I normally share these updates monthly, but sadly that is not going to happen this time around! BUT, I have been keeping track of the little details and trying my best to take weekly photos at some point during the week. Time is limited now days with our busy life as a family of four, and I know that won't be changing once we are a family of five, so keeping the little details on this space is what's most important now. 

9 weeks:

• Nausea is all day now, even when I wake up in the middle of the night for a trip to the bathroom. Thankfully I haven't gotten sick, I really don't want to throw up. 
• Trying to keep my stomach full with snacks and big meals during the day, even if I don't want toe at. 
• Still using all the peppermint oil!
• Realized looking at my phone makes me feel sea sick, so I've been putting it down a lot. 
• My chin is COVERED in zits & my hair is also become super curly?!?

10 weeks:

• Sea bands are helping SO MUCH!!! Wearing them all day and trying to eat small snacks during the day. 
• Not enjoying meat that much unless it's beef, but still loving salads. Especially taco salads with ground beef!!! 
• Asher has self weaned all on his own, except for first thing in the morning. We'll see if he weans that soon, not going to push it. 
• The belly is very evident now, especially by the end of the day! 
• Had my first midwife appointment this week and got to hear the heartbeat, 161 and so beautiful! 
• It's been a hard week and I've had several times when I've been scared to death about having a third baby, but I know that God will provide like he always does! Leaning into Him for patience and strength. 

11 weeks:

• We announced Eliya Baby 3!!! 
• Eating meat much easier now, even some chicken. Still craving burgers and/or salads.... I'm going to be shocked if this little bit is a girl since I craved the same exact things with the boys before. The only difference is the aversion to chicken. 
• Most days this week I've felt awesome all morning and afternoon till 4, then I hit the brick wall and feel awful! 
• Felt the baby move the day before I was 12 weeks!! Couldn't believe it. 

12 weeks:

• Feeling so much better and loving the little flutters I'm feeling in my belly off and on during the day! 
• Been praying most of this pregnancy to feel better by Solomon's Birthday (the day I turn 13 weeks) but I'm so thankful that God has shown His faithfulness and given me the full week ahead! As long as I keep something in my stomach I feel great!
• Feeling all the hormonal emotions with having a four year old and knowing just how fast it all goes by.

13 weeks:

• Shocked at how round my belly is by the end of the day after eating throughout the day! 
• Enjoying all the foods now, but sweets still don't make me feel super great. I usually just want to skip them. 
• After a busy day for Solomon's birthday party, I felt my first braxton hicks contractions and was shocked they were showing up so early. Trying my best to remember to drink water on the busy days. 

14 weeks:

• Still feeling good with a lot of energy as long as I pace myself. Trying to stay hydrated with a lot of water, also. Craving it most days so it's easy to keep my yeti around with ice water. 
• Enjoyed a short trip to Charleston with the boys while daddy was working. We loved eating some yummy food and of course some Jeni's Ice Cream! 

15 weeks:

• Nausea hit pretty hard on the ride home from Charleston which was a random surprise. 
• Happy to be home and sleeping in our bed again! 
• Celebrated six years of marriage with a date downtown and walking around and enjoying some apps from some of our favorite spots. 
• Flew to Maine and realized how my lap space is quickly disappearing with Asher on my lap! 

16 weeks:

• Felt so old and tired by 7:30 on the night of the wedding! HAHA, we were in bed before midnight which is a first for a family wedding. 
• Enjoyed so much delicious seafood during the trip but we craving a burger by day 4!
• Also had some swollen feet for the first time this pregnancy after a lot of walking and sight seeing. Trying to take it easy and rest when I can. 

17 weeks:

• Feeling the baby much stronger now, a few kicks have surprised me! 
• Needing more food and a lot of snacks throughout the day to keep up my energy. 
• Round ligament pain and the aches are starting. The chiropractor is a must!!!
• Very happy to be home with no trips anytime 

18 weeks:

• Random waves of nausea that got really bad and no food would help. Thankfully the preggy pops helped a little till it passed. This is one of the few things that makes me wonder if we have a baby girl on the way?? 
• Exhausted by bedtime and falling asleep with the boys most nights. 
• Got to hear babies heartbeat at the midwife appointment and Solomon helped hold the Doppler, it was a sweet moment! 

