It's a.... baby!!!

Today was our first prenatal visit. Our doctor is absolutely perfect for us: he's sarcastic, has a lot of dry humor, and asked Cole if people from North Dakota have any teeth. My kind of doctor. :) Definitely the type I feel most comfortable around - it's nice to know that we can crack jokes while he's all up in my girlie parts, although that might make his job a little more difficult considering I love to laugh. 

Seeing a baby on the ultrasound screen for the first time is... amazing, and still unreal. We could see the tiny heartbeat pitter-patter within the babies chest. The doctor said the baby looks perfect, and estimated her age is a little over 8 weeks. I think the ultrasound says 8 weeks & 2 days. "Crown to Rump" or the CRL is 17! 


Cole made sure to exclaim "It's a boy!" - which is what I'm going to be hearing until our due date. I asked him why he's so sure its a boy, to which he answered matter-of-factly "Look at those big forearms!" and shook his head at me like I should have been seeing this as well. "It's a girl!" I said back. "Look at that pink tutu & her tiny dancer body." Apparently, we aren't seeing eye to eye. :) But the important part is that we ARE seeing and DID see a beautiful baby on the ultrasound... living inside my belly, until about April 8th or so. :)


Life is good. <3 

Yup, there is a baby in there alright!

Large forearms?

Why does it look like I have to poop?

I have to give you a heads-up, I have a funny little feeling that majority of this blog is going to be completely inappropriate. But since most of my friends & family are equally as disturbing as I am, this shouldn't be a problem. 


The first few weeks went by dragging ass quickly. Honestly, it's like the second you have a secret to tell, everyone tries to have a conversation with you about it. I might be the worlds best bullshitter, but ironically enough, I'm not that great of a liar. Well, sometimes I am- and I'm so good, I actually believe my own lie... but I like to think that part of me is in the past. Nowadays, when I try to lie, I start to smile and giggle like a huge ass. "What?! Me? Lying (giggle giggle)... No Way! (giggle giggle)" <-- I look quite special when I act this way. And on top of trying to conceal my inner secret, I'm also trying to conceal this muffin top/bloated/looks-like-I-have-to-take-a-week-old-shadoobee of a belly bump. As I'm writing this, I'm about 7 weeks pregnant. In all the books I have read, it says "By now, you probably have lifted up your shirt, pushed your belly out, and pretended what you will soon look like with a belly bump." Um, excuse me, I don't have to push out anything- it is naturally doing this on it's own. Actually, I can't even suck this thing in. Who wrote these books?? And why are you doing this to me?? 


This leads me to the bout of emotions I've been dealing with lately. The books also stated "You may be feeling many emotions" and I believe this is an understatement. Just yesterday, I was driving home (side note: It was a sunny Arizona summer afternoon, and my car read 111 degrees). I saw a man standing on the side of a road with a sign for DR Horton homes. I whispered "I can't look at him anymore, I'm going to cry" to which my sweet understanding husband replied "Don't be ridiculous" and then right there, in a blink of an eye, tears came streaming down my face. "It's SO HOT out there Cole! Don't tell me I'm being ridiculous! What's RIDICULOUS is that this OLD MAN is outside in 111 degree weather SWEATING for DR HORTON!! I HATE DR HORTON! HOW could they DO THIS to an OLD MAN? HOW!? WHAT if THIS WAS OUR CHILD OUT THERE?!" and I quickly reached into my purse to hand this poor soul a $20. But then I reminded myself he wasn't a homeless man begging for change. So then I threw him my 1 liter bottle of ginger ale out the window and sped off down the street to MY STUPID DR HORTON home. 


By the time I got home, I was super nauseous. God damn these hormones!! And god damn DR HORTON for making me throw my only bottle of ginger ale out my window to that poor old man sweating on the streets of Scottsdale! I laid in bed and ate saltines and patted my belly until the feeling slowly disappeared. Whenever I'm feeling nauseous these days (which is every other minute of each passing hour) I have noticed it helps to eat saltines, pat my belly, and watch Jersey Shore or Teen Mom on my DVR. 


I was meeting my family out for dinner that night - I had been craving Chompie's matzah ball soup, along with an everything bagel toasted with melted cheddar cheese, and 2 rainbow cookies (now you may understand my undying need to constantly unbutton my pants). I went through 10 outfits and wound up crying on the floor of my master bedroom closet for the 2nd day in a row. Honestly, nothing looks right. I'm not supposed to be showing yet and I can't suck in and I don't like walking around thinking people are staring at me saying "Wow, when is the last time she went to the bathroom? She REALLY has to take a #2" - which, is definitely true, but besides the point. This bloated feeling is going to be the death of me. 


