Life Lately: We're PREGNANT!

Welp. We are coming up on 27 weeks and I have yet to write a blog post about this pregnancy! I feel like time is FLYING by and before I know it this little dude will be here taking up all my time, and I will for certain have forgotten what life was like before him! So let's begin!

David and I got married last summer on June 9th, 2017. We went straight on our honeymoon in Bora Bora, back to America, and then extended our honeymoon in Brazil for our friends' wedding! We both absolutely love kids and our lives have basically revolved around kids for most of our lives (I was a traveling bi-coastal nanny for many years and David was the oldest of 8... we also met in Haiti surrounded by and loving on kids)... SO.. I knew that David was going to be an amazing father before I knew he was going to be the father of MY kids! I obviously couldn't wait and neither could he!

I never had a desire to wait for children once I was married, especially knowing what an awesome dad David was going to be (and he changes diapers... #keeper). I have dreamt of being a mom for as long as I can remember, I even used to dress my baby dolls in clothes from Baby Gap and fed them real baby food.... I was weird and my mom was even weirder for buying doll clothes at the Gap!! So, no... this baby was NOT a surprise to answer your questions! We prayed A LOT for this little angel. And he came at the perfect time. 

In August we found out that we were pregnant!! I could not believe it happened so quickly. My heart broke for all of the women I knew who had been trying for years or struggled through miscarriages. After we found out, David and I both struggled with that guilt- like, "Why us?? What on earth did we do to possibly deserve this?" But in all of those feelings it was really just a surrendering of our hearts to worship and gratitude. Literally- life's greatest miracle is happening right now and I am forever grateful for it.

So- I woke up that morning in August thinking eh, there's probably no way I'm pregnant but let's go ahead and see. (We had bought some tests for fun after the honeymoon.) TMI? Please, God, I hope my dad and brother don't read this... AWKWARDDDDD!!!! So I woke up and took the test, went out to the kitchen in our little one bedroom apartment that we were living in and totally forgot about the stick I left alone in the bathroom. Well.... I hear "OH MY GOSH. OH MY GOSH. BABE. GET IN HERE NOW!!!!!!!!! IS THIS 2 LINES!!!?? I THINK THIS IS 2 LINES!!!!!" David saw the positive test before I could even see it and surprise him! Of course he beat me to it! We literally both looked at each other in shock and started hysterically laughing... I took all of the other tests that we had left. Well, they were all 2 lines and positive! Some of them were a little more vague than others... so, David, being my overthinker and analyzer that he is, refused to get totally excited until we got the Clearblue tests that read "PREGNANT" or "NOT PREGNANT". So we literally sped to CVS, praying in the car on the way, got about 12 different varieties, a giant bottle of water and I chugged the whole way home- ha!!

So, they all read PREGNANT, POSITIVE, YES, etc... and that was the morning we found out we were having our very first baby! David blasted worship music around the apartment and we seriously fell to our knees in disbelief. I am getting emotional now just thinking about it! Such a cool moment and I'm so grateful for my husband who leads our little family the way he does. We didn't tell anybody for a couple of weeks, which is absolutely insane for me to look back on. If you know me, you know I call my mom at least 12 times a day. Sometimes 20. I probably talk to her every hour of the day. So not telling my parents was CRUSHING me.

Around week 5 or 6, I can't remember... I was having seriously cramping one night. It didn't feel normal and made me a little nervous- So, my sweet husband rushed me to the Urgent Care ER at about 10:30 pm on a random Tuesday to make sure everything was okay. The nurses were all laughing at us saying that it was going to be a long 9 months if we were that quick to show up at the ER over cramping! But, we got to see our tiny little baby for the first time... which was REALLY early, and made both of us feel at ease knowing that life was definitely forming and growing in there. I was also super dehydrated and needed an IV so they were glad I came in. Whew. That was a funny night!

Week 6 was when the Morning Sickness hit and boyyyyy did it hit HARD. There were so many days when I couldn't even get out of bed because I was so sick! It lasted morning noon and night until week 12. If I fed Winnie, I threw up. If David was cooking, I threw up. If I thought about raw chicken, I threw up. I was so sick and nauseous 24/7.. I even lost a few pounds during the first trimester because I could not keep anything down. I was also asleep by 5pm every night, which is not like me at all! If I sat down on the couch, I would pass out! David took WAY too many videos of me asleep on the couch, he's always picking on me!! Did any of you guys go through this?? I HAD to tell my mom by week 7 because I needed to know that this was normal. We really wanted to tell our families in a fun way, but when you live half way across the country it makes it a little difficult. I was on the phone with my mom when David said, "Why don't you just tell her?" So, I told her that she was going to be a GRANDMOTHER while she was driving to Krispy Kreme... just perfect. She had to pull over and we cried over the phone together. Obviously my dad and brother were just as excited. 

