16 Weeks and Showing

I am finally starting to show and I have to say it is really a strange but fun experience. I have been the same size for at least 15 years and I am not kidding. I can still wear a pair of capri pants that I wore in 9th grade!!! My belly just popped out last week (16 weeks) and I had to break down and go get some maternity pants which was such an hilarious experience. Sandy, my mother-in-law took me shopping and we just had a blast. We laughed at all the strange looking clothes and it was a time I will never forget. I have to say that maternity pants are sooooo comfortable! I just love them and they really are not that bad looking either.

I am feeling great and have more energy than I thought I would. My belly feels as hard as a rock which makes sleeping a little uncomfortable. Today I am 17 weeks and it is pretty scary that I am almost half way through this pregnancy. Time is flying by!!

The Baby Moved!

 I felt the baby move for the first time the other night (week 15). I was lying on the couch and I sneezed really hard and all of a sudden a felt butterflies in my tummy. It was the coolest and strangest things ever. I put my hand on my stomach and I could feel the baby move. It was awesome! My next doctor’s appointment is Friday and I will be 16 weeks. Nothing special will happen during this visit but our next visit is going to be really exciting because we get our next ultrasound. We will really be able to see the baby and I cannot wait! During this next ultrasound we are able to find out the sex but we are not going to. Little Reynolds is going to be a total surprise and I just cannot think of anything better!

First Part of Second Trimester

The word on the street is true, the second trimester is so much better than the first. I am so relieved that my energy has returned and I am feeling normal. I had another doctor’s appointment at week 12 and this one was super special because I got to hear the heart beat for the first time. The heart beat was 160 beats/min which is very strong at this point, so I was relieved. I have gained 1 pound and my blood sugar levels are perfect. I am still taking my over the counter prenatal vitamins and my labs are coming back great so there is no need for me to get a prescription which makes me happy. I am still congested but not as bad. I am not sore anymore up top and my hunger has increased a little bit. My clothes are starting to get a little uncomfortable but I am still wearing my same clothes. I have started drinking a little bit of coffee in the mornings and that really helps me to wake up. My stomach seems to tolerate caffeine just fine now which is wonderful. Jon and I try to eat as healthy as we can. We cook every night and our meals are normally pretty balanced with meat, carbs and veggies. I am in love with fruit so there is no shortage of that around. I do not crave sweets but of course I like them. I try to only eat one sweet thing a day. I am really trying to stick to a good diet! Well the Christmas holidays are coming around which means I will be eating a lot of wonderful food and I cannot wait. I am sure I will be weighing a lot more after they are over. Jon and I decorated the house for Christmas this past weekend. I really did not have the energy to get out all of the stuff and put up the tree so Jon volunteered. He said he would put it up and take it down. He did just that! He got into the holiday spirit and in no time the house looked wonderful. He really is a wonderful husband!

 

