First Doctor's Appointment

Little Baby, you really are in my belly! The doctor confirmed that this morning. On my way to the appointment, I was terrified. What if if I am not pregnant, it was just a fluke thing? What if it's a tubal pregnancy? What if something is wrong? Did I do it?

I went in- updated my insurance form and told them about my name change. Then, peed in a cup. It was nothing glorious and it was strange that I peed into a Dixie cup?!?!? I sat in the waiting room for quite some time. Several other pregnant women walked in...most with other children. So clearly not their first child on the way. Most looked really cute and happy and had that "I'm going to be a mom" glow. My nerves started kicking in as people who came in after me were getting called back before me. Was something wrong? Did they have bad news? Then they called me. Stepped on the scale to see a glorious 128 #s and went into room #3. The first thing the nurse said was Congratulations! Whew- we made it, you are real, and I am not crazy.

Now I know it's early. We are only 7 weeks along, BUT I can't help but be excited and have a feeling that I am not going to lose you. I don't know a mom who says they're going to lose a pregnancy, but just for the record I feel great. I still have cramping and I have to go get my blood drawn for the first time ever tomorrow. Please pray for me : )

Dear Baby B,

Your ETA is March 15th, 2011. That is also Grandma Pat's birthday. Will you please give Daddy and I a heads up that you're ready to come out when you do? Daddy may not be in town and I really need/want him there for your arrival.

Love you,
Mommy

4 weeks or 6 weeks?

Lil baby growing in my belly...why are you so confusing??

Doctors go by the first day of your last period in order to calculate how far along you are. I know that date. I also know that's not when baby B was conceived. Then I read that it goes off that date because, in most women, ovulation occurs two weeks after. They say you get a "two week head start." It frustrates me because that means that I am not 6 weeks prego. I am only 4 weeks prego. I did ovulate two weeks after the first day of my last period and that just so happens to be the week of our honeymoon.

Anyways...I still feel weird. And EXHAUSTED. I go to bed around 9 pm and the alarm goes off at 7 am. Usually, I am easy to get out of bed. Not hitting snooze once. But lately, I just want to lay there. Hit snooze. Maybe fall back asleep. Or just lay...comfy in my covers. I go workout around 8 or 9 am, come home, shower, and when I pass my bed on the way into the bathroom, it takes all I have to not climb back in! I feel lazy, but know that I have something to blame. Something really small growing in my belly...but it's a big thing to my body.

Boobs hurt. Cramps still come and go...I might have pinpointed it on sugar!! Imagine that. My body/baby not liking the intake of sugar. We will see. It's not a substance I typically put in my body, so I know this is something I can get used to. I'm overly emotional, which is hilarious b/c I am an emotional person anyways...imagine normal me...times 15. Ha ha ha. It's great. These hormones are crazy drugs! I feel huge- and everything I read keeps reminding me that it's not baby...not yet. It's just bloated. ie. FAT. Ugh. It's miserable. But I know it's for a good reason. And who cares what those on the street think of me!

First doctors appointment is Tuesday, July 27th. Hopefully that gives us confirmation and good news- if there is such a thing at this point!

Goodnight : )

'Tis the Season

Two weekends ago, Mike and I were down in Phoenix for his Aunt's surprise 50th birthday party. This was the weekend after we took our home pregnancy tests. I figured I'd have better luck finding the book "What to Expect When You Are Expecting" in Phoenix. I checked two Targets and a grocery store, but had no luck. I asked an employee if he had some in the back and he said they can't seem to keep them in stock and I quote, "It must be that time of the year!" I couldn't help but replay that line over and over in my head. Every time I do, I start to wonder why? Maybe because lots of people get married in the spring/early summer and are now expecting...like we are. Are there really that many people in our shoes? Seems strange. But fun. I hope I meet more women who are pregnant.

We spent this past weekend in California. I was DD every night and enjoyed almost every minute of it. My favorite part was waking up feeling like a million bucks while everyone else struggled (sorry Mike and Lauren!). We spent close to or more than 30 hours in 3 days at The Home Depot Center in Carsen, CA for the Crossfit Games. It was INTENSE, fun, nerve racking, and an all around great time. I loved it.

Mike celebrated his 26th birthday on Sunday. He is not a real big birthday guy, so we did exactly what he wanted. Kept it low key and went to dinner. I think I love his birthday more than he does...it's a day to be over the top about him. I wonder if he will become a birthday guy once we have baby B. Will Mike then see the importance of a celebration on this day every year? I hope so. I am thinking he will have to change into a birthday guy b/c what kid doesn't want a b-day party?? And I am so not planning/putting a party together solo- sorry buddy!