19 weeks:

• Starting to run out of breath, especially when we are out and about and Asher wants to be carried. 
• Enjoying naptime with Asher each day and taking a quick snooze while I lay down with him and Solomon has his quiet time each day. It's the best little break in the middle of our busy days.
• Found out about baby girl and we are all so excited and shocked!

20 weeks:

• Received some gifts for Olive and it seems UNREAL that we are getting a baby girl. It's truly crazy. 
• Our family got hit by a cold this week which helped us all slow down and rest, which was very nice. Hoping we can all fight the funk quickly. 
• The drainage and snot from the cold is making the pregnancy nausea return and it is not fun at all. 

Pregnancy Post // months one & two.

It's so surreal to be tracking these details again and writing one of these posts. I just want to pinch myself sometimes, but then I realize how nauseous I feel most of the time, and I know it's really happening. I've never been so thankful to feel so awful. I'm praying constantly for this little babe, and literally can not wait till late October to find out if another boy will join our family, or if we are all going to be shocked to get a girl. My bets are on boy, just based on how I've been feeling and the things I'm craving, but we'll see! I can't wait!! 

Because I have been feeling so rough, I've been slack on photos. And let's be honest... I'm also chasing after two crazy boys, so I forget!! But, I am making more of an effort now, so the coming months will hopefully step up a bit! 

4 weeks:

• found out I was pregnant the day before I was four weeks after a crazy night of dreams, one being me taking a test and seeing a positive line. I had been testing for the last couple of weeks hoping for a positive but gave up on Friday the 5th of July since it seemed like my window was finally gone for a positive test. I was still feeling off during the week ahead but I kept thinking it was in my head. Then, one week later, on Friday the 12th of July I got that light pink line! I was so confused and excited. 
• coffee tastes like an ashtray, which is so sad. 
• near the end of four weeks, some light nausea started. 

^ 5 week belly....

shocked at how round this belly is so early, 

granted this was at the end of the day after dinner. 

plus, these two with me in this photo is perfect!!!

5 weeks: 

• so. tired. surviving on naps during the day and really weird dreams all night long. 
• trying my best to get out of the house so I won't sit around all day. 
• no food aversions yet and only enjoying ice coffee with a lot of vanilla creamer.

6 weeks:

• sweets are a no go, especially ice cream but snacking on grapes and fruit are still good. 
• starting to crave nachos of any kind.... yum!
• trying to find energy to prepare for our homeschooling year starting in September and hoping I feel better by then. 

^ middle of my 7th week....

woke up with this belly on 8/13, so happy!

7 weeks:

• nausea is much worse and changes daily so it's very unpredictable. I never know if it is going to be mornings, afternoons or evenings... or even all day long. Every day is different. 
• had our first ultrasound on 8/6 and found out we were 7w3d. Since my positive test was so late, we weren't sure when we conceived and definitely needed an early dating ultrasound. 
• diffusing a lot of peppermint to make it through the day. 

^ a couple days before 9 weeks....

Mom took this at the game on 8/15 and had to crop it 

for FB since we hadn't announced the news yet.

8 weeks: 

• craving mexican food but still nauseous no matter what I eat. Feel great as I'm eating but then 20-30 minutes later I feel so sick. 
• dealing with a small summer cold and trying to rest/sleep as much as I can. 
• salads are so good right now, but chicken is a definite no, unless it's fried chicken. 
• went to Atlanta for the Jets game and survived a lot of walking and heat, despite the bad nausea and lack of sleep. 
• we missed restaurant week, which NEVER happens, so I'm clearly pregnant and feeling like poop. ha!

pregnancy post // month three.

Weeks 9-12

(Weeks 9 & 10 I don't have pictures.... oops!
Week nine was at the beach, then week ten, I had a horrible cold!)

