Maternity Clothes and Another Ultrasound

So, I have officially entered the second trimester!  Not much has changed, I still need to keep eating to keep from feeling sick.  I'm also still tired most of the time.  It probably doesn't help that I am in the middle of parent-teacher conferences and have had to be at school until 8 o'clock the last 2 nights.  Plus, we had our Halloween party on Tuesday and our field trip to the pumpkin patch on Monday.  Whew!!  No wonder I'm tired!

Well, I'm officially starting to show, just a little bit.  I'm sure some people may just think I have a spare tire, but only if they don't know me.  People at school and church are excited and are saying, "You're showing!", which is exciting!  I can still fit into normal pants, but they are extremely uncomfortable if I have to wear them all day.  My only 'normal' pants and skirts that I still wear have elastic waists.  Otherwise, I've switched to maternity clothes!  Luckily, I have a couple of friends who have passed on cute maternity clothes that they don't currently need.  I have also found some good sales at Target and Ross, and found some cute tops at Goodwill.  Of course, the shirts that fit me right now are borrowed from Jennifer and I'm pretty sure she was able to wear these clothes until her delivery!!  Oh well, there's a lesson, never borrow maternity clothes from your skinny friends.  : )  Her taste is so cute though!

We had another (scheduled) ultrasound last Friday with much clearer pictures!  Baby is growing and moving around!  The pictures really looked like a baby and it was awesome!  We got to see the face, arms, legs, heartbeat, you name it!  I'm still having occasional spotting, but I have remained calm about it and there haven't been any scary changes.  Seeing the baby twice has really helped!  Not to mention prayer!

Incase you don't know, Nelson and I are the youth group leaders at our Episcopal church and it has been quite the experience already!  We really like our kids.  We went to a haunted house out at the Washington County fairgrounds last Sunday evening and had a lot of fun!  They had 2 under 12 haunted houses, 2 PG-13 houses, miniature golf, and a hay slide.  "Expectant mothers" were not allowed in the scary houses and I was thrilled to have an excuse not to go in!  I HATE haunted houses!  I get nightmares.  Plus, Halloween has turned into this big excuse for girls to dress like sluts (thank you Mean Girls) and haunted houses full of disgusting, vulgar displays.  I love the fun side of Halloween, but not the other stuff.  Nelson will have to take our kids some day, if they want to go!

Scary (kinda blunt too)

Well, last week we had our first and hopefully VERY LAST scare about the baby.  On Thursday (at school of all places) I started having some blood and spotting.  I of course, freaked out, cried, panicked, you name it.  Have I mentioned how nice it is to work in the same location as your mother??  I went in her room and told her what happened.  This was 2 minutes before my class was supposed to be coming in from lunch.  My mom told me not to panic, I wasn't cramping and there wasn't a lot of blood.  I told one of the teachers on my team and she kindly offered to take my class while I called our midwife.  I am so greatful to her for doing this!

I called the midwife and told them all of my symptoms.  They called right back and said not to worry.  Based on my description, it sounded like everything was okay.  They gave me things to watch for and to call back if anything happened.  The rest of Thursday was okay.

Then, Friday morning, I woke up with more blood.  Luckily, it was still the same color as before, but there was more.  No cramping though, thank God.  I immediately called the midwife again and the nurse I spoke with was so wonderful.  She calmed me down and offered to let us come in that afternoon for a quick checkup for reassurance.  We went at 4 and had a quick exam and ultrasound.  We got to see baby's heartbeat and I have felt nothing but peace since then.  Still a little bleeding this weekend, but I feel much, MUCH better.  I have been thankful all weekend.  I also participated in some healing prayer at church yesterday, which put my heart even more at ease.  So, baby is safe and all is well!

Week 12

Well, as promised, the world found out during week 12!!  We've made it through the first trimester, hooray!!!  I'm still eating constantly, but I feel like I have more energy.  Nelson may tell you otherwise, I'm still going to bed very early!  But, remember, I teach 2nd graders all day!  That's tiring even when you're not pregnant!  I feel energized during the day, but I'm still pretty tired at night.

I told my students yesterday and they were excited!  However, they were disappointed that the baby won't be here until May.  One girl wanted to know how I could possibly be pregnant if my husband isn't a doctor.  I'll leave that one for her mom to answer.....

I still don't know how to post pictures on here, so the ultrasound pictures are up on MySpace and Facebook.  We got congrats from people we haven't heard from in YEARS.  What's that about??  Oh well, it still made me feel good!

Wonderful Daddy Already...

My wonderful romantic husband brings me toast with peanut butter and bottled water in bed every morning, just so that I won't feel any morning sickness.  I love you Nelson!!!

Our First Midwife Appointment

Very exciting, we had our first midwife appointment last Thursday!  Her name is Janna Ellings and so far we loooove her.  She answered all of our questions and just had a fantastic attitude about our pregnancy.  I am still disappointed that our insurance does not cover birthing centers or home births, but I will settle for giving birth in a hospital.  We have only heard good things about St. Vincent's, where it looks like we will deliver.

We got to see our baby!!  We had our first ultrasound and got to see the baby!  I still can't believe it. I know my body has been going through big time changes, but to actually see the baby was a totally different feeling.  It was completely surreal.  I felt like I did on our wedding day.  It was another of those life events that you've seen on TV and others experience, but to have it happen to yourself is so crazy!  Everything is healthy and going well.  The nurse and midwife both commented on how strong the heartbeat is several times, which is great!  And (as Nelson puts it) the baby waved!!!  I saw it too.  Nelson knows it must be our baby, because it already has a sense of humor and can't wait to come out!  The midwife also said I'm as healthy as can be and that I'm doing everything right, so hooray!  We've been nervous about telling people, because we wanted to wait until the 12 week point (for reasons to scary to mention), but Janna said at that point there's nothing physical that I can do to cause this to change.  She said at this point there's a 95% chance of a full term pregnancy.  So, the word has started getting out.  I'm just about to post it on MySpace and Facebook.  I hope to scan pictures and get those up soon too!!

The word is out!

Well, this pregnancy is no longer a secret!  I went on the women's retreat at church this weekend and I think it took them all of 10 minutes to figure out the news.  The retreat started off with happy hour and of course I wasn't drinking, so people got suspicious.  THEN, apparently I was "glowing in a special way" (meaning I was dead tired from teaching 2nd grade all week, not sure how they got "glowing") and the eventually just figured it out.  It was very fun though!  Everyone was very excited and congratulating me and it was very fun!