Cody and I have been trying for a baby since November 2017. We never expected it to take a long time for us to conceive a baby... but after months and months of trying we were getting no where quick! It was a very humbling experience and took away all our naivety about the process. Honestly, it wasn't fun at all. It sucked. There's no other describing it... it sucked. Just before the year mark we started with fertility testing and I bought got an Ovusense sensor/app to track my cycles better... We went 3 months and then I also a HSG procedure done that put dye in my tubes and cleaned them out... And then not too long after that we finally had some success!!
However, I was really surprised! Because I had been tracking my temperatures and it didn't look like my temperatures were staying consistently higher, so I thought that I was going to get my period in May for sure. So much so that even on Cinco Day Mayo Cody and I had a drink! The next day, on May 6th, my period still hadn't started yet and I was just getting ready to have a few Seagrams... but I decided to take a test just in case. And I was absolutely shocked to see a slight little line on the test!!
I had just bought 20 pregnancy test strips and 50 ovulation test strips about a week before... (and they were relatively cheap). So I immediately ran down stairs to see Cody napping on the couch, so I left him alone and ran out Walgreens to buy a "better" test. When I came home, Cody was up and outside grilling so I walked out to him with the first test. And we were talking for a second, and I told him that we better make sure that the excursions we pick for our Alaskan cruise were pregnancy safe... because we were going to need them to be. Then I showed him the positive test! He was excited, but a little skeptical because the line was just BARELY visible. It got more exciting the next couple days when I took tests each morning. I kept taking the tests until the pregnancy line got as dark the test line (which was about a week later).
At night time, my cat likes to cuddle and lay on my chest. So after I found out that I was pregnant I kept telling my 18 lb. cat, Cosmo not to step on the baby... and I lifting his paws up so that he'd walk with less weight on them. He picked up on the fact that I didn't want him stepping on my tummy relatively quickly, and he was super gently walking on me. I also had to take to sleeping on the couch, because I have been pretty nauesous at night time. When I lay propped up on the couch, I feel a lot better, but I feel super sick trying to lay in our bed. It really sucks, because Cody and I are cuddlers and I wish laying with him. I keep testing it out and to see if I'm ok to lay up there, but so far no good. Hopefully I'll be able to make it back up into our bed soon, because the couch is starting to hurt my back.
Besides Cody, the first person that I told was my Aunt Becky. We had been heavily talking about pregnancy related stuff, and she was also pregnant (9 weeks ahead of us). So it was really exciting to tell her and become "pregnancy buddies." And I'm super excited that the babies will be so close in age! I was really worried that our kids wouldn't have any cousins around their age... so I really can't describe how full this makes my heart. The longer and longer it took us to have a baby, the more and more I was worried that our baby would be left behind without kids it's own age to grow up with. 3M's maternity policy is really good, so I'm hoping to still be on maternity leave in the summer when Becky is out of school so that we can have playdates and go out to places together.
My best friend, Hannah, was the second person that we told. We were supposed to hang out the weekend before, but our plans got cancelled. I went over to hangout with her the next week and told her... her first response was "I knew it! You were acting strange and I just had a feeling that you were wanting to tell me this last weekend..." Yes Hannah! That is correct! Haha! Right after that, I gave her some baby fever, because she asked me for the extra ovulation strips that I had just gotten. so hopefully they will decide to have baby number 2 soon too!
However, one thing that I have to point out is (and I'm not sure why), but I found that I had a lot of anxiety leading up to each time that I told someone that I was pregnant. I'm not exactly sure why I felt this way... It's kind of like the feeling you get when you go to get a shot, and you have apprehension before the shot... but then afterwards you're like "oh that wasn't too bad." I think that I just felt a little shy/embarassed about how people were going to react. I always thought I'd be super excited to tell everyone, but... I dunno it was weird, I really felt very awkward in each of the times that we told people, but the awkwardness went away after the inital reveal.
Cody's mom's retirement party was on June 1st, so we went back to Hancock to see everyone. Our first doctor's appointment wasn't until June 10th and we really were hoping to get to wait to tell everyone until after that appointment... but it just didn't feel right to go and see everyone in person and then call a week or two later with the news. So we decided to tell Cody's family while we were in town. We had lunch with Cody's dad when we got in town, so he was the first one to find out. Then later on that night, we went to a cabin area that Deb had rented out and just about everyone was there. I was SO anxious the whole time we were there! I kept avoiding my sister in laws because I was hoping that they wouldn't ask me how it was going... because I really wanted Cody to get to tell his family. So I'm literally a mess the whole day, and I kept trying to catch Cody's eye and tell him to say something... But finally, after dinner, Amber and Chance were getting ready to leave and we both had the "Oh crap! We gotta say something now" look. So we went out onto the porch to say our goodbyes, and Cody told Krista "Hey if you need a ride home from mom's retirement party tomorrow, Melanie can give you one because she's can't drink." And Krista said, "Can't drink? Or won't drink?" And I said, "Can't!" And both Krista and Amber got it immediately and started screaming and hugging us. Then of course, Deb, was by us and was like "What!? What!?! What'd I miss?" And all the rest of the family started pouring out onto the porch to see what was happening, and I yelled out that I was pregnant! Everyone was so excited and hugging and congratulating us. I'm glad that we got to tell everyone because it was fun talking with them about it during our stay! Much more fun to tell in person than to call them later on (however, it was an anxious feeling leading up to the telling...)