First Trimester

The week we found out I was measuring at 5 weeks so it was pretty early on. I felt really good for the most part. I began to get tired after work and my nose was running like crazy at night. Other parts of my body had grown a lot and were very sore.  I had not felt nauseous at all but I was nervous that it was coming.  Week 6 was probably my worst week of the first trimester. I felt nauseous one day after eating a bowl of chili and from that day on I did not want to see or smell chili again (I never threw up or even came close). My stomach was cramping and stretching a lot so I was just really uncomfortable. I still had a runny nose and I just felt tired all the time. I spent most of my weekends sleeping and I mean I would sleep all day and all night. During the day I would lay on the couch and watch TV and sleep. At one point Jon asked if I was ok and if I needed anything. I think it really weirded him out to see my like that because normally I am a busy person on the weekends. Normally I would be up early on Saturday mornings making breakfast, cleaning, shopping and just getting things done. On these particular weekends I would let the dishes pile up, the clothes would not get washed, the house would be a mess, I would stay in my PJs and we would order food to eat. Honestly, it was one of the strangest times of my life. I almost lost track of who I was. Monday morning would come and I would think to myself “Gosh I did absolutely nothing this weekend, that really is not good, O well. “ Between week 5 and week 9 I literally would come home from work, get into my PJ’s, lay on the couch until I had to get up to fix dinner and then I would be right back on the couch. I would go to bed every night at 8 and would of course wake up to pee at least once during the night, which was very annoying. This happened every day. My nose congestion was horrible. Some nights I would wake up around 1:30am to pee and I would blow my nose for hours. I would blow my nose so much that blood was coming out, it was so gross. Jon would chose to sleep on the couch most nights because I would keep him up with all my nose blowing. Some nights were better than others but the congestion really never let up.  I do have to say that Jon was an amazing help. He would offer to cook and clean which was a huge help to me. He really picked up the slack and I appreciated him so much. Around week 9 my energy started to come back slowly. I found myself keeping the house a little more clean and I did not sleep as much after work. We had our first ultrasound at week 9 and got to see our little peanut. It was such a cool experience and made things a lot more real for both of us, especially Jon because he is not dealing with a growing baby inside him every day. We were so proud of that little blob on the screen and the heartbeat was 180 beats/minute which was really strong!  Around week 12 I felt normal and had all my energy back. Things were looking up for me! So a brief overview of my first   trimester: very sleepy, very congested, never threw up, was nauseous one time, could not stand chili, could not tolerate any caffeine b/c it would upset my stomach, craved fruit, still wearing my same clothes, upper body parts started growing and were sore, ate normal amount of food and did not gain any weight.

 

Telling Cat's Coworkers

Monday morning after returning from Daphne I bounced in the office all excited because I was excited to tell all of my coworkers. None of them had a clue I was pregnant which made it so much fun. The day consisted of morning meetings, lunch with Mike (my boss) and a free afternoon. That morning I called a mandatory security meeting for all Huntsville employees at 1:30pm and created a PowerPoint briefing for them. Lunch was fantastic. I told Mike the news and he was just so excited for us. He was very supportive which made me so happy. I told him that I called a fake security meeting for all employees and I wanted Mike to run the PowerPoint. He was so excited about my plan. Like I said before, things don’t always come together as planned. The conference room was taken by some government workers and the smaller conference room projector was not working soooooo Mike suggested we all pile in his office and use his big TV. So we did! Mike put the briefing and it was great. No one had a clue. Everyone was so excited! So the secret was finally out! Thank goodness!!!

 

Telling Cat's Family

So the time had finally come to head down to Daphne for the annual Cooper-Wilkins Fishing Tournament and to tell my family. Jon and I could hardly wait to get out of town with our big news. I had my first real doctor’s appointment that Thursday afternoon before we left at 1pm so we packed the car the night before so we could leave right after. The doctor’s appointment went great. They loaded down with tons of sample vitamins to try, lots of magazines, pamphlets and articles for me to read on how to take care of myself. I was already taking the One-A-Day Prenatal vitamin so if I did not have to have a prescription vitamin then I was going to stick with that. At this point I was 8 weeks along and had not gained a pound. After the doctor we headed out of town. I wanted to tell my family in a unique way so I bought a card that said CONGRATULATIONS on the front of it and I wrote “I love my Uncle Mattie Brown! I cannot wait to meet you on May 24^th 2013 and be your fishing partner in the tournament one day!” This is what I was going to give my brother when we got to the house. Well the car ride down to Daphne really was not too bad. We zipped right along and made it to my parent’s house around 9pm. Of course, all plans do not work out perfectly and this one surly did not. My dad was not home from a business dinner and my brother was ready to see us and then head home because he had to work the next day. I was so bummed that dad was not home but I had to give the card to Matt that night. We could not wait another moment. So we gave Matt he card and he immediately was so excited. My mom on the other hand did not get the card at all which is really funny. She kept asking us who was coming into town and was it a girlfriend. O at the time it was frustrating but now it is pretty funny. Finally we explained what was going on and she was in shock. I think she just sat there for a little bit with a confused look on her face and then she got excited. Like I said before, the news does take a long time to set in when you are not expecting it. Finally dad got home a few hours later and we told him the news. He was very excited for us and we were just so glad the secret was out. We enjoyed a great weekend with my family and could not have asked for a more relaxing time on the water. Jon’s brother Chris and his wife Kelly came out to our camp to spend some time with us which was really nice. Jon had already told them the news so we did not do anything big to surprise them. The weekend came to an end and our secret was out. We were excited to move on and talk freely about this baby…..but we could not just yet because I still had to tell my coworkers on Monday.

