Part 2

Tim and I had an awesome time in Austin that weekend, just soaking up the news. On our way back to Dallas, I called and scheduled an appointment with my doctor for Tuesday afternoon. I was dying to tell my family, but Tim and I decided to wait until after I had been to the doctor. The night we got into town, my whole family went out to celebrate my birthday at Maggiano’s. I really thought I gave it away when I turned down wine, but I covered it by saying I was just being overly cautious! Whew! I knew I couldn't keep this from my mom for very long.

The next day at school went by fast as I was counting down the time till I could go to the doctor. I was very excited about going, but also a nervous wreck. I had been told that I would be seeing Caroline, instead of my doctor, and I had no idea what they would do at this appointment. When she called me back, she checked my weight and my blood pressure. Because of my anxiety, my blood pressure was sky high! I told her I was nervous, so she took it again. Since it was still high, she decided that we would continue on with the appointment and come back to check my blood pressure at the end. It turned out that there was no exam as I had thought. The two of us just sat in a conference room and she explained how my appointments would work, when my due date was, how billing worked, etc. I was SO excited to hear that my due date was Saturday, October 23rd, my mom’s birthday! Then she had my blood drawn by the lab. At the end of all of this, I was feeling calm and relaxed. We went back to check my blood pressure and it was still so high for me…147 over 90! Caroline went to talk to my doctor and they decided, just as a precaution, to have me collect my urine for 24 hours, so they could make sure that I didn’t have Pregnancy Induced Hypertension. I was so annoyed because I knew it was just my nerves! I did it anyway, and didn’t get any bad news back. My next appointment was scheduled for Tuesday, March 16th when I would get my first sonogram. I couldn’t wait!

That evening, Tim and I decided to share our wonderful news with our families. The Kerbys had been emailing us about possible vacations this year, so we decided to send them an email suggesting that they save their vacation days for late October when we would be taking time off from work. We attached the pregnancy test picture and as soon as we hit “Send” we hopped in the car to drive to my mom’s. I had already told my mom that I wanted to come by to share some of my birthday cupcakes with her and Nana and I told her I had a little Valentine’s Day gift for her. Months ago I found a gift that I thought would be the perfect way to surprise my mom when I got pregnant. It was a hand painted wine glass that was decorated in pink and blue baby stuff and said, “Grandma’s Sippy Cup” on it! My mom loves these hand painted wine glasses and I knew she would love this! As soon as she opened it, she screamed and about scared Nana to death! They were both SO excited for us and about that time, Karin called and the Kerbys were thrilled too! Tim and I were on cloud nine! I, of course, was dying to share the news with good friends, but Tim was pretty adamant that we should wait a while longer, at least until our sonogram. I am excellent at keeping others’ secrets, but keeping this one was extremely difficult!!

I felt great in the beginning of the pregnancy, but by week 6, I started feeling extremely tired and nauseous. The nausea lasted all day and nothing I ate seemed to settle well. I also felt extremely bloated and had horrible acid reflux. The only good thing from all of this was that I knew it was because I was pregnant and that these were good signs. At work it seemed like every lunch conversation had something to do with pregnancy and it was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. I felt like I hardly contributed to conversation for a while for fear that I would leak the news. At the end of the seventh week, Tim agreed that I could tell my team. I was feeling awful and I felt that they could give me support, even if just moral support, while I was at work. They screamed they were so excited! It is so fun sharing this news!

On Sunday, March 14th we decided to share the news with our small group, mainly because I wanted prayers for the sonogram that was in 2 days. We waited until prayer requests and after all had been mentioned, Tim said that he would like to ask them to pray for us since we had a doctor’s appointment in 2 days where we would get to see our baby’s heartbeat for the first time ever. They were stunned and immediately so excited for us. They all knew how badly we wanted this.