Oh.

So I'm not 7 weeks along like I've been saying. I'm only 6 weeks along. Evidently, since I'm in my 7th week, that means I'm 6 weeks. Kind of like Sophie is still 1 even though she's in her 2nd year. Make sense? Yeah, so that was a disappointment. Pooh. So I'll be 8 weeks along at my dr. appt., not 9, like I'd thought. Anyway, just wanted to clear that up in case I'd led anyone astray!

I looked for one of those counter things to put on my blog, that would count down the days to birth, but I couldn't find one I liked. I'll keep looking, and then sometime soon it'll be up and you and I will both be able to figure out how far along I am!

Other people we've told

Besides the family and Leanna, we've now told Holly and the Sapps. Holly was ecstatic and very indignant that we'd waited SO LONG to tell her, which was exactly how I knew she'd react. I love that girl. Ten minutes after we left her house, her mom called, ALSO ecstatic! I feel like we're part of the family! Holly and I have started walking together in the afternoons, so I'm looking forward to today's walk so we can talk all about baby stuff! Sophie is almost 2 now, and Holly has been a very practical mom, so she's a very good resource about diapers, what a baby really needs, etc. Of course, she's cursed me with twins (usually whenever I'm laughing at Sophie disobeying), so we'll see if that comes true or not! How crazy would that be!

The Sapps are family friends of the Norvells, and Raymond Sapp is the musician extraordinaire in the bluegrass band I'm in. So, I wanted to tell him so I could give a good amount of notice before I left the band. We've got a potential/probable gig in June, and that will be my last. I've learned and improved so much since we started getting together, so I'll miss all the practice, but I stay pretty overcommitted most of the time, and I just can't keep that up when I'm trying to make a baby! So, I'll start to cut down on things.

Oh, and I also told Greta, who I'm pretty sure called me to "announce" about ten minutes after she took the pregnancy test, so it was fun to tell her. She's about 7 weeks ahead of me, so she's my pregnant friend to discuss preparation and nursery and all that with. She also lives in Lubbock, so no fear of telling anyone else.

HOWEVER, Jon keeps hounding me about spilling the beans to everyone! Gosh.... (Napoleon Dynamite-style) We're having our next church planting meeting on April 5th, so we'll probably need to tell those people, since this greatly affects our decisions (it doesn't change the fact that we're doing it, just maybe the logistics of things). So, if Jon convinces me that we need to tell them, then we'll probably tell everyone around that time.

It's so fun to tell everyone! Hooray!!

My grandmothers' reaction...

So, I finally called my grandmothers, Granny Norvell and Mawmaw Dailey, today. They were both very excited, I could tell even though neither of them screams or jumps up and down like a few people we've told! For each of them, this baby will be their first great-grandchild, and they both really seemed to like the idea. Mawmaw Dailey even offered to help pay for it all, which I of course politely turned down. You have to know her to understand how funny that is!

I'm excited, too!!!

Still Pregnant

So it's a little weird to not go to the dr. yet. Since I still don't have a lot of signs of pregnancy, it just hasn't seemed very real. A sonogram would be really nice! But, by the time we get one, little Newbie will be more developed and that will be cool.

I'm very thirsty, so I drink lots of water (which is good, because I'm supposed to). I have to go to the bathroom a lot, probably due to all the water I'm drinking more than anything else. I occasionally feel pains in my abdomen, and I have a gag feeling at the back of my throat really often.

See? No doubt I'm pregnant. Right? :)

A little weird, but documented

I've always loved to play dress up. There are pictures of me in some pretty crazy things throughout the years: clown costume, nurse's uniform, my dad's shoes while I pretended to mop the piano bench..... Yeah.... Let's focus on that last image and just realize how weird I am.

So, imagine the temptation to dress up when my mom gave me some beautiful maternity clothes! So beautiful! Apparently the "Motherhood" store was having a huge sale, so my mom picked out some things for me to go to work and church in. I love them all! And of course I had to try them on. But, really, it's kind of hard to figure out the fit when I'm not really showing. At all.

Sooooo......


Thanks Momma! When my belly's the size of the green pillow, it will all fit perfectly!

