long update

October 4, 2010

So it’s been awhile since I last wrote. And, A LOT has happened since then. I’ll try to recap everything starting back to Labor Day weekend when we told my family.

We headed out to Denver, CO for a weekend full of fun with the Davis clan. Everybody except for my brother in law Clint would be there so we knew it’d be a great chance to tell them in person.

Rewind a few days – I called my sister Jacinda before we went to Denver because I just couldn’t keep the news to myself any longer. She was soooo excited for us and went on and on about how she wants to see and babysit the baby all the time. It was fun to talk to her about the things that have been going on with my body and the excitement of a baby!

Ok, back to Colorado. So I had come up with a few clever ideas to break the news. Idea #1: I would make these little “flash cards” that would each contain a different letter that would spell out the phrase “Guess Who Is Pregnant?” I would tell my family that Jimmy and I had played a fun game at a friend’s house a while back and that we wanted to play it with everyone there. I would then pass out all the letters and the family would have to work together to figure out the phrase. Fun, huh?

Idea #2: Jimmy and I had a celebration dinner and shopping trip to Branson, and at the outlets he got me a Coach diaper bag and some other little baby clothes (they were super on sale so I just had to)! So, we thought I could bring along my new “bag” and just nonchalantly ask everyone if they liked my new purse. Since my whole family knows how much I love Coach they wouldn’t suspect anything out of the ordinary in pointing out my new bag. I would then proceed to tell them all that I wasn’t allowed to get another Coach purse for a while but Jimmy had long ago promised me that once I got pregnant he would get my a Coach diaper bag…..another pretty clever idea, right?

Well – when we got to my sisters my parents and Jacinda were already there and I was just too excited. It took about 5 minutes for me to blurt out something silly about my new purse and to say I was pregnant. Everyone just kinda stood and looked at me for a minute my mom saying “Are you serious?” while tearing up and that was that. The news was shared!

So, while it wasn’t some earth shattering creative idea the beans were spilled.

My brother and sister-in-law didn’t arrive for a few hours later and by that time I had calmed down a bit. So, we hungout for a bit, the kiddos played and the adults sat around and chatted. I knew Kristle (my sister in law) would be soooo happy because she’s been asking me since the day we got married when we were going to have kids, so I was super excited to tell her too. The news just kinda came out while we were all sitting around and the reaction was as I suspected. Kristle started crying and screaming, the kids looked around all confused as to what was going on, and hugs were shared, again. So much fun – isn’t it?

Something that makes this pregnancy a little more exciting for my family is that my older sister Kirsten is also pregnant. They are expecting baby boy #2 in January so it’s been fun to swap stories and experience this with her, even though she’s been through it all before so is one up on meJ

So onto telling the Grovers and friends.

As I mentioned earlier we weren’t able to tell the Grovers for a few more weeks since we wanted to tell them in person. We were heading back to IA the weekend of the 19^th for a friend’s wedding reception and we knew we’d break the news to them there. I was a lot more unsure of how Jimmy’s family would react. While I knew they would all be excited for us I also know this is unthreaded water for them. While our families are so similar there are a lot of differences too. Jimmy and I are both 1 of 4 children, we were raised on the same values of faith and love, our parents have been married and great examples to us for 25+ years. However, while I was the last to get married in my family Jimmy was the first. Which means, while I will be giving my parents their 5^th grandchild, Jimmy will be giving his parents their 1^st. Which is truly great and I’m so happy we can bless them with that miracle for the first time! But, it makes the news a bit different because I knew they may be more surprised than my family and perhaps unprepared for the news!

