I have also been peeing a lot more frequently than normal, which is a early symptom of pregnancy, but that could also be because I am trying to be more conscious about drinking enough.  So, who knows.  The only other thing I've really felt so far was slight cramping.  This one really had me paranoid at first, because the two things that go through your mind when you are pregnant and cramping are miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy.  Or at least, those were the only two things going through my mind.  But after doing some research I happily discovered that mild cramping is completely normal during pregnancy.  Whew!

Here are some pics I took at month 1 of my pregnancy.  I love how by the time you figure out that you're pregnant you are already at month 1!

Before the belly!

Ok, I know this one is kinda weird, but a girl on a blog that I read took a pic like this when she first found out she was pregnant and another one when she was about to pop.  Her photography skills might be slightly better than mine, but whatever.  You couldn't see her feet at all by the last one, and I thought the progression was pretty cool.  So for now, my feet are still in full view (and my belly button ring is still intact....wonder when I should take that out???)

Bare belly shot

So, we know that my birthday was earlier in the week.  This past weekend Mike and I went out on the town with a bunch of friends of ours and friends of mine from work.  It was a blast, but not easy keeping the news a secret.  Especially since it was my birthday, so I was expected to drink...and heavily.  I'll tell ya, it's tough work drinking straight ginger ale all night pretending it's Jack and Ginger and acting hammered.  Seriously, I was exhausted!  Don't think I pulled it off all that well either because people kept asking how I was still so sober when I had been drinking liquor all night.  Shhh, don't tell them....yet!   Here is a pic of Mike and I before we went out.  And yes, that's ginger ale in my wine glass.  It actually looked shockingly similar to the white wine that everyone else was drinking.  They had white wine with strawberries, I had ginger ale with strawberries.  And nobody was any the wiser.  I'm a sneaky sneak!

Then, the day before my birthday I opened the front door to find this...

Yay!  A package for me!  Who doesn't love packages?!  Opened it up to find my very first baby presents, from none other than my awesome sister!  Loved it all!

Sooooo fun!!!!

That's about it for now.  I have my first prenatal appointment in less than an hour and I am so excited!  Not really sure why, because I have no idea what it will entail, but I am excited nonetheless.  I'll keep ya posted on how it goes!  I'm 6 weeks, 2 days and counting.....