16 Weeks & Pregnant: The Great Parental Tell All

So it's time to divulge the way I told my parents, in laws, siblings, friends, etc! I had high hopes for all kinds of cute, video taped pregnancy reveals, but it turns out that when you're overcome with excitement, you just kinda wing it and hope for the best! I have a feeling this is going to take a couple posts to cover everyone...

So after I told hubs, I shared that I really wanted to tell my parents first, as this was their first grandchild. I wasn't sure exactly how, but I knew that about a month and a half after we found out, we were going to VA to visit them. Like I was saying about excitement though, I was having a very hard time keeping the secret! That's when I realized we had a golden opportunity: my parents would in MA around the time of my first ultrasound! My mom could come to RI to come along! So we made the trip out to MA to tell them. It was very difficult to get them alone because, daggonnit, they both had things they had to do. Finally, I just said to both of them 'Stop it! Come here!' And they did. I asked my mom her schedule for the coming week and if she thought she would be free on Thursday, May 1st. She looked at me quizzically, as did my dad, and I said '...because I was wondering if you wanted to come to my first ultrasound.' It took an obvious second for the realization to hit her. My dad's arms were the first around Pete and I, and then my mom joined in with an 'OH!' They both cried, my dad more so than my mom, and we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. With all my aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, family friends, just everyone. My mom had an ear to ear smile on her face, and my daddy couldn't stop looking at me. It was awesome and special and emotional.

Pete's parents are old pros at kids. Not only is my MIL a midwife who has delivered a couple thousand babies, but she and my FIL have 4 grand kids, courtesy of my SILs. For Mother's Day, we got my MIL a 'Grandmother' card, and an Alex and Ani 'Grandmother' bracelet. She didn't get it at first, because of course she's a grandmother, and then she went to open the card. An ultrasound fell out. She stopped, said 'Uh!', and just stared at it for what felt like forever. And then, because my FIL didn't realize this was an important moment and was in a different room, she hollered for 'Charlie!' She quickly put the ultrasound back in the card and brought it over to show Charlie. He read the front of the card, unimpressed because of course she's a grandmother, and then he opened the card. 'Is this you guys?' he stared dumbfounded for a good two minutes before kind of half laughing. The two of them were absolutely flabbergasted! It was hilarious!

I'll post more reveal stories next week! I'm off to lie on my side now after dinner, which is sitting weirdly...

The 15 Week Wrap-Up

I'm quickly approaching week 16 and realizing that I didn't take advantage of posting anything during week 15! What was I thinking? Very soon I will have to include the weekly 'bumpdate' pictures my husband has been taking, but I haven't done that yet. Week 15 was normal but intense. Here's what is going on: I've been deemed high-risk.

About week 10, I found a spot on my hip, which I now know is commonly referred to as a herald spot. It didn't bother me, I didn't notice any other symptoms or spots, and I wasn't worried. Roughly week 12, I noticed a couple of similar looking spots on my left side and a couple in my right elbow pit. I went to my primary care, and he decided I needed to see a dermatologist. So almost 2 weeks ago, to a dermatologist I went. He diagnosed me with a condition called pityriasis rosea.

About 7 years ago, if I had been pregnant and diagnosed with pityriasis rosea (PR), I would have been told 'no big deal, it will clear up within 3 to 6 months.' But about 7 years ago, a study was performed that concluded these 3 things about pregnancy and PR:

1. It triples your risk of miscarriage.
2. It increases your risk of preterm labor.
3. It increases the risk of low birth weight, hypotonia, and weak motion.

So that was a terrifying thing for me to hear. Comforting was the fact that the study was only conducted on people with severe PR and my dermatologist indicated I had one of the most mild cases he had seen. He sent me to a high-risk OB, who comforted me also by telling me that she would classify me as the least risk high-risk case possible. And then she proceeded to find the baby's heartbeat so we could hear it.

So my hubby and I are feeling okay. We know we've got a host of doctors keeping an eye on us and Tiny and a legion of prayer warriors in our corner. We're doing okay. We will see what week 16 brings.

And so it grows...

It's officially official! I am 14 weeks pregnant, completely out of the first trimester by everyone's standards. Now to blog the next 26 weeks or so...

Finding Out:
It was Sunday, April 6th. My husband had gone out for a run and I was getting ready to do a DVD workout. I was kind of puttering around, wasting time, when it suddenly dawned on me that my period was about 4 days late. I mean, it wasn't really all that sudden because I had been off the pill for 5 months and had pretty regular cycles up until this point. I knew what was going on, but a war of devils and angels was raging on my shoulders. 'Oh my gosh...OH MY GOSH...I'm totally pregnant. Like, totally up the spout.' 'No, there's no way. There's absolutely no way. This is a fluke, don't get too excited, you're gonna start bleeding any second.' 'But I'm LATE. I'm days late. This could be for real.' 'Seriously? Don't be an idiot. You're gonna be very disappointed.' Standing in my bedroom, folding laundry so I had an excuse for not working out yet, I realized I had to pee and that this was an opportune time to take a pregnancy test. So I pulled out my secret stash.

The first test I dipped was a cheapy strip test. I dunked and ran. I wanted to keep myself busy for those three minutes, so back to laundry I went. And guess what? I managed to forget all about the pregnancy test. For 20 minutes. And when I went to check BAM! Very, very positive. But I was in  disbelief. So I took two more tests. I waited this time, and within 30 seconds BAM! Positive! All three of them. But I still didn't believe it. Nope, not even a little bit. So I pulled out the big guns: a ClearBlue Digital Pregnancy Test with Weeks Estimator. And there is was: pregnant, 1-2 weeks. Spelled out for me so I couldn't deny it.

It's hard to see the top two, but the bottom two are pretty clear!

Telling my Husband:
As I mentioned, Pete was on a run when I found out. I thought I had prepared myself well in advance. I thought I would be cool as a cucumber and I could surprise him in some cute, YouTube worthy way. Absolutely the opposite. I was shaking like a leaf, and I just wanted him to be home already! I had stocked up, in hopes of an eventual positive result, so I had this shirt:

And I had these two books:

I laid all this stuff out on the bed, clutched the positive test in my right hand. And stood in the corner shaking. Every 15 seconds or so, I would check the window to see if Pete was running home. Twenty minutes later, I saw the forest green of a shirt I hoped was Pete's bobbing it's way down our road. I retreated to my corner and waited to hear the door open. Forever later, it did, and I expected to hear him making his way up the stairs to me and the puppy. He didn't. 'HONEY!' I yelled down to him. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?' I absolutely could not contain myself. I was jumping out of my skin. 'Uh...' he called up to me, his crazy wife. 'I'm gonna stretch...and get some water. Did you need something?' 'I NEED YOUR HELP!' I needed him to get his butt upstairs, pronto. I had been standing in a corner for twenty minutes, waiting for him to walk through that damn door. I heard him deep sigh in an imitation of Eeyore, and the gate on the stairs clanged. Walking into the bedroom, he looked at me, his crazy wife, standing in the corner. 'What's up?' 'LOOK AT THE BED.' Time slowed to molasses drip speed. His eyes moved from my face to the bed and scanned for whatever it was I needed help with. I saw them widen as he took in the books and shirt. Then they slow-snapped back up to me and the word that dripped from his lips was 'Really?' My response? My eloquent, well thought out, pulled together wife response? 'These test can't all be wrong!' My sweet husband held me while I cried, and together we rejoiced in the new life we had created.

Rejoicing.

Stay tuned to hear more about telling our families, my symptoms the past 7 weeks, as well as the trials we're facing as this pregnancy progresses.