Holidaze

The holidays are quickly flying by but I'm doing my best to soak it all in and enjoy every second. My continual thought these last few days has been, next year we will be celebrating with a baby. How fun will that be??

As for this year, a quick recap - my parents were here for almost a week which was a lot of fun. They are almost giddy these days with being grandparents again.

Mom and Dad came several days before Christmas so we had lots of time to enjoy holiday preparations - last minute shopping (even braved the mall), movies and of course lots of cooking. We all then enjoyed lots of family events. I feel so fortunate that Ben has a big family that lives nearby; my side of the family is smaller and everyone is spread out so holidays are usually pretty quiet the last few years. Well not anymore! There are also quite a few more kiddos on Ben's side (eight cousins running around at all times) which always brings more excitement.

We all were together for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Lots and lots of presents and food. We were spoiled by family and I was especially spoiled by Ben (he got me another one of those pretty little blue boxes that I'm quickly growing to love!) We have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas but our best gift is yet to come.

Here are a few photos of some highlights of family time.

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Heading out for Christmas Eve with the family 

The kids are just a little excited about all the presents

Family kicking off the celebration with food and drink of course     

The Hankster and I

Cousin picture - this crew will be growing to 9 next year! 

 

So glad Mom and Dad were here with us

 

Time for my resident chef to help cook Christmas morning breakfast

 

Merry Christmas! 

 

Two of our four-legged children - the other two aren't really into posing

 

The kids entertained us wrestling in these getups all day long

Anyone for cookies?

Love my Dad!

The Man Behind The Bump and I

Now what?

So the weeks leading up to that first appointment seemed to drag on like molasses... but they also flew by as we began sharing our news with close friends and family and adjusting to the news ourselves. Changes like crashing for a nap most afternoons after work, cutting out the regular glass of red wine with dinner (how I miss it, yet don't even care now) and slowing down on the runs and boot camps (even though I can and should work out, I instantly felt like I was moving in slo-mo). Ben is great about adjusting with my adjustments.

I stocked up on books to read and was on the lookout for signs that my pregancy was real. The most overwhleming sign I got was I became the most tired girl on the block. Yawning and napping became my forte. I can't believe how tired I was/am but then I also keep telling myself that this is probably only an inkling of the exhaustion that we have ahead of us! The other pregnancy sympton I kept waiting and dreading was morning sickness but it never came. (Yes, I know I am lucky and really shouldn't even be bringing it up.) I defintely have compassion for any and every woman who has morning sickness and can only say I am ever, ever so thankful for not having it. Not that anyone would enjoy it but I'm the worst when I'm nauseous.

Finally our first appointment rolled around. I changed doctors in the spring when I knew we would want to start trying for a family soon. So I met her once for an exam last February and liked her right away, she works with lots of plus 35 moms and was very positive. My doctor was recommended to me by a co-worker and since then it seems like everyone goes to her (even one of my sister-in-laws). Dr. N is great at being very reasonable and practical but also seems very well-trained and experienced. Well, we had our list of questions for the appointment but before we got to those she let us hear the heartbeat and see our little lima bean.

 
I won't take it personally if you can't tell anything from this picture. Before this sonogram, I could never tell what I was seeing on a sonogram. But I can see the head there on the left and the little flipper hands and feet. It also helps when you see it squirming around on the screen and hear that heartbeat. Wow, there were some tears and hard hand squeezes between Ben and I. I think I thought it felt real when we saw the pregancy test but now it really feels real!

What Just Happened to Our World?

So I decided a blog would be fun to have as we prepare, await, fret, dream, and instantly love this little baby that is now growing inside of me. But where do you start the blog story?? Well, we decided to start trying for a family this summer, I guess that is a place to start.
We have only been married a few months at that point but we have waited to find each other longer that expected and had no doubts that a family was what we hoped for so we took the leap of faith. And the idea of possibly having a truly international baby while on our trip to Italy this summer didn't hurt. We knew things would probably not happen quite that quickly but you never know. I had plenty of fears, knowing I'm 38 and watching other close friends struggle at different points in the road to a family, I was prepared and expected challenges.
Nonetheless, we started our journey this summer and were blessed in September to find out it was our time. I thought it might be time to take a test and deliberated doing it in secret and surprising Ben but I didn't seeing it playing out very well if a) I was disappointed by the test results or b) if the results were positive, how I would possibly keep quiet about it for more than two seconds. So, we sat side by side on the couch watching the minutes click by until the little stick said PREGNANT! Wow, talk about excitement and joy and shock!! I quickly drank another glass of water, took the other test in the box and then we called all of our parents that night. I took a blood test the next day and we got confirmation the following day. We thought next up we would be in the doctor's office talking do's and don't's and listening to the heartbeat. No, they politely told me; we will see you in a month. What??