9 Weeks!

You are now the size of a green olive! My how you've grown from an appleseed! Your hands and feet look a lot less like paddles and have more formed fingers and toes. These changes are giving you a more human shape! Your head is still much larger than the rest of your body and your eyes are fully developed, but are covered by the eyelids which are fused shut for the next 16 weeks or so.

White Christmas!

We had a white Christmas!! It was awesome! We just got a couple of inches but it sure was beautiful! Unfortunately, we couldn't go to the Morgan's Christmas party because the roads were a little icy. We called and got everyone on speakerphone and made the big announcement. I really wish we could have seen your only Great Grandmother's face! I'm sure she was thrilled :)

8 Weeks!

We've made it 8 weeks! That's 2 months! This is still so unreal at times! By the end of this week, everyone will know that you are coming soon! So far, people in my department at work know and the girls in xray (mostly because I was trying to protect you from all those evil swallow study xrays). Our immediate family knows about you and some of our extended family but not everyone. We plan on just blurting it out at Christmas. It's gonna be so much fun!

You are now the size of a raspberry. You look much more human now! Your ears and eyelids are beginning to form. You now have wrists and elbows that can actually bend! Your heartbeat should be around 150 beats per minute.

7 Weeks

You are now the size of blueberry. Your brain and spinal cord are becoming more complex (and super smart I'm sure:) Your face is becoming more defined along with the middle part of your ear (let's go ahead and pray that you get your daddy's ears and not mine!). Your tiny arms, legs, hands and feet are beginning to bud. You look very alien like right now! I am still feeling good... just very. very. very tired. I used to be a night-owl and now I go to bed at 9 or 9:30!

Christmas is next week! We are so excited to tell the Morgan side of the family (your Daddy's grandmother and his aunts, uncles, and cousins)! You are so loved already!

Oh My Back!

I hurt my back this morning. I really can't explain how I could have hurt it so badly! I was barely leaning over to pick up a christmas present sitting on the coffee table. The next thing I knew I was laying on the floor crying in pain. I crawled to the door, pulled up on the kitchen counter and went to work. Thank goodness I work with some great PTs that all had some great ideas. Unfortunately, most of their ideas involved things I couldn't do like estim, heat, pain medicine. Barb set me up with a cold pack and some regular strength Tylenol (ha). Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Update: It took about a week for the pain to really go away.

6 Weeks

I am six weeks pregnant today! I finally had my first doctor's appointment!!!  Mom and Dustin were able to come :). They told me ahead of time that the appointment could last up to 3 hours. That's crazy. It actually only lasted about 2 hours. They did blood work, weight (ugh), and reviewed my history. Then finally we got to do the ultrasound! I was so nervous. They told me that it might be uncomfortable to have Dustin in the room and I listened. I shouldn't have listened. He missed the first picture. I felt terrible... more than terrible. It broke my heart. I promised him that he would never miss another thing.

Dr. Cooper went over our questions and concerns and was very sweet and patient. She recommended that I gain no more than 15-20 lbs throughout the whole pregnancy. That seems impossible. So far, I've been eating well and drinking lots of water. I haven't gained any yet and I'm still feeling good with no nausea. Getting to see the picture of the little yolk sac and teeny baby inside reassures me that this is real. It's weird. I don't want to be nauseated or have any of the unpleasant symptoms but that's all I have to go on that things are still there and going ok.

Here's our little peanut:

Baby, you are now the size of a small pea (about .25 inches and less than .04 oz). You are beginning to grow a face! That is just so cool! Your heart is beating - I got to see it on the ultrasound! I can really feel something going on in my tummy. Sometimes it feels like there's a tiny road crew with bulldozers and steamrollers paving the way for you to grow. 

Who and how we told...

I found out on a Sunday morning (the day after our 6th anniversary). I waited until my parents left for church to take the test. I knew in my bones that it was positive.

The first person to find out about you was your Daddy. When we decided to start trying to get pregnant, I knew exactly how I wanted to tell him when the time was right. I told him I had a late anniversary present for him. He loves comic books so I made him a comic book about us. He loved it! Here is a video of him reading it.

I knew I couldn't keep it a secret from my parents for long since we are living with them right now while we try to save for our dream home. I really wanted to wait until Christmas to tell them! Your Dad would not let me wait. He was so excited to share the news. He knew he couldn't hold it in for a whole month! I secretly worked all day on a digital scrapbook to tell your grandparents about you. It turned out really great! I used some pictures of us over the years from our engagement, wedding and each of our 6 anniversaries (so far) and ended with the picture of the positive tests and this picture of your Dad's reaction:

When my (mommy's) parents got home from church, it was time to decorate for Christmas. I still had not decided to tell them yet because I wanted it to be perfect and magical and caught on film :). I helped my mom decorate all day, strategically avoiding heavy lifting and overworking myself. It was so hard not to blurt out "YOU'RE GOING TO BE A GRANDMOTHER!!". I finally finished the scrapbook late that afternoon. Your Dad had been telling me all day that it was time to tell them. I took our computer up to them and told them I wanted to them to see what I was making Granna & Poppy for Christmas. I told my Mom all about the scrapbooking program and how cool it was (trying to keep her from being suspicious!). It worked. by the time we flipped to the last page, she read it several times before it clicked. It was great! We all started crying and hugging. I didn't get it on camera because I didn't want them to be suspicious. Just know that it was surreal and we all needed some good news!

We made plans to go out to dinner with Granna & Poppy later in the week. Apparently, this made them very suspicious! Our lives have been so very busy lately with Daddy working nights and me working days that we really haven't had time to hang out with anyone. Poppy figured it out pretty quickly and taunted Granna. She didn't want him to get her hopes up! We took them to Top O' The River. Poppy was acting weird as soon as they walked in the door. I knew he knew but I was trying to play it cool. Before our food came, your Dad told them that he wanted to show them what I gave him for our anniversary. He showed them the comic book. Granna cried... like a baby. It was precious. Poppy gloated that he was right and then told our waitress that you were coming soon. Precious. 

After dinner, we went over to Uncle Charlie and Aunt Amanda's house to tell them our good news. They didn't know we were coming so everyone was very surprised. Your cousins (Lexy and Coleman) are very excited to meet you. So far, they want to name you Justin Bieber (Lexy's favorite singer) or John Cena (Coleman's favorite wrestler). 

Everyone is so very excited to meet you!

Whew!

Dear baby bean,

I can't believe you are actually growing inside me right now. For the past three days, I've been running on pure adrenaline. Knowing that you are growing inside me makes me feel a lot better about some of the symptoms I've been having. I have been so so so so tired. Not just normal tired but exhausted. I haven't had any nausea yet and I'll keep crossing my fingers on that one.

I am now 5 weeks and 2 days pregnant. According to my "Baby Bump" app (that I bought on my phone immediately after I found out), you are the size of an appleseed. Your little brain and spinal cord are beginning to develop and you are very fragile.

It's hard to believe that something as tiny as an appleseed can make me feel this tired! I made my first doctor's appointment for December 7th. I can't wait!! I hope we get to see you!

I was in a good mood today and had a good appetite. I hope that the mood swings don't hit me. I had the worst headache at 2:30 this morning. Usually I would take some Aleve and go back to bed. I knew that I shouldn't take anything until I see the doctor so I toughed it out.

I am so very excited to meet you but I want you to keep cooking as long as you can!

Love,
Mommy