Clay's first Father's (to-be) day

I hadn't planned on getting Clay a Father (to be) card for Father's day but I saw one that I couldn't resist. For those of you that know Clay well, you know that our house revolves around ONE thing from April until October/November.....BASEBALL, specifically CARDINALS Baseball.

I found this card. It is a card on "diapering" and lays out the steps for diapers in baseball terms. PERFECT! It says:

Step 1: Lay diaper like a baseball diamond.

Step 2: Fold second base over home plate.

Step 3: Place the baby on the pitcher' mound and fold first base and third base over infield. Then pin or tape to home plate.

Step 4: Hope there isn't a rainout.


He got a good kick out of the card. The first of many;o)

On a related note, I can finally share one of the first purchases I have made for our baby. It was the day I found out I was pregnant and neighbor of Liz's was having a garage sale with tons of baby stuff so I was just going to look. However, they were Cardinals fans so I couldn't resist buying these.... Clay was a bit freaked out since we had just found out but they are adorable. I figured they were "unisex" enough. Today Clay even held one back up and smiled. He likes them now that the idea of being a dad has settled a bit more. Can't wait to put our cutie in them next summer for the baseball games.

Spreading the word

We had only told 3 people our good news. Then we stayed mum. It was hard. I'm not much of a secret keeper really. There were so many people I wanted to tell and everytime I talked to one of them I just wanted to blurt out "We are having a baby!!!" but I didn't. I am quite proud of myself for keeping a secret. However the time came to begin telling everyone. We started with my sister-in-law and our parents.

To tell Val I had called her and started chatting. When the conversation came around to babies (Val is also expecting- she is due in Nov) I asked how far along she was. I already knew the answer but when she said "17 weeks" I got to reply, "Well, I'm 9." She was very excited. I am very happy to be pregnant at the same time so we can experience this together. She is a great sister in law. I am excited that our children will be so close in age. She was glad that we were telling Clay's mom the next day because she didn't know how she was going to be able to keep it a secret. She also asked when she could start spreading the wonderful news.

Telling Clay's parents came next as we were going to see them the next day. We were going on vacation with them for a week in Florida and had decided to tell them the Thursday night before we left. (We had plans on telling my folks the same day but I was trying to come up with something special.) Clay came up with a cute way to tell his folks. (Backstory: during our first sonogram at week 6 the nurse had mentioned the baby would look like a TeddyGraham the next time we saw it and sure enough at the 8 week appointment, the baby looked like a wiggly TeddyGraham. See pictures from this post) So on Thursday night we took a box of TeddyGrahams with us to see Clay's parents. Before dinner, Clay mentioned that we brought dessert and got out the box of TeddyGrahams. No big deal until he mentioned that the small Teddy on the front resembled their 2nd grandchild. They got it right away and we celebrated.

We had really wanted to tell my parents in person but as we were going to be out of town (and I couldn't wait any longer) we devised a plan to tell them on Father's Day. We were going to take a picture of Clay and I holding the sonogram picture and send a text saying "Our new family picture" with a small message. We took the picture and sent the text. I then called to chat with my folks. We ran into a problem though. The text wasn't going through. We chatted for nearly 20 minutes and still no text. I don't think it has even come through to this day. Plan B, we did some quick photo transferring to my father-in-law's laptop and sent an email. Mom and Dad had been told their first grandkid would be here soon. We chatted and celebrated.

A few more weeks of silence (okay really only a few days after getting home from Florida) and we were ready to share the news all out. I told a few of my good friends and then we started telling everyone. We waited until July 1 at my 11 week mark since we had just had our first appt with my regular Dr. Everytime I tell one or two people, I think of even more people to tell. I'm sure it will take a few days to get the word out completely but it is so much fun to finally say "I am pregnant!!!"