Our first appointment

So I made the appointment. I chose Dr. Compassion, though because of scheduling differences, ended up with someone completely different, but whom I believe will also be compassionate. This doctor accepts new patients when they're 8-10 weeks along, so I'm going in on April 14th, at 8 weeks. I was expecting a 6 week appointment (next week), so having to wait until April was a little disappointing, but I have a feeling the weeks will go by very quickly!

The Grandparents got it out of us!

So Grandpa called today just to chat. Then I talked with Grandma for a bit, and she started talking about the things she was working on for her great grandkids for Christmas. It just seemed so perfect, I couldn't resist telling her, "You'll have another great grandkid at Christmas!!" She really just pulled it out of me! Gotta watch out for those grandmothers!

So then I called my Mawmaw, who said she'd expected "the announcement" would be coming soon, so she wasn't surprised in the least. Both grandmothers hoped for a girl.

We'll be telling Jon's grandparents soon as well.

As for everyone else, I still don't know when we'll tell them. Jon doesn't think we'll be able to keep the secret very long. I'd still like to hold off a little. I know I'd originally said we'd tell those we'd also tell if there's a miscarriage, but as I explained to my mom today, telling people makes it so much more real, and the loss so much worse if we were to miscarry. So, the longer we wait, the better chances our baby has, and that happier we'll be when we let people know.

Since the announcement

It's so hard not to tell everyone!! Leanna called me, she may even be coming over today, and I'm not sure I'll be able to hold it in! I may tell her. After all, I don't get to see her all that often, so I should tell her when I get the chance, right? And Margie comes over almost every day for Pilates, and Holly's just next door....all I'm thinking about is being pregnant, and I can't tell them!

Of course, this is self-inflicted torture, because Jon and I chose to wait until after our first appointment to tell grandparents and best friends. Still...

Speaking of appointments, I called a doctor yesterday to make an appointment. There's a group of 3 doctors, and I really wanted one (and really didn't want another), but because of scheduling difficulties, ended up with the one I didn't want. She's known to be pretty blunt and all business, taking more precautions than most doctors, and I wanted someone a little more laid back. So I'm trying to decide if I should call one more doctor today. Only this doctor, I have no idea about, just reviews online, which are of course too varied to tell. The differences between the two, based on reviews (and my friend's experience with the first):

Doctor A: All business. If you have questions, you better ask quick, because she won't wait around for you to come up with them. It's her way or the highway, and my friend said she explained things like a man, so her husband really liked her. She's always on time and very professional.

Doctor B: All bedside manner. She'll chew the fat with you until you're exchanging friendship bracelets. One reviewer also said she'd go the extra mile to do research on your particular symptoms, etc, which piqued my interest because of my vulvar vestibulitis, which many doctors don't know about, and even fewer really know how to treat. Because of her friendliness, the wait time for appointments is very long.

So, a task master or a friend...I think the friend appeals to me much more, but I may need someone not as much like me, a taskmaster to keep me in line. I don't know....

On to another topic, I don't have any pregnancy signs yet. No nausea or cravings. I haven't been very hungry, though, and have lost a pound and a half. SO...I guess I'll be finishing my plate no matter what! I'm not a pregnancy expert, but I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to LOSE weight!

How we told everyone

Dave & Karen: Our first to tell! We got on speakerphone to talk with them. Karen was saying how she was so sorry about the kittens, and I said something like, "Yeah, I don't know how we're going to get over it." Then Jon said, "Well, we actually have one thing that might help...." We paused to let that sink in, and the next thing was Karen screaming, "NO WAY!!" Then we all started screaming, and because it was on speakerphone, we had no idea what we all said, but it was evident we were all excited. :) We hung up from talking with them, and then they surprised us by showing up at our door about an hour later! We chit-chatted for awhile, then grabbed ice cream and celebrated!

Walter & Mary: They were out of pocket almost the whole day. Finally, right before Dave & Karen came over, they returned our call. Jon's message had been something like, "Call us. Today. Please." (Not obvious at all.) Then when they called, Jon asked if they could get on speaker (again I'm thinking they're sure to guess). Their phone doesn't have speakerphone, so they must have just put both their ears to the phone. Jon said, "So we have something to tell you." There's a pause, and Mary said, "What?" (Like she kind of had a guess.) I said, "Well, you're going to be coming here this Christmas." Mary: "Is there a reason?" I said, "Cuz we ain't travelin' with a baby!" Walter's first response was, "Are you kidding us?" but we reassured them that no, we were really pregnant! We didn't talk long because Dave & Karen came at that point, and Walter was crying too much to talk anyway.