PS Chompies burned my bagel. The bagel I had been craving for over a week. They are SO lucky I didn't break down in tears, since that is now the current trend in my life. 

Starting at the beginning... plus a little TMI

To quote one of my favorite movies ever.... 


"Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start
When you read you begin with ABC
When you sing you begin with do re mi"


Well thank you Maria from Sound of Music, that definitely helps me if I want to start reading, or singing, but what about if I want to start my own blog??? Your songs definitely aren't helping me put "ink to the page"... and I've been sitting here starting at this blank screen for hours (good thing I work for a website as my 9-5). 


I guess the "beginning" would be for me to kind of back-date a few entries, and have some of this blog published before you even get the special link! So here it goes... as you've already learned, I've gone and drank the water - and now I have my own little bun in the oven. I honestly couldn't be more excited; as well as the 100 other emotions that come along with this new "mommy-to-be" title! 


For some necessary/unnecessary TMI background information: Cole & I fall under the category of "lucky ones" -  ok, I fall under the category of "lucky ones." Cole may view it as unlucky - because the day I told him we were expecting a little munchkin, his face jumped in excitement as he yelled "Are we really?" and then a few seconds later followed by "oh man, I would have enjoyed  practicing some more". We were I was that lucky. :) But - I didn't originally think this was the case. A few things happened between the "practicing" and the "reveal" where I pretty much thought we'd get at least another month of trying in. And this is why, when we found out we were expecting, it was one of the most magical moments of my life.... 


We were on a European adventure, traveling around England, Scotland & Ireland with my family. For some reason, Scotland has always had a special place in my heart: mostly because my mom's side of the family are Scottish, but also because, for my 6th grade "country report" I selected Scotland and my mom helped me make a batch of melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies and I haven't been able to get them out of my head since (unbutton pants here). I digress... We spent the first few days walking around the streets of London: beer was an integral part of breakfast, lunch & dinner (remember, at this point, I figured our original attempts hadn't exactly taken-to!). By the time we got to Scotland, I was feeling a little "off" - I was tired and my body was telling me something wasn't right, which I totally categorized under jet-lag and tucked it away under my glass of Guinness, shot of whiskey, and hotel pillow. After a few more days, I realized I was late. "Stupid jet-lag!" I thought to myself. However, I decided it would be best to take a pregnancy test, just to confirm my previous feeling on "first attempt" failure. So I crept out of bed at 430am, peed on a little stick, and two little lines appeared. "Excuse me!" I said to myself (either by looking in the mirror and talking to my reflection, or just talking down to my hands that were shaking and holding the pee-ridden pink stick). I went back to bed and tried to fall back asleep. Honestly, if anyone has taken a pregnancy test and gotten a positive result, and ever tried to go back to sleep, you know this is pointless. So at about 6am I bounced right back out of bed, grabbed a fresh stick, and got after it again. Double lines, again. I watched Cole for another hour as he slept because I didn't want to wake him up. But, as soon as he was awake - I spilled the beans. As I mentioned earlier, his hands were thrown into the air and his jaw dropped and he kept repeating "are we really?! are we really?!" and then the aforementioned "oh man! I would have enjoyed practicing some more!"


We got ready for the day, and met my family for breakfast at a local cafe that had a beautiful view of the Edinburgh castle. We were bursting at the seams and made it through the first 10 minutes of breakfast without a peep, and then we shared the news. It was kind of a whirlwind but there were hugs & tears, and I got a free shortbread cookie complete with chocolate chips out of the announcement - yay me! A baby AND a free cookie!!! This was my day!!! We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking up Arthur's Seat Volcano, where each member of my family including myself managed to trip and fall over the rainy/dew-ridden grass... followed by hot chocolate & more shortbread cookies at the castle. It honestly was a PICTURE perfect day.


We called Cole's mom from my cell phone at the hotel, where she let us know that "Twins would be just great - a boy for Cole & a girl for Sara!" and as we hung up and I stared at my belly and said "don't you even think about it..." while I nodded off to sleep, trying to ingrain every detail from the day into my memory. 

The night before I found out... oopsie poopsie baby! :) 

Double Confirmation... 

Leaving the cafe after they found out they were going to be Aunts!

Mommy & Daddy To-Be <3

Trip of a lifetime...