How We Told Our Families

We found out just after Memorial Day weekend that a little Baby H would be joining our family.

After the elation began to set in, we faced the next inevitable question...when do we tell people?

Shaun and I both felt very conservative about spreading our great news too soon. After all, getting a positive HPT was one of the best feelings in the world, but in our heads, it wouldn't be actually official until not only a doctor's appointment with blood test, but a first ultrasound. We also needed a couple of weeks to let it all sink in :) At the end of the day, we decided that we did want to tell our immediate families sooner rather than later. We are both incredibly close with our parents and siblings and keeping something like this from them would have been..well, virtually impossible! Not to mention that I was bursting at the seams to tell my parents and sisters!

 

Immediately after we found out, I had to fly out to Las Vegas for a week for work. As you might imagine, this was not really so fun. Exhaustion had already set in, the last thing I wanted to do was be away from Shaun and it was really challenging to keep up the ruse of having a drink with dinner, etc.

When I arrived home, we decided that since we'd be seeing both of our families on Father's Day, it would be the perfect time to spill the beans (at that point I was almost 8 weeks). And because the day was all about Dad, we thought it would be really fun to let our Dads be the ones to uncover our surprise...after all, I feel like Moms usually get all the news (good or bad) first in life and I was so excited for our Dads to be the ones to know about this one first (even if it was just for about 10 seconds).

We bought sweet Father's Day cards for our Dads and thought it would be a great surprise to plant the news in the cards. In the morning, we had breakfast with Shaun's family and luckily did gifts before we went out to eat, so the news was out right away and we could all celebrate at breakfast. With my family, we went to my parents house for dinner and didn't do gifts until the very end of the evening. I was dying inside to let out the news!

I'm pretty sure Shaun and I were shaking with excitement both in the morning and at night as our Dads opened their cards. 

Here's the one for my Dad:

On the inside, we wrote "...and Soon-to-be GrandDad!"

The message was pretty to the point!

I'll never forget the look on my Dad's face when he read it. It was disbelief mixed with joy and it was truly a great moment! He jumped up and hugged me and everyone else looked confused. My mom grabbed the card to read it and surprise registered...I think by that point, my sisters already figured out what was up since I think they already had their suspicions.

There was lots of hugging, tears and smiles. It was really fantastic and it felt SO good to let the cat out of the bag. I had been dying to tell my mom and I don't think I could have kept it from her much longer. In a way, it worked out that I was away for a week to make keeping my secret a little easier!

Though we all celebrated, Shaun and I made sure to make it clear that we hadn't yet gone for an ultrasound and so all of the real, true celebrations should be after we got good news in that department.

Two days later was the first scan and, as you can tell, it all went amazingly. It ranks as probably the most incredible moment of my life.

But I think that's a story for another time...

Questions of the Day:

How long did you/would you wait to tell your immediate family about this kind of news?

Have you ever planted surprise news in a fun way? I definitely wanted to make the reveal a little bit special!

What I've Been Eating Lately

As you might imagine, my meals have been slightly ad hoc lately. In truth, once I found out I was pregnant and the tiredness set in, cooking...and eating!...were just about the very last thing I cared about. Sadly for Shaun, my dinner plans went just about as far as whatever I could grab from the kitchen on my way to my pajamas and the couch or my bed. This included cheese and crackers or hummus or a bowl of popcorn or a piece of fruit...and that was it. Pretty much anything that didn't require any cooking whatsoever. Not the healthiest plan, I admit :)

Shaun has been a real trooper about this over the first 3+ months. I basically pulled a total 180 on him. I was in the groove of not only cooking dinner every night, but also prepping our lunches each day as well. Shaun has taken on most of the cooking and cleaning...since if it were up to me, I would even forego some dinners if it meant getting to sleep faster. 

Now that I'm 4 months pregnant and happily in the second trimester, I do find myself with a little more energy and the {small} will to cook, do dishes {or at least wipe down the countertops...yeah when I say I did nothing for 3 months, I actually did nothing...}, and yesterday I even baked some banana bread with some browning bananas on the countertop. 

Though I didn't have any horrible morning sickness or crazy food aversions (aside from peanut butter and chocolate cake. sigh), my tastes have definitely changed in terms of what I like to eat. Instead of my usual eggs and toast or fresh fruit with nut butter (ack), now I find myself wanting cereal every morning. Lately, I've been going with Rice Krispies...but really any cereal will do!