9 weeks: 

• The morning sickness has switched to mornings instead of afternoons and nights. 
• The belly has officially popped out and it's crazy how pregnant I feel this week!
• Strong aversion to any kind of pork which is so weird because I craved it when I was pregnant with Solomon and love it in general while not pregnant. I hear anything pork and my mind is intrigued because I should love it but then my stomach feels awful and says no! 
• Enjoyed the beach vacation and relaxing by the ocean while working on a little tan! It was so nice and so needed. 
• Solomon mentions the baby randomly now and pats my belly. He even prayed for the baby once, makes my heart melt! 
• We had the dating ultrasound and the baby was measuring at 12/30 and the heart rate was 169. 

10 weeks:

• We told our exciting news to the world! 
• Zits are still happening, which did not happen this late last time.... but neither did the nausea. Both super fun things to deal with, ha!
• The nausea did leave during the cold over the weekend but decided to come back after I was feeling better. I guess I'm thankful that I didn't have both the cold and nausea at the same time. 
• Chicken is a big craving right now, pretty much the only meat that I want to eat at the moment. 
• Small meals are already important, or I get over full and feel awful and can't sleep at night. 

11 weeks:

• My tailbone is already very sensitive and hurts if I sit for too long. 
• Still pretty small in the mornings but I feel huge by night. 
• Making time and finding energy for the gym this week and really glad, it makes me feel so much better. 
• Nausea is still around, especially first thing in the morning and after I eat anything, and even worse after something sweet. 
• Had an awful migraine monday night that blinded me for a couple of hours. Some sleep and a hot cloth on my forehead helped make it go away.
• I get so tired everyday around 4PM and I have to take a nap, even if Solomon is awake. If he is, I turn on the tv and sit him on the couch beside me and lay down by him to close my eyes while he watches a show. If I'm driving I can barely keep my eyes open on the road, it's so crazy. 

12 weeks:

• The nausea seems worse than ever instead of going away!
• Falling asleep with Solomon all the time and Peter has to come wake me up when he's ready to go to bed. 
• Stomach aches and some round ligament pain made things uncomfortable this week. 
• Solomon not sleeping that great and waking up around 3AM at night has definitely made me more tired. 

Pregnancy Post // the past eight weeks.

I'm so thankful for all the love and sweet comments we have received about our new little babe to join our family. It really is so surreal to experience everything all over again. I'm so thankful that God has given me this opportunity and privledge to grow a life and raise another baby. I pray that his or her heart will love Him fully one day and that they will yearn for His kingdom and not this world. Motherhood is such a blessing and also a heavy task, which I do not take lightly. 

We all know how I love the little details in most things with life, and I especially love to keep track of them here on the blog. I love looking back at all the pregnancy details from when I was pregnant with Solomon, so I thought I would do something similar this time around. I'm going to tweak it a bit and make it a little easier to share, but I do want to remember all the important details this time, too!


Let's start at the beginning........ 

April 8th, 2017 

I took a test because I was feeling really off and possibly pregnant but I wasn't sure if I was making it up in my head. After taking a test and seeing a very faint positive line I was shocked. I was super tired all the time, had really bad headaches for days, and was feeling really sore while Solomon nursed so it made sense but I didn't believe it. I somehow felt like it wasn't right. The next day I took another test and it was negative. Then a few days later I took another and it was also negative. I then realized that I had a very rare false positive. My heart was hurting much more than I expected, but seeing that positive test and then realizing that there was no baby, was really hard. I didn't expect things to happen quickly this time around but that little bit of false hope stung. After some heart to heart talks with my husband, my mom and some sweet girl friends, I knew that I needed to relax and place our family in God's hands. I knew in my heart that he had everything sorted out and my stress and concern would only make things harder in the long run. 

April 23, 2017

After our week in Asheville I knew I wanted to take a test since I had a few feelings that made me think that I could be pregnant. When I woke up on Sunday morning, after a night of crazy dreams, I knew it was a high chance. I only dream when I'm pregnant, so after constant random and weird dreaming all night, I had to check! We had a busy morning teaching Sunday school at church, and lunch at Peter's mom's house like always, so I waited till after Solomon was down for his nap to take a test. The line showed instantly and I was so shocked. Peter couldn't believe it either, it was such a wonderful Sunday afternoon surprise for us! I was technically 4 weeks and 2 days when I found out. I definitely had a hard time believing it was true even with all the signs and feelings that I was having. After the false positive the weeks before, I took several tests over the next few weeks, but I didn't have a real peace of mind until we saw that sweet baby on an ultrasound. The amount of fear that the enemy put in my head was a real struggle for me, but I'm so thankful that all is going well and we have a healthy growing baby!