 

Telling Jon's Family

After two weeks we could not keep it from Jon’s parents anymore so we decided to tell them after church one Sunday. They live pretty close to us so we thought they were catching on that something was different with us. That Sunday after church all four of us went out to lunch at a local BBQ restaurant. We ordered our food and sat down at a table. Mr. Hughey had not yet arrived so we were waiting on him. Out of the blue Jon starts laughing, uncontrollably. He just could not keep it together. He was laughing so hard he was almost crying. His mom kept asking him what was so funny and Jon just kept saying nothing, nothing. Jon could not keep the secret inside any longer and just blurted the news out “Cat’s pregnant!” His mom sat there in total shock and unfortunately his dad had not yet arrived but little did we know, he already knew. His mom looked at me and said “Is it true?” and of course I said yes! Right after that moment his dad arrived at the table and we told him (again) that we were pregnant and he was so excited that the news was for real. See, Jon had told him a few days prior b/c he could not keep the secret very well. Actually, Jon had told tons of people by this point but I was unaware of that. He was just so excited and I could not be mad at him for that. Okay so back to the story, Jon’s parents were so excited and we told them the story of how we found out and it was really special. I think they both left the lunch still in shock. The news really does take some time to set in. At this point we were just so happy that our family in Huntsville knew so we could talk about it with someone. We still had one week until we went home to Daphne to tell my family so this still was a big secret.

Two Pink Lines

Wow the first trimester is coming to an end so I need to catch this blog up! The story begins in Baltimore Maryland…….My co-worker Clara and I attended a conference in Baltimore the week of September 10^th   for 4 days. She and I had a blast. We learned a lot at the conference, found some really good places to eat, enjoyed exploring The Harbor, and loved visiting Annapolis and the Naval Academy. During that week I started feeling really tired, had some headaches and cramps but those things all happen to me each month around that time so I did not think too much about it. I arrived back in Huntsville on Friday afternoon just in time to jump in the car to drive with Jon to Daphne. I was getting inducted into my High School’s Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday which was so much fun. We enjoyed the weekend with my family and of course time goes by too fast. After work on Monday I went to the grocery store to pick up food for the week and grabbed a pregnancy test. When I got home I told Jon I was going to take a test. His eyes got big and he said “Ok, good luck. “ He was waiting for me in the kitchen when I came to tell him it was POSITIVE. We were both in total shock. We kept looking down at the double lines in total disbelief. There were so many emotions that came over us. We were excited, nervous, a little panicked and did I say shocked! We hugged and immediately Jon said “O my gosh I have to tell someone!” We did not want to tell our family yet so we decided to call our dear friends Rachel and Bubba. They are expecting their second child 5 week before us so they were the perfect people to tell. Jon went outside to call Bubba and I called Rachel and it was so much fun! Jon and I both agreed that we would tell our family in person and not over the phone. Unfortunately we were not going back down to Daphne for 3 weeks so we knew it was going to be a long wait until we could share the news with them. For the next few weeks we lived our life normally but just beamed inside with our new found secret. I had blood work drawn a few times to make sure my progesterone levels were doubling and things were right on track. We both found it very hard not to shout it out to everyone.

So on September 17^th our lives were changed forever!