A Week Late and Likely a Few Dollars Short

It's been an interesting two weeks and that has a lot to do with how all of a sudden I feel like my temperature is up and everything I do, even waking up, is making me exhausted.

Here's last weeks bumpdate shot.

So my most recent symptoms include swelling, often from too much standing, exhaustion, as previously mentioned, and lots and lots of kicking! Tonight was the first time Pete felt the baby, and it was quite magical for the both of us! Tears in my eyes kind of magical! I can't believe there's really a tiny human inside of that tummy of mine, even though as I'm typing this I'm 20 and one half weeks. Which is more than halfway, so I really should believe this by now.

Another thing that has been going on for me recently is that I joined Rodan + Fields and now sell their wonderful skincare. Checkout these results!

And look who endorses these products! One of my all time favorite people in the world, Ellen Degeneres!

Check out my website at https://keighleyjohnson.myrandf.com/ if you're interested in any of the products!

18 Weeks and Definitely Growing!

Today was our 18 weeks anatomy scan and good golly! There's a baby inside of me! It's felt pretty real for a couple weeks now, but I totally had a 'fast forward to the future' moment this afternoon in that exam room. I could see my baby squirming around, throwing his/her hands in the air, legs cross-cross-applesauce sitting square on my bladder, and it was so surreal!

Good news: baby is 100% normal!

Bad news: we still don't know the sex. And you know what? That's fine with us because we've decided we don't want to know! There aren't many real surprises in the world, but this? This is something everyone can guess at but nobody can know until the end, when baby is well and truly cooked and ready to make his/her grand appearance.

Here's what I looked like at 18 weeks:

And here is what baby looked like:

And this:

And I totally saw this:

That's all for today! See you next week!

BONUS!

Here's the announcement we posted on FB, as well as the growing bump!

All credit for this goes to the hubs! It was his adorable idea!

Taken this evening. I am a rose.

Other bump pictures can be found here!

17 Week Movement! and more reveals...

Before I wasn't sure, but I am SO sure now that I am feeling tiny baby movements! It's weird to describe: kinda ticklish, a little flippy, like someone is making pancakes, and mostly comforting! It's nice to know, when I can't see or hear what's going on inside me, that everything seems to be okay.

So in an effort to wrap up the family telling, here's how we told my siblings:
We were in VA visiting for my brother's college graduation (eek!), and we were all together kinda camping in a cabin, mostly because all the hotels were booked. It was the night before my brother's graduation (please note: I was NOT trying to steal any thunder...people keep getting mad at me for that. I was just WAY too obviously emotional and excited!) and we were all sitting outside having pizza for dinner. I kind of casually brought up Christmas vacation for 2014 and invited my brother and sisters to come up to RI. My sister (I honestly don't remember which one, but my mom has it on video somewhere) asked 'why?' 'Because I'm sure you'll want to meet your new niece or nephew!' Little did I know, my brother had been too focused on his girlfriend to hear what I had said, and I was sobbing by now, and my sisters were looking at me like I had two heads (in the happiest way possible) so I had to ugly-crying repeat myself. I don't think the three of them have ever squeezed me tighter. The best/worst reaction to a pregnancy announcement of all time? My sister Aileen: 'So there's a baby under all that fat??' Thank, sis.

How we told Pete's siblings:
We happened to be going to NH to visit Pete's parents/babysit for our nephews the weekend after we got back from VA. This was great because it meant that my parents didn't have to keep the secret from Pete's parents for too long. We told them as described in previous post...first of Pete's sisters to find out was his eldest sister, Amy. We were with her boys, babysitting, while she was at a Kentucky Derby party. When she got back, Pete just laid it out for her: 'We're having a baby!' As she's 13 years older than Pete, she immediately cried and hugged her baby brother and was all emotional and such. It was super sweet and had me in tears too! We told our BIL and nephews. It's fun to tell kids about new babies because you never know what kind of reaction you're gonna get. From the boys, we got 'Okay' and 'Where is it?' Cute! We then went straight from one sister's house to the others, because one couldn't know for too long without the other knowing. Andrea, who has our two nieces, was just having a chill night at home with our BIL, Scott, and the girls. She was telling us about how she had been going through all the baby stuff the girls had grown out of and was gonna pass it on to her friend who was having a girl. Pete just said, very naturally in the conversation, 'Well don't give it all away!' She looked at us for a second, and Pete added 'We don't know what we're having yet!' More tears, more baby brother hugs, and some very happy in-laws!

I wish we had videotaped all these, I really do, but as I said last week things get too exciting and spur of the moment. Plus, a camera or phone pointed at someone's face will often give you away! Also, we told way too many friends to tell all those reveals. Needless to say, it was a ton of fun, and I was super relieved to hear that everyone was excited for us! Yay! I'll be back next week following an anatomy ultrasound, where we will check-up on baby's growth and NOT find out the gender!

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.