Now on to the details..........

• Nauseous at random times all day long, and always after I eat anything, but no food aversions.
• Zits like crazy, those really painful deep zits that you can't even pop.
• Cramping and backaches and so tired every afternoon but I can't seem to nap when Solomon naps, I just want to crash once he wakes up around 4.
• Had a dream where I woke up almost crying because Daryl died on an episode of The Walking Dead. See, such strange dreams!!!
• Our nighttime routine has been pretty rough lately since I still nurse Solomon to sleep before bed and before naptime. I have also noticed a huge drop in my supply since I found out I was pregnant and he seems to take forever to fall asleep because he isn't satisfied like before. It makes me sad since this is usually my favorite part of the day. 

• Emooooootional! I can hardly get through an episode of Grey's Anatomy without crying, which is very abnormal for me. 
• Each days nausea seems worse than the one before.... I keep waiting to actually throw up at some point. Nights are really bad.
• The cleaning schedule has gone out the window which I really hate but I have no energy or desire to do anything.
• So many zits in my T-zone area, especially around my nose.

• Celebrated Mother's Day! So excited to officially have two babies to be thankful for on this sweet day. 
• Experiencing a lot of cramping and a very small bump is starting to appear, I guess the second is going to show a lot faster!
• Sleeping really hard and still having crazy dreams.... the funnies one so far, I actually had twins and we were leaving the hospital with Solomon in his car seat but the babies were in shoe boxes and there was a boy shoe box and a girl shoe box. Once we got home I couldn't find the girl shoe box and I was freaking out, Peter didn't seem upset or concerned at all. I woke up really stressed and freaking out, ha!
• Nursing is getting more and more uncomfortable but we are officially only nursing before bed and first thing in the morning. Two times a day is a huge cutback but he doesn't seem to mind now that there isn't much to drink. The naptime routine has gone from an hour long process to 5-10 minutes. 
• Still a lot of zits, Peter confirmed that I had painful zits in my ears when I was pregnant with Solomon, and I have them again. Such a weird and annoying symptom. 

• Really thankful that we have weaned all day nursing now because it is so painful and my supply is so low it seems pointless the one time he does it at night and in the morning. He seems more frustrated at night so we are going to stop that after our trip to the beach. 
• My skin seems to be clearing up! Yay!! Well, just kidding... no it's not.
• Nausea is really bad in the afternoon and night. Pretty much feel sick anytime I eat now but I still want to eat, especially dill pickles, they are my favorite. Such a cliche!
• Can't cook at all, especially any meat. Poor Peter is living on grilled cheese, or he's cooking, or my mom is cooking for us!
• We had our first appointment and got to see and hear that sweet heart beat on daddy's birthday! It was a great day as a family celebrating!! 

Pregnancy Post // month four.

& just like that, we are finished with month four!

Weeks 13 - 16

TYPO // I was NOT tired and groggy the whole time. HA!

Month four was wonderful. Women were NOT lying when they say that the second trimester is the BEST! I'm loving it so much. Each day I'm feeling more round and I'm loving this little bump that I'm growing for this little one that I love so much already.

Some questions we have been asked

how many kids do you want // even from when we were dating we always said we both wanted a lot of kids. I've been a fan of five for as long as I can remember, but ever since we were engaged and planning for marriage, we have both said that three might be the magic number. That is the minimum we want, then we will discuss the possibility of more. I grew up with one brother, Peter grew up with a brother and two sisters - so I would love a big family because I didn't have that and he would love a big family because that's all he knows. So, Lord willing, we would love to have at least 3 and be a family of five!