Anyways, we arrived late to the house, around 10pm or so. I, of course, was so anxious for Jimmy to just blurt it out (like I did) but he was much more calm and collected. My mother and sisters in law were there, but his dad was still in the field and we knew we wouldn’t see his brother until the next day sometime. So, it made sense that Jimmy would wait until his dad came home from the farm. However, his dad is infamous for falling asleep quickly once sitting down, especially after a LONG day of hard work. So, I knew if Jimmy didn’t tell them shortly after he got there it wouldn’t work. So what does Jimmy do? Wait, of course. Sure enough Jim falls asleep and soon everyone is talking about going to bed. I give Jimmy the friendly elbow a time or two during this time trying to push him along into sharing the news. Well, it didn’t work. Jalissa was going to head out for the night and his other sister, Jena, was giving her a ride so they were leaving. Finally Jimmy’s dad and mom came into the living room (mind you it’s about 1:30am at this point) before heading to bed and Jimmy popped the news! I think he just came out and said it and they were excited! His mom screamed a little bit and his dad was all smiles from ear to ear! Jena walked in just a few minutes after we shared the news so we told her as well. She said she knew it was coming based on the body language and our interactions throughout the nightJ The news for Jalissa and Josh came the next day, after the friends reception we were back at the Grovers just hanging out and Jimmy shared the news then. We had made our bets on who would be most excited and it came down to my mom, Kristle, or Jalissa. Jalissa has also been anxiously awaiting a little niece or nephew since the day we got married! Jalissa’s reaction was priceless “Really, really guys! Oh that’s so exciting” accompanied with several tears.

So that was that. Our families now all knew! We also decided to tell just a few friends and grandparents between now and 12 weeks. At 12 weeks I plan to send an email out to other close friends and make the announcement official via facebookJ

So that weekend we were home I was able to tell both my grandparents and my aunt Angie and uncle Randy. We didn’t get a chance to see Jimmy’s grandparents so that’d have to wait for the phone.

Since then we have told his aunts and uncles, my aunts and uncles, his grandparents, and I’ve told a few of my friends.

It’s so so exciting to share news like this with those you love. Every person’s reaction is different and that’s part of the fun. Some of my friends have children of their own, others have or are struggling with infertility, and some are a long ways away from the chapter of pregnancy. Some you think would have been more excited for you surprise you with not having much a response, while others you thought may not have a huge reaction are so thrilled you can hear the excitement and tears in their voice! Regardless of the experiences and pasts that have shaped them into who they are today you just think, or hope, that they will be happy for you and I guess sometimes it’s painful to see those true friends not resemble that happiness, or articulate the feelings/pain they may be feeling due to some of their own experiences.

Anyways. So here we are today - the news is shared, some clothes are bought, we are more adjusted to the idea of a child being in our life than we were 5 weeks ago, our first ultrasound is complete, and I’m 10 weeks pregnant.

I continue to feel great, for the most part. My allergies continue to be a daily battle – some days they are mild and others I want to pull my eyes out they itch so bad and put a clothespin on my nose to stop it from running. I’ve had relatively no signs of morning sickness which I continue to be thankful for. I do get a little bit of a stomach ache at night after I take my prenatal vitamin but nothing too bad. I have started to experience some back pain and headaches which I plan to ask my doctor about at my next visit, which is this Friday. I’m wondering if the back pain may mean I need a bigger bra – these suckers are growing fast!

Since my last writing we have met my doctor and both really like her. I look forward to continuing to get to know her better and feel more comfortable with her and her nurse. Although I must say her nurse didn’t strike my fancy too well when I wore high heels to my last appointment and she told me I needed to wear more sensible shoes…..whateverJ

Other than that we had an ultrasound to determine a definite due date and better determine how far along I am. At that time they said I was 6 weeks and 1 day pregnant and that our due date is May 5, 2011. We saw the little heart flicker which was so amazing and the heart was beating at 114 bpm.

I have had 2 distinct dreams that it is a boy and that he looks identical to JimmyJ We will see if that rings true. We will have a full ultrasound at 18 weeks which will show us the gender too. This appointment should fall just after Thanksgiving and I can’t wait! I have been buying clothes for each gender (on sale, of course) but am excited to know which set of clothes we will need first.

Well – this has turned out to be a rather lengthy post but I wanted to bring everything up to speed since I last wrote.