Soon to be a Simpson.....: April 2013

Monday, April 29, 2013

The Belly Book

The Belly Book

If you have never heard of it-check it out! If you are newly pregnant or know someone early in their pregnancy buy it as a gift. I absolutely love this book and am thoroughly enjoying filling it out week by week. I first learned about this book way back in 2008 when Erin was pregnant with Jake. Mary Koester gave it to her as a gift. Erin enjoyed the book so much when she became pregnant with Cole she bought one for herself. When Meghan became pregnant with Roxy last year she received the book from Erin. When my friends Allie & Lindsay became pregnant I gifted the book to both of them. I honestly planned to pick one up for myself when I knew for sure I was pregnant but Allie gifted to me first. My love language is totally gifts so I really enjoy giving any gift to anyone. I know sometimes this drives Rhett bonkers because he thinks I spend too much $ but he just has to deal with it! Anyway back to the book. Each week their is a place for a weekly belly picture and an area to write notes. Certain weeks include questions with different answers to choose from. It is just too cute and a great way to journal about pregnancy. I won't torture you with weekly pictures of my stomach but I think from now on I will refer to whatever belly week I am talking about.

Let's call this Belly Week 5

If you go by my lmp I hit the week mark on Thursdays but from my "dating" us I measured at the week mark on Tuesday. I just go with the latter so every Tue I look foward to when I can mark off another week closer to my due date. Lots of exciting things happened in week 5. I had my 1st drs. appointment at Dr. Hucker's office in Belleville. Rhett went along with me. I got blood drawn (for the 1st time in my life) & had my pregnancy confirmed. I told the girl drawing my blood to be prepared bc I might cry. I think she thought I was crazy! I have no pain tolerance and am a big baby so I really wasn't joking. It wasn't that bad though and I did just fine. We told my Mom our exciting news. I tricked her into coming over to our house for some silly reason. It was a moment I will never forget because it was so sweet. I framed a picture of the dogs with the signs and gave it to her. She right away began crying and gave both Rhett & I hugs. The only thing that could have made it better was if we had caught it on videotape. If you know my mother well then you know she has been waiting for this day for a LONG time!! She is so excited!! We are so blessed that she will be our child's full time babysitter when I go back to work after he/she is born. I also told my sister that soon she will be an auntie for the first time. I gave her a birthday card revealing the news. She yelled very loudly and then continued yelling and smiling. I think she was very surprised. Just 4 days earlier she had razzed me about being pregnant when we were eating at Red Robin for her birthday celebration. Of course it was in front of like 10 other people so I just laughed and denied all. Rhett & I swore both my mom & sister to secrecy. We just were not quite ready for everyone to know yet. Happy to say they both did an awesome job and didn't publicly spill the beans. I know Jme did tell her boyfriend & best friend but they kept quiet as well. Thank you Thank you!! At this point I was still able to eat anything. No issues with feeling sick to my stomach. In the belly book a question reads "My philosophy when it comes to cravings" Choices are mind over matter vs give the belly what it wants. I picked mind over matter (on most days) Some early early cravings were fish and soda. I don't drink soda on a regular basis either so that was totally abnormal.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Our little M-N-M

Tuesday Feb 19th-The day I took the last pregnancy test I felt it was time to call the drs. office and make an appointment. I typically go to Skelly and she does not deliver babies so they referred me to Dr. Hucker in Belleville. This is who I planned to call anyway because Erin, Meghan, & Tracey have all gone to him in the past. I had heard many stories from the girls about this dr-he has a dry personality, he might make you cry, he tells it like it is, don't whine to him, he has big hands.....But everyone also says he is a great dr and if a problem arises he does great. Plus as long as all goes well Sylvia the midwife delivers your baby. I told my boss immediately about my news because he needed to get an extra dosimeter badge for me to wear. We xray people have to always wear a badge at our neckline when we work to track if we get any radiation to our body. When being pregnant baby gets its own badge that is worn at the belly level. This is 1 reason it was impossible to keep this secret at work. At one point our student (Ms. Kelsie) saw my badge in the box one day I was not working. I purposely did not want her to know because she works at the convent and sees my family at church ALL the time! She did good keeping it in though. Received first gift from Allie- books to borrow, rattle, and oil to help with stretchmarks. I done already have stretchmarks everywhere from losing & gaining weight multiple times so I could really care less if I get more. I have been trying to be faithful about using oil though and maybe it will make a bit of a difference. I also started prenatal vitamins on this day. I was already dreaming up fun ways to reveal the news to our family.

Wednesday Feb 20th-Went to the eye dr and while filling out paperwork had to tell them I was pregnant. My blood pressure was good which made me very happy. It very often used to be on the higher side but since I started working out has improved. Already my appetite was changing so early on. At almost 4 weeks I was hungry ALL the time and more tired than normal. I still felt great no morning sickness and was eating lots of small healthy meals. One of my co-workers randomly asked if I was pregnant on this day. I flat out totally lied to her face and said nope. Can not believe I was actually able to do that without busting out into laughter. Since only Allie, Josh, & Darla knew our news so I was trying to keep it that way for a little while. These are all people I see multiple times on a weekly basis. My plan was to wait untill 6 weeks to tell everyone else at work in my department. Took my first side belly pic today!!

Thursday Feb 21st-So much for waiting till 6 weeks. My big mouth blabbed to Angie (same person I fibbed to previous day), Julie, Vickie, & Sarah at work. They were all very excited! I think Angie was most excited she gave me big hugs and said she just had a sense. Thank you ladies all for keeping our secret for so long. It really does mean so much to Rhett & I. This day was a yucky one weatherwise. It was icy, snowy, & sleeting. Driving to work was not fun.