I've been wanting carbs and more carbs. Though I try to supplement this with protein and other healthy things, it's difficult to deny a nice bowl of pasta or some chicken and rice. Pasta with sauce or even a little light butter and parmesean cheese has been on my mind like crazy.

those mozzarella balls are pasteurized!. just sayin'.

Last night, I 'made' dinner and here's what it consisted of: rotisserie chicken (I cut it up myself though!), minute rice (it also had barley in it! sorta healthy?) and roasted vegetables (they were precut from a bag, but I mixed them with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them myself...so there).

I've also been on a wild fruit craze. Though that's really nothing new from me! I love me some fruit! Basically anything but bananas have been making the cut...pineapple, cantaloupe, raspberries, apples...I try to always reach for these when I want a snack!

In the dessert department, it's all about the ice cream. And my personal favorite? The McDonald's Oreo McFlurry. Oddly enough, I don't think I'd ever even had one of these before I was pregnant. But when I want ice cream, I let myself indulge. Though I try to limit these to one special dessert night per week :)

So that's what I've been digging over the last week. Next week...who knows? But you know I'll keep you posted!

What foods have you been loving lately?

Do you love ice cream in the summer?

Five Things Friday

Thank you so much for your kind words on yesterday's big announcement :)

It feels so good to tell you all and have it just be openly out there in the world. It definitely makes the whole thing feel a lot more real and, if it's possible, even more exciting! I've missed blogging and all of my blog friends, so I'm happy to be back without anything to hide :)

So since we're on the baby subject, I thought for this week's Five Things Friday, a little baby edition would be fun. And no, my hope is not that TAA turns into a full-blown baby blog, but at the same time...well, that's what's going on in my life so I hope you don't mind if I do take some posts to share that with you! I've loved reading about other bloggers' journeys to parenthood, so I hope you will as well. So here's five things about this crazy ride I'm on right now!

Baby H is due on January 30. A winter baby! I'm thrilled that by the time I'm carrying around a watermelon under my shirt, it will not in fact be 100 degrees plus humidity outside. We don't really have many winter babies in our family, so it's exciting that H will have a day to him/herself. Now we just have to wonder if I go late, will he/she be born on Superbowl Sunday? Only time will tell :)

I'm in my 16th week. So on Monday of next week, I'll officially be 4 months pregnant! On one hand, time is flying and on the other, I do feel like I've been pregnant for quite some time before even telling people! This week, the baby is about the size of an avocado and I'm not really showing much yet but I know I will be very soon. I keep asking Shaun to take belly pics and then pulling my shirt as tight as it will go to show off the tiny bump that I do have. All in good time, my friends! Here's one just after our 12 week ultrasound.

I feel great. Mostly. Let's just say that I definitely understand the meaning of the pregnancy fatigue. I get it now! It's the kind of tiredness that makes you not even want dinner or dessert if it means getting in the way of you and your bed. It's the kind that if you have 8:00 dinner reservations with friends on a Friday evening (a total norm in your previous life), a two hour nap directly in advance of said reservation will be completely necessary, and even then, expect to be yawning the entire time. It's a crazy, overwhelming feeling but I consider myself to be incredibly lucky that I did not really get 'morning sickness'. I went through boughts of sour stomach and a general repulsion toward all foods, but no vomiting or any debilitating illness.

Baby Pink or Blue? Well, we don't know yet! I always thought that I'd want the big gender surprise when the baby was born (and it's something Shaun and I disagreed on for a long time before we were even trying to have a baby!), but once I found out that a baby was on the way, well...I just don't think I can wait that long to find out! I'm way too excited :) Not to mention that there are too many boy and girl bedding, clothing, etc out there to end up with all yellow ducks. We can't find out just yet, but at our next appointment hopefully! Meanwhile, I have no problem buying a few things for Baby's room, like this unbelievably sweet baby giraffe print from Trafalger Square's Etsy Shop! It makes my heart want to burst with joy. Thanks to Joanna for the tip on these prints!

Nut Butter Hater. It's true. There are very few foods that are on the gag list these days and said nut butter is one of them. This coming from the girl who used to carry a jar of pb in her purse...you know, for emergencies! Even before I found out I was pregnant, I was having my daily snack of cut up apple and Sunbutter and the Sunbutter just tasted...not good. Gag-worthy, in fact. I thought maybe it had gone bad. But the truth is, all nut butters have been repulsive to me. Nuts ok. Nut butter...not.

So there you have it. Five things happening with me and H lately :) Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Questions of the Day:

Would you want to find out the gender of your baby in advance?

If you have been pregnant, what were your gag foods?

What are your weekend plans?