Baby B Details

First off I'd like to say how blessed and grateful we feel after all of the social media congratulations, OMGs, and excitement in general. Thank you all so much, and I look forward to (attempting) to document this pregnancy and beyond.

Let me just start by saying that finding out I was pregnant was nothing like I imagined it would be. I had it in my head that I would have all of these "symptoms" leading up to the day that just told me I was, in fact, with child. Not really the case. If we're being honest, I felt more "symptoms" in the months we didn't conceive - mind games, say what? But alas, here is our story...

The morning my monthly friend was due to arrive also happened to be a day I signed up to donate blood. If you're not up speed on your blood donation rules and regulations, it is strongly frowned upon to donate blood while pregnant. This was a Wednesday. November 7th to be exact. Well, logically I didn't want to test on a weekday. I wasn't worried about finding out I wasn't pregnant - I was worried about finding out that I was and how I would handle it and OMG how would I go into work?! But, in my twisted little mind I rationalized: A) I can't donate blood if I'm pregnant and B) I would feel like a jerk canceling my appointment only to find out I wasn't pregnant. Whatever, it made sense to me at the time.

So I had bought a bunch of cheapo tests off of Amazon because, um, have you seen the price of regular tests at drug stores? Ridiculous. So I took one. I took two. Neither were showing anything until after the window and then comes the question of evap lines. I wasn't convinced. I had no real symptoms outside of normal period symptoms, but for some reason I felt compelled to keep testing. So I dug out an old digital test I had. I was sure it would say "Not Pregnant" - everything I had read told me that digitals are less sensitive than regular dye tests (I was only 3w5d). Also, I discovered it had expired two months prior (surely making it even less likely to show me the results I had hoped for). Well, it blinked. And blinked. And then it told me I was pregnant. I even held it up to the light like you do with the two line tests and squinted to see if the "Not" was hiding somewhere... yeah, I wish I was kidding. But I'm not. And then I started texting my favorite Canadian mama-of-two Lindsay and Googling like crazy. Do I trust this two-month-expired test telling me I'm pregnant? Both Lindsay and Google told me if anything, an expired test would be more likely to give you a false negative before a false positive. I was still hesitant to believe it.

I decided this would be a good time to wake my husband up. "Shawn... I don't want to get too excited because this test is expired... but it's telling me I'm pregnant." He immediately wakes up and starts questioning me. He wasn't convinced either. So I made him asked him politely to drive to the drug store right down the road. Closed. The grocery store was closed also. The next logical thing? Email work to say I'd be an hour late. Check. Get ready for work. Check. Drive to the store myself (make husband wait at home) to buy another digital. IT HAS TO BE A DIGITAL. Except this little mom and pop store doesn't carry digitals. So I bought two different name-brand expensive tests. Thank goodness for self-checkout lanes.

I take two different tests and Shawn and I watch them like a hawk. Two lines. A plus sign. Both were very clear. Insert celebratory hugs and kisses and, "Ummm, we're having a baby!!" - only like two hours after we should have. Better late than never right? Oh, and in case you lost count, I took six tests total (one the next day just to make sure I wasn't dreaming, duh).

If I haven't scared you away with my crazy pregnancy story, congratulations. Now you get to know the fun stuff (at least I consider this the fun stuff).

Due Date?: July 19, 2013
Ultrasounds?: Two (Heartbeats: 163 (8w), 175 (8w4d)). I have congenital heart disease and therefore see a perinatologist - this is why I get more ultrasounds than the average lady!
Little Man or Little Lady?: We find out on February 21 - the day after Shawn's birthday!
Names?: We have some front-runners but will not be deciding on a name 100% until we meet the little one.
How am I feeling?: Good now! I was lucky overall. Sure, I had days where I was so nauseous all.day.long that I wanted to cry, but I was fortunate to never actually toss my cookies. Fatigue wasn't a big symptom for me either - although I did notice on weekends when I was home, relaxing (see: not working) I felt a lot more sick and tired. Besides symptoms? I'm terrified. Constantly worrying about this little one growing inside of me. The first trimester is a real mind-screw because how do you REALLY know what's going on? My anxiety is starting to decrease and my excitement level is starting to rise. I ask that you just pray for this little one... and my sanity :)

Any other questions? Since I'm new to the mom-thing I'm not sure what other things people find interesting.

Again, thank you. Thank you for your well wishes and congratulations. Thank you for starting on this wild, crazy, scary journey with me.