Alan & Carolyn, John & Karen: Since we were going to see them today for birthday celebration, we could plan a little bit more. I made a little shirt for Ian that said, "I'm the cousin." It's a shirt that will be big enough for him to wear in November. I stuck it in a gift bag and explained with something like, "Oh, and we got something for Ian because it was just too cute to pass up!" It was lunchtime when we got to John & Karen's, but I didn't want to eat until we'd announced! I begged everyone to do gifts first (which is not abnormal for me), and was relieved when we did. If we hadn't, it might have been announced like, "PasstheketchupWE'REPREGNANT!" Anyway, we all opened gifts, and I gave Ian's gift to John to open last. As he pulled out the shirt, his first words were, "This is huge!" Then he glanced over the words and flipped it around for everyone else to see. Suddenly, it hit him, and his face went blank and he said, "What." in a disbelieving, deadpan voice. A small pause, then everyone figured it out at once! My mom was FLOORED because I'd managed to keep our little baby bug secret pretty well. My dad said he could have figured it out (yeah....). It was so great.

Jon's got a secret (before we told)!

"What."

"I knew all along!"

"!!!!"

Everyone's reactions were priceless and memorable. We were so excited to tell you yesterday and today, and covet your prayers in this new journey!

Now leave comments with your version of how it happened: what you were thinking and when you figured it out!

Today, we told the family...

Well, I've not been a regular contributor to this blog, but I'll try to kick in some of my POV from time to time from now on.

Yesterday, we told my family (Mom and Dad, Dave and Karen), and today we told Lydia's side (Alan and Carolyn, John and Karen). It has been so wonderful to see how excited everyone is for us. I don't think they are as excited as we are, or as anxious!

I'm so looking forward to being a dad. I've actually put some considerable thought into the prospect, and I really hope and pray that Lydia and I can do a good job. It is strange to know that someone else will so fully depend upon us, not only for care and supply of the basic needs but also, and more importantly, for formation - formation of the body, the mind, and the heart. For this process, I know that I will need to grow more dependant upon God's power and activity in my life. The truth is: I am not a good person, a good parent, a good teacher, a good comforter, by myself. However, I (and Lydia, of course) do not have to go forward with this endeavour by myself! Thanks be to God!

Well, that's just how I feel right now. I'll input some more later.

PT#4

Oh my gosh we're pregnant.

So you know I've been charting (okay, maybe you didn't, but that just means you need to start back at the beginning of this blog!), and I've gotten pretty familiar with what my cycle looks like. As we neared the end of this last cycle, I wasn't showing signs of it. We both had the possibility of pregnancy in the backs of our minds, but really, we didn't want to think about it too much.

On Wednesday, I got sick. I didn't throw up, but my stomach felt awful. I joked with Jon that I was pregnant, but really figured it was the Mexican food I'd had for lunch (and it still might have been).

My cycle should have ended yesterday at the very latest, so we decided to take the test today, to give one more day for accuracy. (In the meantime, both our new kittens died, and I didn't know if that had anything to do with a slightly longer cycle, since stress can affect that.) This morning, the test. Within a few seconds, I glanced over and thought I saw the plus sign, but glanced away quickly, wanting to give it more time. I couldn't wait long, though, and it was confirmed. A plus sign.

"Jon...? Come here...."

We couldn't believe it. It doesn't even seem real. As a matter of fact, we're picking up another pregnancy test while we're out running errands today, just in case.

Oh my gosh we're pregnant!! From my calculations, we're due around Nov. 20th. I've got to find a doctor and have them confirm that...and then start on a 9 month relationship with that doctor! Crazy!!

A post

I've been trying to do at least a post a month, but I seemed to have missed all of February. Well...nothing happened in the baby world. Our cat, Friday, passed away, and our nephew, Ian was born. John and Karen are doing great in their new roles! I hope we adjust as well when that day comes. And we just got two new kittens. They're pretty sick, requiring nighttime feedings and lots of care. Kind of like babies, only with less crying!

And that's pretty much it! Hopefully more exciting news to come....