Good News! FINALLY.

So, Tim and I are delighted to share the news that we're expecting! The due date is February 17th, 2008, so I'm technically 15 weeks along at this point. Tim and I had been trying for a few months (following a previous "few months" of trying back in Provo in 2005), but it was a total and complete shock when a home pregnancy test came back positive a couple months ago. I just didn't think I could get pregnant, and I was at the point of being utterly clueless as to how women were possibly conceiving, when it was so elusive to me. I didn't think I was ovulating, because I'd been tracking my basal body temperature for awhile, and it was ALL messed up. (Sorry if that's TMI! I'm assuming that most of this blog's readership is female, because we've only gotten like two guy comments so far.) Anyway, I was about 9 or 10 days late, which has happened before, and slightly hopeful, but also knowing that I'm just not that lucky, I took a pregnancy test and was stunned by the result. (My journal entry that day reads like this: "HOLY FREAKING CRAP IT'S POSITIVE." Haha!)


I told Tim later that night, in the form of a homemade card that said "I Love You" on the front, and on the inside had a picture of a stick-figure Jean with a close-up to the tummy of an oven with a little bun in it. (I decided to convey the news in his preferred language of art.) He was shocked but really excited, which made me a little more excited too. That was June 22.

Nowadays, I'm in my second trimester, and honestly, not a whole lot has changed. No one ever told me this, but I've learned that the whole first trimester and part of the second is just one big long tease, with no changes in my body and, in our case, no one else even knowing. I still look exactly the same, although I feel like I might be on the cusp of maybe starting to show a tiny, tiny bit. However, since I have kind of a tummy already (let's be realistic here), I've read that I won't really start to look pregnant until 18 to 20 weeks. So, a little while longer to go... Fortunately, my first trimester was marked with only mild nausea (e.g., a breakfast burrito one morning had me lying on the floor muttering, "That was a bad choice..."), but I guess it's been going well so far. My chestal area was pretty sore, and I had some cramping, but nothing out of the ordinary. I have to go to the bathroom more now (which sucks at night), and I keep forgetting that there are certain things I'm not supposed to do (like eat lunch meat and hot dogs often -- which is tough because we have all these frozen corn dogs -- and sleep on my back or stomach -- which I love to do). I told Laura W. from church, who is also pregnant, that I'm not really sure how important all these little things are right now, but at least I'm minding the big things, like taking prenatal vitamins (which I've been doing for awhile anyway) and skipping Space Mountain and Indiana Jones (which is so very sad).

Anyway, we've seen many of our friends rejoice in parenthood, and we feel so blessed and so grateful that we have this opportunity ourselves. It'll still be a few weeks before we find out the gender, so in the meantime we've been calling the little tyke Tadpole-Leonard, because I think that Tadpole is a cute little nickname, while Tim insists on calling it Leonard. Oy. Even today, I still can't believe that I'm really pregnant... the whole thing is so crazy-weird! I've had two OB appointments so far, and also a first-trimester screen test. Everything seems to be going well so far. (But that doesn't keep me from worrying anyway. I mean, they don't really KNOW what's going on down there, y'know?) My first ultrasound at 10 weeks doesn't really even look like anything, and my doctor did it pretty quickly:

However, when I went in for the first trimester screen test a couple weeks later, it took about an hour until T-L was in the right position, and I got to stare at that little one on the screen the entire time!! It was all big-headed and wiggly and boingy. The doctor also let me hear the heartbeat, so that was a really special appointment. At my next appointment, they're going to do the AFP test, and at the one after that, another ultrasound and the gender-check.

So, that's our news. We're pleased as punch and tickled pink right now. If you'd like to share any advice or pregnancy stories (whether your own or someone else's), I'm all ears! I love all you guys. :-) Oh, and if you live in Pasadena, sorry if I've lied to you. We wanted to wait a smidge before sharing the news, which put me in the unfortunate position of becoming secretive. I'm so glad to be able to talk about it openly now!!!!! (Contented sigh.)