Luckily, my mom had all of the same symptoms with her pregnancies so she helped ease my pain. My saving grace was YELLOW Gatorade ON ICE (only yellow!!! and preferably crushed ice or pellet ice from Raceway Gas Station... yes, it was THAT particular!!!) and WITH a STRAW!! I didn't leave home without saltine crackers or Baby Goldfish. By week 9 the only solid food I was keeping down was chick-fil-a chicken biscuits, Sbarro pizza and SUPER salty mcdonald's fries.

Week 10 I was prescribed Diclegis by my doctor (who we are obsessed with) for the nausea and started to feel so much better, at least more like myself again! I only took it for two weeks but I swear it helped me so much! David surprised me with a staycation and a spa day at the Four Seasons for my birthday which was heaven... we spent most of the weekend ordering room service!

Birthday Dinner at the Four Seasons! No bump yet...

Week 11 We moved into our new house, without any movers... a pregnant woman and moving should never go together. But we ended up hosting our first Thanksgiving with BOTH of our families (20+ people) and it was one of the best weekends we've ever had. My belly popped around Week 19, and all of my family just thought it was hilarious to see me with a belly! My dad always called me "Chubs" and "Tum Tum" (Three Ninjas, anyone?) growing up, so now he thinks it's even funnier.

Week 12 was one of the hardest weeks for me because David started working full-time. I was so nervous what life would look like without him in it 24/7. From the first day we started dating until this October we spent almost every single day together... traveling, living, growing... it was such a blessing to have all of that time together. So many people told us to wait to have kids, but we really got to experience an entire life together in such a short time. I cried for a week leading up to his first day of work... I was an emotion WRECK! I blamed it on the pregnancy hormones but I was just really sad to be apart from my best friend. Turns out... him starting his job has been one of the best things that's happened to ME, personally, and to our relationship. Distance definitely makes the heart grow fonder, even if it's only for the day! I now love my alone time- and decided to take this time apart to work on MYSELF and grow on my own... it's been nice! 

By Week 13 I was back to life and over all of the terrible first trimester symptoms. BLEGH! I don't even like to think about it!! I really started to ENJOY being pregnant. The best part of Week 13 was finding out our baby's gender! We did the genetic blood test which allowed us to find out the gender early... so the nurse told me over the phone while I was in the Kroger parking lot (there's a trend here...). I 100% thought this baby was a girl. Like, betting everything that it was a girl. All of my symptoms were "girl" symptoms and I had always felt like my first born would be a girl! When she told me, I cried my eyes out and was SO HAPPY. A BOY!!!! Just like my mom, of course! Of course it's a boy! It felt right. I went to Party City and bought 50 baby blue balloons, brought them home and covered the kitchen with blue balloons to surprise David when he got home from work. See video below...... he was excited it was a boy to say the least. 

Fast forward a few weeks, because there were no crazy changes or symptoms...

Week 26 and 3 days Totally pregnant. Big belly. Feeling him kick ALL day long... it's the best thing I've ever felt. I am in love with being pregnant. I told David the other night that I already want to be pregnant again. Not too many cravings... David even says to me, "Gosh, woman... Can't you be a little more high maintenance? I'm supposed to be running around town picking you up pickles and icecream!" Turns out he's the one with sympathy cravings!!! He HAD to have honeycomb cereal the other day. So I found him some honeycomb cereal. Turns out, it tastes different than it used to when we were kids.

I can tell you that I have never been happier. My heart has never been so full. But, I am honestly petrified of giving birth. I am counting down the days: 1. to meet our son. I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT. And 2. because I have 95 days to break this fear. I have serious White Coat Syndrome and have passed out in many doctor's offices... I work myself up into a panic and yep, pass out. Sooooo.... the thought of giving birth is not really going so well in my head. But- I know that I can do it. I KNOW that there is some crazy mom strength inside that's going to come out whenever this boy is ready to meet the world... I cannot wait. 

Thank you all for being so supportive throughout this whole process. It has been overwhelming to know how loved this baby is going to be, and we are so grateful.

Until next time, read about all of my New Mom MUST HAVES!

Madi