Our last trip to Urbana

Today we headed back to the doctor in Urbana. We got there a little early as we left in plenty of time since we couldn't go through Downs like normal and new there was a bit of construction on 74. Plus the trip over was super rainy so I'm glad we had plenty of time to get there. I got to talk to the insurance lady before my appointment and everything is being correctly coded as pregnancy so I shouldn't get billed any co-pays. I am worried though because she said I may not get billed until I have the baby and I want to empty my Salary Stretcher Plus account so I want to pay it this year. I may have to call Health Alliance in a few months and see what is up.
Well, we had quite a party in the sono room today. Clay and I followed Nurse T in. She was going to perform the sono. She said a different nurse was also going to come in and asked if a nurse training to be a practitioner could also come in. Sure why not. So the 5 of us started the sono. They were quiet at first which of course worried me but then she turned the screen and there "he" was. (Again I don't like to say it so I have taken to saying "he".) It was so much bigger than last time. It was so cute (okay so I am saying it).
The nurse said it was being a co-operative baby and it was so easy to tell what it was. I used to have trouble seeing on other people's sonos but somehow when it's your own baby, you can see it just fine. She took lots of measurements and lots of pictures. Here is one:o)
Little bean has definitely grown. I heard the one nurse talking to the student and she kept calling it a "spontaneous pregnancy"(since I did it on my own without meds) and saying that they didn't know when ovulation was as they didn't stim ovulation. Then the doctor came in. Immediately, he smiled and after looking at the screen said "PERFECT." It all looks so good. He looked at my chart for a minute and then came over to stand by Clay. They just kept commenting on how everything looked so good and it was a "textbook" pregnancy. The doctor explained he had no concerns and would be releasing me to my regular doctor. He also said something about :"Ours is not to reason why." Then he shook our hands, said congrats, and walked out of the room. The other nurse and student did about the same but she also gave me the stop dates for my meds before she left. I will stop taking (or rather using) the Prometrium inserts at week 10 (2 weeks from yesterday) and I will stop taking the Metformin on July 8th unless Dr. Dutta wants me to continue. All in all it was a short but WONDERFUL visit. The heartbeat was 179 this time which seems high to me and Clay but they said anything 120-180 is normal and fine. Clay also looked it up online tonight and said it was within the range for now. We even got to hear the heartbeat today, but not for very long as they didn't want to overstimulate the baby. It was the neatest thing. I had a huge huge smile ;o) We made the drive home and will not miss the trips to Urbana. I will miss Dr. Jarrett and even though my pregnancy was "spontaneous" I know is happy for us and wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Now next week I will call my regular doctor again to see when they will want to see me. And just for your viewing pleasure...

Catching up

I haven't posted in a week and while it went by quickly it seems so long ago. I don't have a lot of exciting news to share but I do have various tidbits to post.

• I do not miss taking my basal body temps. I think about it occasionally and I really don't miss doing it every morning at 6. I thought about checking it just for fun but it should still be up as my hormone levels are up and I'm cooking a bun in the oven so we need to bring the heat!
• I jinxed myself today. I knew I shouldn't have said or even thought about it. I made the remark that I hadn't been nauseous since Saturday which was a nice break. I was nauseous almost daily each afternoon from about 4 until after dinner. I had a few days break and thought it was great. Too good to be true, but great. I jinxed myself and got nauseous again this afternoon. Even now I feel a bit of it.
  
• I am extremely tired. I generally get tired around 730pm and feel it is too early to really go to bed. However, 830pm is my new bed time. I have usually fallen asleep on the couch sometime between 7 and 8 and will wake up at 830 for my meds and then off to bed. Last weekend on Sat night I went to bed at 9 and slept till 8 the next day. (Not straight through of course cause I had to get up and pee a few times.)
• I keep telling Clay that I need a name for "it." I don't like to call it "it." Jokingly when we were at the bookstore a few weeks ago (I don't remember when) I picked up a baby name book and said that we would name our child (boy or girl) the first thing I pointed to. The name was Radcliff. I have used the name a few times as a joke still but Clay doesn't like it. I may have to settle on "little bean" or something else...hmmm......
• I feel like I need to make a list of "people to tell." I don't want to forget anyone but I fear that I will. We are also planning out when to tell our family and friends our great news.
  
• I am 8 weeks pregnant today. According to babycenter, Radcliff I mean the little bean is really that, "the size of a kidney bean. Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. The baby is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it."
• My boobs are still huge and a bit sore at times. I am already sick of sleeping in my bra but something tells me I will have to get used to it. I am slowly adjusting to sleeping on my side since I'm generally a stomach sleeper. However, my lower back isn't adjusting. I think I should do some back strengthening and stretching for the month's ahead.
  
• Tomorrow (Thurs) we head to Urbana again. This may be our last trip to Urbana if the doctor releases me to my regular ob/gyn. If they want to do a 10 week appt that will be a bit tricky as I will be in Florida. I will have to see what tomorrow brings but I am excited to see little bean again and see how it has grown. Hopefully it will cooperate for pics as I would like extra copies for the grandparents to assist in telling them of our little miracle.
  

Well I think that's about it... random tidbits to catch up on the week.

This post is brought to you by the number 2...

Number of weeks I have known I am pregnant: 2
Minimum number of times I get up a night to pee: 2
Number of melons I am carrying on my chest as boobs: 2