The next day, Deb mentioned in her retirement speech that she was soon to be a grandma of 5. So everyone cheered then, and I was off to the side taking pictures (of course) so I gave everyone a little wave which confirmed that it was us having the baby. That pretty much told a lot of the people we hadn't been able to talk with yet.
On June 10th, we were able to go to our first doctor's appointment. And at this point, I was super nervous that they were going to say it was all a misunderstanding and that I wasn't actually pregnant or something... I had a lot of nervousness leading up to this appointment. Well we got there and they put this super nicely heated gel onto me (I was surprised by this, I wasn't expecting them to have a gel warmer). And the had a big screen TV ahead of us for us to watch, and sure enough the tech moved around and showed us the baby! I think that my jaw was probably dropped, because I was so excited to see it. After trying for so long, it just felt surreal to finally be here and see the baby. It was truly amazing to see it! We saw the baby wiggling around on the screen and it had a strong heartbeat of 188 beats per minute! So that was a super excting day and we were both excited and felt more confident after that. We got our packet of information, and a detailed list of what our next appointments would be. The only downside is that our 20 week appointment (where we find out the gender) was over the same week as our Alaskan Cruise! So we were definetely hoping to get in a few days ahead of 20 weeks so that we can find out the gender before our cruise!
That weekend was Father's Day weekend so it was the perfect timing on telling my parents. I actually had my mom cover over on Friday, June 16th. At first she kept saying that she was busy and wouldn't be able to come over but I kept pressing her to come... When she came over, we handed her the Ultrasound pictures to look at. And she was very excited and gave us a hug. The next day she was out shopping and started looking at diapers. She also told my Aunt Karen which was fine, because like I said... I had lots of nerves about telling people so I didn't mind.
On Sunday, dad came over for father's day and I got him a shirt for Father's Day that said "Great Dads get upgraded to Grandpa's" And I was smiling as he was reading it, and after he read it he looked up and was like "Really?" And I was like yep! We sure are, and then we showed him the Ultrasound pictures that we had. I knew that dad was going to tell his friends and he told both of my uncles.
On Thursday, June 20th I told the people that I work with during our standup meeting. We were having a work trip to Cedar Point on Saturday (that I was in charge of planning) and I knew I wouldn't be able ride anything... so I figured that I should spill the beans.
On June 21st, the Summer Solstice, I had read a post on Facebook that said that at night on the Summer Solstice that it was the most powerful day of the year. It said to write your hopes and dreams onto a piece of paper and throw it into a fire that you created. Well... why not, right? I lit a candle and wrote on a postit note, " I hope that Cody and I have a healthy and happy baby boy." Yes... I said boy. I hope that we have one of each, but I was kind of hoping that we'd have a boy first... ANYWAY... I put the post it note into the fire and it immediately all gets engulfed into a flame... except one corner didn't burn... I looked at it and it was the corner that said the word boy. And I swear, I tried everything... but I could not get that corner to burn. I had to go inside and get a fork and hold the piece of paper into the flame... and it wouldn't catch fire... wouldn't catch fire... and then finally after a while did! So now I'm convinced that we're probably going to have a girl! Which is fine! I don't really care... I'm just excited to have a baby! The next day, I had to go to Cedar Point for a work event, and I meet up with a woman from my work that I had told about the summer solstice claim. She said that she made a big bonfire that night, and threw 5 pieces of paper into the fire. She said that most of them were well wishing for friends and family, but the 5th one was for her to win the lottery. She said that the other 4 pieces of paper burned instantly, but she couldn't get that lottery paper to burn for anything! So that made me laugh, and think maybe there's something to it. Time will tell...
July 1st, we had our 12 week appointment where we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. It took the tech quite a while to actually find the baby (which made me super nervous, I was like oh gosh just find it already!) They press down REALLY hard with their instruments onto your stomach (makes me feel bad for not letting my cat step on me). And I guess the baby didn't like it, because it was running away from her. She's like every time I get close the baby moves, she was like it's saying "catch me if you can." So finally, after what felt like forever she found the baby, and the baby had a strong heart beat of around 160. And now afterwards, I always wonder where the baby is while I'm laying down. It's too small for me to feel it yet, and I just wonder where it's at in there. I can't wait until I can start to feel the baby in the next couple of weeks!
After our 12 week appointment, I decided to start to tell the rest of the people that didn't know yet. So I told my friend Steph, and told my aunts and cousins. Becky had sent out a message to the family about a week before with a 20 week update about her pregnancy... so I figured that since everyone was already on that message that it was the perfect one to piggy back on and let everyone know. So now, just about all of our family and friends know. We are just waiting on Cody to tell the people at his work, and then we'll probably post something on Facebook. I want to do something cute on Facebook, but I'm not sure what to do! I'll have to do some reseach and come up with a plan. But yeah, that pretty much sums up our first trimester! So far so good! I can't help but wish our whole summer away, because I can not wait until the end of August! We will find out the gender of the baby and get to go on our cruise! Can't wait!