what is your plans for the nursery // well... surprise, we are finding out the sex now. I was more than comfortable with the idea of waiting until a Saturday morning a few weeks ago. I rolled over in bed and put my hand on my tummy and said outloud "I have to know what you are!" and with that the decision was made. I just can't wait!!! Peter of course gave me his "I told you so speech" but he was happy about the decision.
With knowing what the sex is I'm looking forward to adding little touches of boy or girl in the room but the majority of everything will be gender neutral because we want to use the nursery for all of our kids. I would love to have a pale grey color on the walls and add in a lot of white and natural wood accents. I have a lot in mind and I will share more with a post specifically about the design ideas very soon!

do you have names picked out // yes, we do! I'm going to keep things quiet here on the blog until we know the sex for sure but we are so excited about the names we have chosen. The boy name has been known for a very long time and it has always been REALLY hard to agree on girl names, so I was very happy when Peter mentioned a girl name that I also loved. Now, we just need to find out what this little angel is.... and agree on a girl middle name if this little one is a girl!

the strange and the good.

One thing about pregnancy that I knew I would experience, but wasn't quite sure how it would go down, is the emotional side of everything. I tend to be an emotional person with most things already so I was wondering how that would change. Little things always get to me but now they REALLY get to me. I feel more passionate about certain things and while having discussions with Peter about them, I've always kept my cool. One of the many things that I've always been thankful for with our relationship is how we've always been able to TALK OUT anything. Just in the past few months I've been turning on the waterworks while talking so easily. Some big things, some little things (like what to eat for dinner or Peter correcting my driving skills – seriously!), so I'm never sure how things will go.

Here's a little story for ya…. just recently I had an overwhelming sense of thankfulness for that man of mine and I reached for my phone to send him a little "I love you, thank you for loving me, and thanks for being the father to our growing baby" kind of text, just because I felt I needed to. The night before, I had asked Peter to grab my vitamins and some OJ before we started The Walking Dead since he was in the kitchen and I was already on the couch. While he was getting all the vitamins together he mentioned that my prenatal vitamins were getting low and asked if we needed to get some more. I reminded him that we had them set up on auto ship from Amazon to save money and he said he'd check tomorrow and see when we should get them. Fast forward to the next morning, as I said, I was sitting at my desk and thought I'd send him that mushy, I'm an emotional pregnant women text, and when I grabbed my phone from my purse I saw I already had a text from Peter. He was just letting me know when we should receive the next bottle of prenatal vitamins and asked if we should move it up? Tears, guys… I had tears. In my head I was thinking, he remembered to check on my vitamins! I didn't even remember about my vitamins!!! He is so thoughtful! How did I find him, I am so blessed!!!

Oh man, some of the emotional side effects of this growing baby can be tough. I can sit on my bed and cry about my shoes all around my room instead of in my closet. Those things happen, but then the moments happen when I feel so thankful and grateful for this life that I get to live and the little life that we are creating. In awe of a God that created women to bring life into this world for His Kingdom and the privilege and honor that I feel that He has given me that task. It is good. it is strange and crazy at times but it is also sweet and so, so good.

Pregnancy Post // First Favorites.

The first trimester wasn't the easiest but I know that I had it a lot easier than some.

I thought it would be fun to keep track of all the things that helped that first month

go by a little bit better. I know all of these things made a difference!

1// new toxic free beauty products

I read THIS article when I found out I was pregnant and my thought process changed completely about what I put on my skin. I mainly looked for parabens and mineral oil and after a lot of research I decided to go with all the items above.

Tarte Cosmetics has wonderful products that truly last and look beautiful on. I'm completely in love with the mascara and the concealer.

Of course, I've always been a fan of Lush Ocean Salt but the grease lightening was so helpful when I got a bad cold and I didn't want to take my normal medication for fever blisters. This stuff zapped it all away so quickly.

Thanks to Target's Natural Beauty line I found the Yes to Cucumber line that I really love.
I also decided to go back to one of my old reliables that I kind of forgot about, but this cleansing lotion feels sooooooo good on my skin. Thanks to the Yes to Cucumber face cream I remembered this cleanser and thought the two together would be amazing. I've been using both every night and day! AND, thankfully, both are very affordable. 

2// naps, all the naps!

Not much I can say to explain this but I love my naps.... this hasn't really gone away in my second trimester. HA!

