Outta The Bag!

Well, after all my fabulously creative (if I do say so myself) ideas about how to tell my family we're pregnant, it came out last night in a very un-creative way, in a conversation with my mom & Laura. The good news is, no more incessant thinking about how & when to tell them! The bad new is, they may never know how truly fabulously creative I am.

I will just have to make sure to bring up in future conversation, whenever possible, my self-proclaimed creative nature.

We are mailing Bret's parents the "Totten University" onesie I ordered along with the t-shirts we gave his family for Christmas last year. Bret rolled his eyes at me when I told him I'd ordered it (we weren't even trying to get pregnant yet at the time) - but I justified it by saying that even if we couldn't use it, we could give it to someone in his family if they had kids. I mean really - once I saw that they could make a little onesie, how could I NOT order it? It's so darn cute!

We Got The Beat!

...heartbeat, that is. Today we saw the baby's heartbeat and were told by the ultrasound technician that everything looked "very normal" - good news!




So now, ask me how weird it is to see proof that there's a baby inside you but not feel really any different than you usually do. Go ahead, ask me. Well I'll tell you, it's weird. Really weird. I mean really, really, really weird. I know there'll come a time when I feel it kicking, moving, etc - but even then - that's a whole new type of weird. I mean, there's a PERSON inside me. I don't feel like capital letters truly capture what I'm going for here....so let me add punctuation and pauses for emphasis. (ahem) There. Is. A. (pause) PERSON - a whole entire PERSON - living inside my body. That's just weird.

The picture above doesn't look remotely person-like so I will describe what's what: the black oval is the amniotic sac, the white blob inside the sac is Baby T, the black spot inside the white blob is the baby's brain (actually, it's something like the pre-brain or the neural glob or something like that), and then below the black spot is where where we saw the heart beating.

And did I mention that was weird?

Other than continued tummy twinges, a couple slight instances of stomach discomfort (I wouldn't call it nausea really...more like I felt like I'd eaten too much for dinner and my stomach was reacting to that), and being really tired in the afternoons, I feel the same as usual. So, I was really looking forward to today because it confirmed that I really am pregnant (sure, the home pregnancy test said I was, but since I don't feel anything overly wacky, I wanted a professional to tell me I was).

After the ultrasound, I went to the lab and they took five vials of blood (sheesh!) for tests. And even though the gal did a great job & it didn't hurt at all, I have a bruise & blood under the surface of the skin to show for it.

Bret & I are now trying to figure out when/how to tell our families. I'd like to be able to tell everyone together, but there's nothing coming up soon where we're getting together. Bret wants to just casually bring it up in conversation with different family members, whenever we happen to be talking to them. It sure doesn't feel "announcement-y", but I do sort of like the idea of the surprise of dropping it into random conversation somehow (i.e. "hi mom...oh, you're at costco? sure you can call me back - but hey, could you pick up some diapers for us while you're there?") ...that could be fun!

Inauguration

I finally did it! I've been thinking about starting a blog for the longest time, because of all my snazzy friends who have crazy creative blogs...but I just never got around to it. Well, now that we're pregnant, I figured I finally have something more interesting to blog about than just the shenanigans of Bret & I.

What?? That's right, I said pregnant. We found out Saturday night, January 31. I'd taken a pregnancy test on Monday (Jan 26th), the day my period was supposed to start (hmm, do I want to include that much information on this blog? oh what the heck, this is for history's sake, so I shall throw caution to the wind!) ...anyway - the test on the 26th came back mostly negative. I say "mostly" because it looked like a pretty definite negative line in that little window...but then toward the end of the 2 minutes there was this faint vertical line showing up in the background. I asked Bret what he thought - I thought that maybe it was just the background of the test template showing through...Bret shrugged and said I should take another test in a couple days. (hmph! so practical...what about the DRAMA of it all?!? what about the angst of wondering if it's really showing up positive?!? nope, not Bret...just the ever logical voice of reason)

So, fast forward to Saturday, the 31st...still no period...took another pregnancy test and within about 3 seconds a big ol' plus sign shows up in the little window!

Bret's all "I told you! I told you you'd be pregnant within a couple of months!" (I went off the pill just after Thanksgiving...I had bet him I wouldn't be pregnant that fast - after all, they say it takes the average 25 yr old woman 6 months to get pregnant!) And now he's betting I'm having a boy, and that he'll come 2 weeks early. We shall see!

As of today I am 6 weeks along. Due date is 10/6 (at least for now - I haven't actually seen the doctor yet! My first appointment is next Tuesday, and they've set me up for an early ultrasound due to my age & family history of twins - yes, that may sound silly, but when the receptionist was asking me questions and found out I was 34 1/2 (35 is a flag for them) and that my grandmother had a twin pregnancy (though one died in utero), she said that was two "half" answers and that was enough for her to flag me for an early ultrasound. I'm quite in agreement - if it gets me some extra attention from the doc & an early ultrasound, that can only be a good thing!!)