And yesterday was our one month anniversary of being married. Four whole weeks have flown by...it seems so strange. Honestly, July 19th was unfathomable for me. Where did June go? I want to go back. I want to relive that day, every weekend until it gets old. Ha ha- I doubt it gets old.

Now we sit and wait. Sometime this week, baby B is 4 weeks old. He/She has begun the attachment to my uterus lining and is about 1/5 of the size of this period . Weird. How does that grow into a baby?? Just for the record, Mike keeps saying I have twins growing....and I repeatedly tell him, he does not want my first pregnancy to be twins. Please! We will get what we get and be extremely happy. BUT I am nervous, scared, and flat out terrified at times of ONE...and I don't want to think about TWO. Since we will NOT be finding out the sex of our child, the good news is if it's twins, I get to find out : ) I will most definitely need to better prepare for two and must know what their sex is if this shall come our way! I read you can hear the heartbeat in as few as five weeks, so maybe we get lucky and get to hear what it next week!

Cheers!

Baby B

So, here it is. The next phase of our life. Coming at us like a line drive back to the pitcher.

We let almost everyone know we wanted a honeymoon baby. It just so happens that's what we got! On the evening of July 8th, Mike and I wonder out to our local grocery store and bought a home pregnancy test. We moseyed on over to Chili's to eat salads we were both in the mood for and headed home for a mellow night in. When we got there, I took the first of two pregnancy tests. Peed on the stick then waited for 3 minutes, which felt like 15! Mike had a gut feeling there was going to be one line (meaning I am indeed not pregnant and, therefore, am crazy). I, on the other hand, had a gut feeling that I couldn't possibly be that crazy and there'd be two pink lines. I won. Test #1 was positive at 9:30 pm on Thursday, July 8th.

We freaked. Looked at each other for a good while and said, "Wow. We did it!" Knowing the MANY complications that can happen when trying to get pregnant and within the first trimester, we were slightly worried it would take us awhile to conceive. Yes, we wanted a honeymoon baby, but we weren't going to be all bent out of shape about it. Not trying, but not NOT trying either. In the midst of our celebrations, hugs, kisses, smiles, and, "Wows" we got an email from our wedding photographer announcing our wedding pictures and slideshow posted. Ironic? Meant to be? We think so!

Friday morning I woke up at 7 am and took another test with that first pee of the day, which is supposedly "the best." After another 3 minutes that didn't seem as long, the test again revealed two pink lines! We are pregnant!!

Now it begins- no alcohol (I will miss my wine), no caffeine (therefore, good coffee), no Advil. I am now on Mike's healthcare, so next up is finding a doctor and getting the official stamp of approval from a professional.

Just FYI- decaf coffee tastes like crap. I do have had some pretty scary lower abdomen cramps. They are extremely painful. We are not 100% this baby will make it the 1st trimester...just like with everyone else's first trimester, but we are being positive and hoping for the best. We also know that what is meant to be will be! I will keep everyone posted via this blog on our little baby B : )

Cheers!

Our Wedding Day

Not sure how or where to begin this post. I am speachless...utterly. And that doesn't happen often. Thousands of things running through my mind. It flew by- super fast, too fast. Did I spend time with everyone? Was everyone happy and having fun? What are the bad things that people are saying about our day? Did I mess up? Were there obvious things that went wrong? Did I hurt anyone's feelings?

Once I put all of that aside, I set myself straight- back to reality. I cannot change anything that happened and I don't think I will ever say I want to. Our day was PERFECT. It was us. Our families and closest friends celebrated our love for seven and a half hours. I am not going to lie or pretend- I AM SAD IT'S OVER : )

The one thing that bothers me the most looking back on the event was we didn't give a 'Thank You' speech. Not pointing blame or calling him out, but I told Mike this was extremely important to me and he told me he had it covered. As most of us saw, he got stage fright and I had to step in. At that point, I was livid at him b/c I had NOTHING prepared...b/c he told me he had it taken care of. I rushed through the names and faces of people I saw...probably leaving important people out. I was a mess...from being an hour late to our rehearsal b/c of traffic, then the storm that hit, to traffic to dinner, and thinking I was going to be late again...I was completely 100% unprepared to have Mike throw that on me. Oh well. I told myself I'd make up for it on Saturday and we totally forgot. I had a list of things to say and it sat on the table all night : /

After hours of frustration at the both of us and tears shed b/c I felt I came off as ungrateful, I thought I could use my blog.

I know the wedding was 'destination' for most people. I know it was pricey with flights, hotel rooms, food, and transportation. But I am forever grateful for every single person that attended my special day. I don't even know the exact number in attendance...somewhere around 120. Each and every one of you created our day...your presence was a gift to us in itself. We are beyond extremely lucky.

