We started trying to get pregnant in late 2008, so that if we had to move for residency, we would be settled in before we would have the baby. Well, we thought that we were pregnant in mid-January, but had multiple negative at-home pregnancy tests. So we went to the doctor and had a negative serum pregnancy test in early February. In mid-February, Brian and I went to Bowie, MD to visit my Grammy, Aunt Karen, Uncle Joe and Kevin. My parents were also in town for that weekend. The whole weekend, I felt kind of weird, so Monday night after we got home, we took another test and it was positive!!
The next weekend Brian and I helped chaperone the Winterfest trip with our youth group. I got sick on Saturday, and it was definitely due to the food we had eaten, but everyone else was sure that I was sick because I was pregnant. But it was WAY too soon for me and Brian to feel comfortable announcing, so we tried to convince everyone (unsuccessfully) that it really was the food that made me sick.
The next week (late February) I was already having trouble buttoning my pants. I was only 6 weeks along, but we didn't know that yet.
We had our first ultrasound on March 11th and found out that we were 8 weeks along, with a due date of October 18th. Brian and my plan was to wait until 12 weeks to announce our pregnancy, so 4 weeks to go at that point! But sometime between between weeks 8 and 10, I was showing enough that people suspected that we were pregnant, so we ended up announcing before the 12 week mark.
Here we are on Match Day, week 9. Hooray!, we found out that we were staying in Winston for residency!! I definitely got asked that day by one of the ladies at work if I was pregnant.
Here I am about 14 weeks pregnant with the CYP crowd at Chipotle.
Here's a picture of me at the 16 week mark, at my work's Engineering Conference in San Diego, CA. I felt so pregnant then, but looking back I certainly don't look very pregnant in this pic. With me are Caroline, Vihar, Rick, Ashley and Michelle.
Week 18 was Brian's graduation from medical school. Hooray for Dr. Brian!! Brian's parents, his brother and sister-in-law and my parents all came into town to celebrate with us!
The next weekend was Byron and Sarah's wedding. I was 19 weeks along.
Finally, with Week 20 came our anatomy scan and the halfway mark (supposedly) for the pregnancy. All along I had thought we were having a boy, but Brian thought it might be a girl. Mommy was right this time!!
Front view of our little boy!
Profile shots of our little boy
Our little boy's cute feet
That summer, I worked as a coordinator for the "Marketplace" at VBS. Here I am in my Roman costume, at 24 weeks. I had to add the belt so it wouldn't look like I was wearing a bag!
Now a big jump to 32 weeks. Jennie took some WONDERFUL maternity pictures for us. Thanks so much for keep bugging, I mean encouraging, me to do those. I am so glad that we have them now! Here are a few of my favorite pictures:
That weekend, at 33 weeks, was my Baby Shower at South Fork. Here I am with the hostesses. That black dress fit great a few weeks ago, but at this point it was pretty tight!
My last day of work was October 2nd, which gave me 2 weeks at home before my due date. It was so wonderful to have those weeks! I ran errands, cooked LOTS of meals to freeze, and walked almost every day in the hopes of helping the baby along. However, my due date came and went, and no baby! Here I am on my due date and I was ready to pop!!
That next Friday was my next doctors appointment (+5 days). They checked me to see if it looked like I was going to go into labor soon, and no such luck. The walking 2-3 miles per day wasn't helping move the baby along. Armed with this information, Brian and I made the decision to go to the CYP retreat that weekend at 41 weeks pregnant! The retreat was outside of Asheville, 2.5 hours away from Winston. However, we figured that since this was the first baby, we would have plenty of time to get back if I went into labor. But, just in case, I mapped directions to hospitals in Asheville, Hickory and Statesville and Brian packed a knife and shoelace (per Brian, to cut the cord and tie it off) just in case he had to deliver our baby on the side of the interstate. Here we are at the retreat, a week overdue!
I went back to the doctor on Monday (+8 days) for another check, ultrasound and non-stress test. Everything looked good, the baby was healthy. We decided that we would go ahead and schedule an induction for Wednesday, October 28th in case I hadn't gone into labor by then. Well, that morning came and I got up at 4:30 to shower and get ready to be at the hospital at 5:30 for the induction. We got a call at 5:00 from the hospital telling us that they didn't have any beds ready for us. GRRRRR! They couldn't tell us when they might have one available. So I went back to bed and FINALLY went back to sleep. I basically moped around all day and got more and more frustrated. I was ready to have the baby!!! That night we skipped church; I couldn't bear to have everyone saying "you're still pregnant!!" and "WHEN are you going to have that baby?". However, it turned out to be a good thing because right before 8:00, we got the call that they had a bed available! We had just finished dinner, so we cleaned up the dishes, finished packing and headed off to the hospital. On the way, we decided we needed to pick a name before we got to the hospital. For months, we were trying to decide between Carter and Nathan as first names, so we finally settled on Nathan Patrick.
Well, that's all for this post. At some point, I'll blog about the delivery and early days of Nathan.
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