3// fruit

Once the nausea passed during week 9 I started to crave fruit. I have to have a banana every morning and I've also found a new love for mango. I read somewhere that a mango is so good for babies because of all the vitamins that they have and I never liked fresh mango but I thought I'd give it another try since it would be worth it. I was happy to find that I loved it!! And of course my usual fave, super crunchy, purple grapes. YUM, add in a little vanilla yogurt and you have one of my favorite snacks. 

4// OJ with prenatal vitamins

I'm actually taking THESE and THESE every night and I tried to take them with water a couple of times and I thought I would lose it. Oh man, so bad.... not the best taste and I could hardly swallow them. Then I figured out that OJ really helped and I could actually take them without gagging. Thank God for OJ! 

5// raw almonds

Seriously, the only thing that got me through those first few weeks of nausea! My nausea was all over the place... whenever I thought I had it figured out, it would change. I started with just a little in the mornings, then it changed to evenings, then it changed to ALL DAY for about two weeks. I was so afraid that I would have to deal with that for a long time but thankfully it ended earlier than expected. BUT - raw almonds were my go to and they always settled my stomach!

There you have it, my secret weapons for my First Trimester!!

What were some of your favorites??

& what do I need for my Second Trimester?

Pregnancy Post // month three.

Holy cow, month three???

well, here are all the details and pictures below....

Weeks 10 - 12

Things have been so great the past three weeks and I'm so happy to end month three on a high note!! I was afraid that I would feel terrible until the 2nd Trimester but I'm thankful that things turned around at the end of 9 weeks and by 10 weeks I felt like my old self again. I was really afraid that I would hate pregnancy and after dreaming about being pregnant for a while now, I was super bummed. So, I'm very happy that things have changed and I'm loving it.

Some questions we have been asked

When do my new weeks begin //

On Mondays. I love that I get to start each week with a new milestone and it helps me stay organized here on the blog as well. Most of my pregnancy related posts will happen on Tuesdays but this is a special Thursday post since this is week 13 for me and that means I've started month four.

Any decision on finding out the sex //

I'm hoping that I've won Peter over but I'm not pushing it.... we will make our final decision at our 20 week ultrasound which has now been scheduled!! Can't wait to see our little one and make sure all the measurements are good to go during the Anatomy Scan.

That being said, I do have a gut feeling that this little babe is a girl and so do a lot of people, including Peter.

You switched to a midwife??? //

Yes, I did! I'm so happy with the decision and I feel such a peace about working with this group of women. I will be delivering in a hospital but I had a hope of trying a waterbirth and that option was not available if I stayed with the OB I was using. They informed me that the Midwife Group at GHS works very closely with them and if waterbirth is a big deal then I could switch to them. I had already heard about them from a friend of mine but I still wasn't sure if that was the right place for me to be. Thankfully, they have a meeting once a month called "Meet the Midwives" and it was the perfect opportunity for me to test the waters (no pun intended!). I left the meeting on cloud nine!! I had happy tears several times during the meeting and I knew the Lord was pushing me to switch. The women are amazing and their passion for Moms and childbirth is so comforting! I could not be happier with my decision to switch and now I can have my chance to try a natural waterbirth in the hospital, I'm so excited! 

 I think that's it for now....

if you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to leave them below.

I love to learn and grow from all of the wonderful mommas out there!!  

Pregnancy Post // the past nine weeks.

Or for those of you that were once like me and didn't understand why pregnant women go by weeks, I also mean, the past 2 months. I'm so looking forward to tracking the weeks and months here on the blog with my pregnancy. I love following along with some of my favorite mama bloggers and I feel so blessed to share everything about my little one with all of you! 

This is my first time with all of these changes so I am excited to see all of the excitement ahead. I loved all of the love we have received on here, Facebook and Instagram. It just makes all of this even sweeter to know how excited you are for us! During the past several weeks I have been tracking some details so I can keep all the little things to look back on one day, and maybe this little babe will want to see these one day, too!