Friday Feb 22nd- Worked out with Darla and was so exhausted. The child was already draining all my energy! Rhett & I took Ammo & Dakota to the vet for annual check-ups. Big milestone -- Rhett referred to baby as an M-N-M. He just couldn't believe that baby could affect my sleeping & eating patterns already. Believe it Daddy!!!! Men really don't have any clue what is going on in our bodies.

What a week!!!! So much was changing and happening already. I am so glad I kept my little journal writing all this down because their is no way I would remember all this writing it now. So NO I do not have a super awesome memory. All these little details were written down in a notebook/belly book.

*More on the belly book next time*

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

2 Lines=Exciting News

Let's just start at the beginning many weeks ago on February 15, 2013. I was at home packing bags for our annual trip to the hollidome in Collinsville. Every year Rhett's parents treat us to a weekend of staying at a hotel to enjoy swimming & hanging out with the family. The kids just love it and run around like crazy people. On Saturday night we had plans with our friends Allie & Brandon to attend PBR (professional bull riding) in St. Louis. I knew the guys would probably want to drink a few beers so I decided to take a pregnancy test just in case. I expected it to be a total negative like a few other previous tests in past months. Surprise Surprise...the 2nd line was so faint but it was definately there. I wasn't sure what to think. I was excited but also a little hesitant. On that particular day I was only 3 weeks 2 days pregnant. So so early! While driving to Collinsville that evening Rhett mentioned he wanted to get some malibu to make a few mixed drinks. We hardly EVER drink but remember we recently came back from Hawaii so he was still on a kick from that. As we walked into Qdoba to grab supper I vaguely made a comment that I couldn't drink any malibu bc I was pregnant. His response, "Oh no you are not." That was kinda it on that subject! When we got to the hotel I had to use the restroom so I rushed that way. When I came out all our family that was sitting around started teasing me & asking if I had to throw up bc of being pregnant. I just laughed and said no way I had to pee from drinking a cup of tea. Haha looking back now that comment is pretty funny! Before telling our families it was actually easy to brush off any teasing or comments made with out admitting the truth. Since we have been together for such a long time I am used to the jokes. On Saturday evening The Lingle's picked us up at the hotel and we headed to Ponderosa for supper. I honestly do not care for that place very much but Rhett LOVES it. I always eat way to much bc it is a buffet. I debated saying anything to Allie about the test I took. My excitement won out and literally while standing in the buffet line getting our salads-I whispered my news to her. She was very excited and happy! Her sweet Avrie was born in September last year. She is one of my closest friends & I just had to tell someone right away. Plus we work together and working in the xray department it is difficult keeping a secret like this. On Sunday driving home from Collinsville we stopped at Target and I picked up a few more pregnancy tests. The second I got home took it and it was positive. The 2nd line was a bit darker than the original test. Later in the day I took 3rd test (different type) and it said NO on it. What in the heck.....Now I was a little confused for sure. Next day Monday Feb 18th drove to RB early am just to buy more tests from ALCO. I was going absolutely nuts not knowing for sure if I really was pregnant. Took 4th test and it was positive. I felt pretty confident that I now knew the truth. On Mondays I work out so that evening I immediately told Darla (my personal trainer) the news. I felt it was important she knew because of what we do together. She was ecstatic. I was nervous but excited for Rhett to get home from work to tell him about all my positive tests. At this point I really had not mentioned any more since the Fri night conversation. I made a note that said "Welcome Home Daddy" and placed it on the counter next to a piggy bank I bought a while back. Not sure what he was really thinking at that moment but he did smile really big when he saw it. My plan was to take another test in about a week just to be absolutely sure. Of course I couldn't wait that long so the next day on Tuesday I took 5th and final one. POSITIVE!!!!! Holy Moly!

Friday, April 19, 2013

Happy Days!

Well it has been over 1 month since I have posted anything. That means a whole lot to catch up on. I have been so busy sleeping and puking that I haven't had time to blog. Just kidding no puking has been going on but I am happy to announce that I am seriously & officially pregnant!! For several weeks I was sick to my stomach a lot but haven't thrown up once & I am proud of that! First of all let me make it clear that this child is most definitely a souvenir of our honeymoon to Hawaii. Thank You Hawaii!!! I think all the people praying on our behalf might have helped just a bit as well. Jokingly before we left on our trip I told close friends/family I would be ovulating while in Hawaii so to pray for a baby. Little did we know that it would really happen. I am almost 13 weeks along. My due date is October 30th 2013. Rhett has already informed me that I need to pop this babe out by Nov 1st bc that is his prime time deer hunting day. Let's hope I go a whole week early or a whole week late or I might never hear the end of it. I hate to break it to him but he/she will be arriving on their own schedule not the big buck down schedule. In all seriousness though wouldn't it be sweet to bring the baby home from the hospital in a little Halloween costume. Let's play a little numbers game for a minute. This will be the 1st grandchild for my parents. #13 for Rhett's parents. It will also be the tie breaker for boys vs girls. Right now we have 6 nieces/ 6 nephews. The 35th great grandchild for Rhett's Grandma Jefferson. I think it will be #8 or 9 great grandchild for my Grandma Shinabargar. One day Rhett commented, "What in the world are we going to do with 3 dogs and a baby???" I think my response was, "Well we will just do it." We are not going to know any different so in my opinion we make it work. I know a lot will change but never the fact that I love my dogs. Just because we have a child on the way doesn't mean the dogs get the boot either. I am sure it will make things pretty interesting but it will all be just fine. You may have already known our exciting news but if not now you do. I am ready to share all the fun, icky, sweet, happy, emotional details of this Momma's pregnancy journey.