So, to those 120 folks at The Sears Tower on 6/19/10:

Thank you, thank you, thank you for attending our wedding. I wish I had more time and more fun on the dance floor, but all good events come to an end. It meant more than you will ever know to have your face present. I hope each of you had fun, enjoyed a couple cocktails or wine, and had a full belly. I hope you saw the sunset and caught up/met with other people there. I hope you got the chance to look out the window and see the beautiful city of Chicago. I hope you got to spend at least a couple minutes with me and maybe got a picture too. If you didn't, I am sorry. Terribly sorry. Time seemed to fly by and before I knew it people were leaving and we did our paper airplane exit. I also hope to see all of you within the next year!

Love,
Heather

Is It Really Over?

This might be my longest post yet...but I will try to break it up the best I can.

The week before the wedding FLEW by! I woke up every morning promptly at 6:30- without an alarm. There was so much on my mind, there was no way I could sleep in. Mike was typically up with me or shortly after...helping me out. We went to CrossFit Tri Cities on Monday and had every intention of going a couple more times that week, but we failed on that mission. I did run every day- not just to keep my shape for the dress, but as an amazing stress reliever! It was intense with the humidity- we were drenched with sweat : ) We attended the Cubs game on that Tuesday...yes, the night game that was delayed for 2 hours or something because of the rain...KILL ME. A literally soaking wet Bride-to-be is not a happy thing. We were in the empty bleachers with ponchos. Ugh. After the game, the Chicago Blackhawks brought out the Stanley Cup...that was really cool. However, I was on Mike's shoulders and dropped my camera...nice.

Wednesday we, or I should say Mike, Doug, and Matt, picked Caitlin up from the airport while I organized everything to be brought to The Met Club. She got to eat a Chicago style, Portillo's hotdog- YUMMY! And we were off to the city for the day. First stop, the W for a spa appointment. Then to Doug's hotel to drop off his backpack. Third stop was The Sears Tower, to The Met Club to drop off our not so small load of wedding crap. Fourth and final stop was my Dad's hotel to get ready for dinner out with him and Jenny. We arrived on time to Trattoria No. 11 (I believe that was the name) for a FABULOUS, relaxing, fun dinner. Caitlin and Matt got to hang out and chat it up with us.



Thursday was nothing short of a BLAST!! We had our family, our whole wedding party and their significant others/family attend a Cubs game at Wrigley. It was outstanding to have everyone there altogether and the Cubs owon on a walk off!! I made Mike and I Cubs Bride and Groom t-shirts. Mike's mom sewed a veil onto my favorite Cubs hat...it was a hit! We also made signs for just about everyone in attendance with the role in the wedding. ie. Mother of the Bride, Father of the Groom, Bridesmaid, Maid of Honor, Best Man, Groomsman, and Ring Bearer! It was awesome. However, I do not believe we made it on tv. Oh well...stupid announcers/tv crew.



Friday was an event all in itself. The day started off with my dog-in-law Koty almost dying. He inhaled the bag of dog food too quickly, as he was not supposed to have gotten into it in the first place, and started throwing it back up. And in the process chocked, rolled onto his side, legs stiff, eyes rolling back in his head, and had to be resuscitated by my brother-in-law, Ron. I witnessed the whole thing, ran into the garage telling my sister-in-law, Kim, what happened shaking uncontrollably. It was really intense and scary. Thus, we were late for our nail appointment and because of traffic, I was an hour late to our rehearsal : ) Typical if I do say so myself! as the rehearsal is wrapping up a HUGE storm rolls in. We are on the 66th floor of The Sears Tower, so we have a great view of this monster. However, once it hit we no longer wanted the good view...the building was swaying TERRIBLY...it was extremely noticeable when people couldn't walk straight. We all made it safely down to the bottom floor- whew! (Turns out they later shut down the elevators and people had to walk down from the 105th floor- ugh!) Upon our arrival at the bottom there were several fire trucks and firemen not allowing us to exit. We were then informed that windows were bursting upstairs, therefore making it unsafe for us to leave the building. There was glass everywhere!! After a short while, we were released and then battled the terrible traffic again to our dinner. We were actually on time for that- Thank you, Mag for driving. Mike was late as there were road closures for fires and flooding. It turned out to be a fabulous dinner- everyone a little shaken by the whole ordeal and starving from waiting in traffic for hours : )



Friday night, most of my girls stayed with me at Kim's house. We had French Kiss martinis and dessert- yummmm! I couldn't sit still for too long remembering all that I had to do, but got to relax with some of my closest friends and new family! I got a good nights rest and woke up ready for the big day : )

I get the shakes just thinking about it, but will save that post for later. It's 4th of July weekend and we are headed to the pool.

Cheers! And Happy 4th of July to everyone!!