Weeks 4 - 9

Some questions that we have been asked

// were you trying? 

well.... yes and no. We were ready to start trying in January so we were a little relaxed about everything in December. I repeatedly told Peter that it would probably take several months and he always disagreed with me. I guess he was right after all. I found out I was pregnant on December 30th when I was only 4 weeks and 1 day. 

// how'd you find out?

I knew there was a chance so I was very impatient and started taking the early sign at home pregnancy tests since I stocked up on a few boxes. I had some holiday parties to attend and I knew that there would be some alcohol involved so I wanted to be on the safe side. I took a test on Sunday the 28th because I didn't feel "normal" and it was negative. I took that to mean that I was right, it would take a couple of months for something to happen.
Then a couple of days later, on Tuesday the 30th, I still felt really off. I honestly thought I might have had a UTI and called my OB to schedule an appointment. They weren't able to fit me in until January and they suggested going to my normal doctor since they could run the same urine tests. So, there I went and I told the nurse that there was a chance that I could be pregnant. She offered to run a pregnancy test and I thought "why not? I'm sure it's negative again!" After answering the normal questions the nurse stepped out to check on the test. When she returned to the room she had a big smile on her face and said "CONGRATULATIONS! Looks like you are pregnant!!" I almost fell off the table. I even asked her if she was kidding... ha! Also, turns out I didn't have a UTI at all, just extra sensitive and feeling off because of the pregnancy which seems to be common. 

// how'd I tell Peter? 

I received a bottle of wine from work as a late Christmas gift the same day that I went to the doctor. After my appointment I actually had to go back to work for an hour until I could go home. I was about to die... 

So when I left work I decided to give the wrapped bottle of wine to Peter and ask him to open it since I didn't know what kind it was. He looked it over and told me what it was. I replied with "well, looks like you might have to enjoy it on your own" as I pulled out the pregnancy test from the doctors office out of my purse. His first response was a big kiss which made me feel so happy! We were definitely both shocked but he later told me that he had a feeling since I had been so tired lately and he always thought it would happen the first try.

// how'd you tell others? 
We decided to tell immediate family and close friends pretty soon (mainly because I was so excited and could hardly keep my mouth shut!) but the best story of all is how I told my co-workers.
I had my first appointment and saw the little angel and heard the heart beat and was so excited. I went into work after the morning appointment and emailed one of my counterparts to let her know that she will need to cover for me more frequently because we were expecting. I told her my next appointment date and asked her to put it on her calendar.
About a minute later another co-worker came to my desk and said "congratulations!!!" I turned around really confused. He then said "You are expecting, right?" I was shocked and asked how he knew? He said from the email I just sent to everyone.........
I somehow sent the email to my ENTIRE TEAM instead of emailing the one person I meant to email. Funny now, but I was freaking out at the time. HA! I'm just thankful that we are all a really close team and feel more like a family, that made it much easier.

// are we finding out the sex?

I have always thought it would be so fun to wait until the birth but Peter was never a fan of that plan so it was easy to be persuaded. I still wish we could wait to find out beacuse I love the idea, but it is so exciting to find out and decorate the room. So yes, we are planning to find out at our 20 week ultrasound, unless I can change Peter's mind before then! ;)

// any weird cravings or aversions?
The weirdest one (which I mentioned in week 7) is mustard. The dream consisted of me eating a spoonful of dijon mustard and I instantly woke up and almost went downstairs to get a spoonful. Then I realized it was 3AM and that was a CRAZY idea so I went back to sleep. Bizar... also, I could throw down a huge BBQ sandwich with tons of mustard BBQ sauce at any moment. YUM!
There hasn't been anything that has caused me to hurl... thankfully! However, I've never been a huge sweets person since I'd always pick chips and salsa over sweets but anything that includes peanut butter and chocolate would always change my mind. Apparently baby does not agree with me. I thought for a while that it was any kind of sweets that would make me nauseous but I started to realize it's anything that inclues chocolate, which is honestly not a bad thing. Other than chocolate I havn't had anything really bother me, thank God!

I will be updating my weeks here on the blog after every month so if you like this kind of thing (you know, baby bumps and TMI pregnancy details) then you are in for a treat! Can't wait to see how the months ahead will go! We are so thankful for this wonderful blessing in our life!