A Very Merry Christmas

Well Jon, little Baby Legg, and I all made it through the apocalypse and the holiday season. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

We started the holiday weekend off first by going to TGI Fridays with the Symallas and the Potter/Seamens couples to ring in the last Friday ever. We had a great time, but not drinking was really hard, especially because I had to lie and say I couldn't have any alcohol with a medication I was taking. My suspicion that no one believed this was confirmed when Megan and Erin called me out in the bathroom and I may or may not have let the real reason slip. Whoops!

Saturday morning I had Annie rehearsal which I left early at 1pm to head over to my in-law's to celebrate Christmas with Jon's dad's family on Saturday. Due to staying out late the night before (11pm should not feel as late as it did!) and a dance rehearsal (though very tame) I felt like I had been run over by a truck and I was a pretty big downer. Again, it was hard not to be able to give an explanation for my sluggishness since no one there knew besides Jon.

Sunday was the day we were going to tell my dad and sisters the big news. I laid in bed for most of the morning while Jon made and decorated a cookie cake with the announcement on it. We brought our wedding DVD over to my parents' house to watch since none of my family had seen it yet and when we went upstairs, this was sitting on the counter to surprise everyone:

Of course there was pretty much non-stop baby talk the rest of the evening.

Monday morning was Christmas Eve and I, always having spectacular timing, woke up with my first run in with morning sickness. I never actually got ill, but until about 4:30pm I didn't eat much of anything and felt nauseous when I moved around too much. Christmas Eve is celebrated at my grandma's house, we drove to Minnetonka around 1:30pm and I stuck to the couch for most of the day. When we finally opened presents that evening, the first one to be opened was a card we made for my grandma.

FRONT

 

INSIDE

She immediately started crying and talking about how excited she was to have a baby around again. My baby sister Gill is currently the youngest at age 15 so it's been awhile since any little ones have been around.

Christmas morning we woke up bright and early at my parents' house to exchange gifts. My dad got us a video baby monitor which we both loved. In fact, out of all the presents we got, this is what Jon immediately started playing with when we got home that night.

Summer Infant Day & Night Baby Video Monitor with 5" Screen

We obviously haven't used it to much yet, but in our initial testing we really liked it! The camera is actually really good quality and the night vision is pretty impressive. The speakers picked up Jon's slightest whispering, too, so all around we give it an A+ so far. And it was our first baby gift so it was pretty exciting!

We went to church with Jon's mom and dad where my nausea started to creep up again. I took it easy with a PB&J for lunch when we swung by our house so Karen and Jimm could see our Christmas decorations. We went back to their place to meet Tom, Jon's brother, to open gifts. We started this gift opening with a children's book for each of them (Where the Wild Things Are for Jimm, Corduroy for Karen, and Alexander the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day for Tom) each of which Jon had written "Please read to me on August 24, 2013 Love, Baby Legg" on the inside cover.

Tom got it right away but it took Jimm and Karen a few seconds to realize what was going on.

All in all it was a great Christmas weekend, though very exhausting. Coming back to work today was anything but enjoyable! On a plus note, I did order Sesame Street: Old School DVDs Volumes 1, 2, and 3 last night for Baby Legg to get some quality TV time when he/she's big enough.

Ordered from Amazon.com

Did you know that Sesame Street no longer lets Cookie Monster eat cookies because it contributes to obesity and Snuffleupagus and Oscar are no longer characters because Snuffleupagus hints at Big Bird having hallucinations and Oscar is too grouchy?! My child will only watch the good stuff, none of that PC crap!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Our First Appointment

Well we had our first appointment yesterday and it was uneventful to say the least. We were there for an hour and a half and all that really happened is that we sat around a lot. We got asked a ton of questions about our medical history, my cycle, and any symptoms I've had (none yet except for cramping and fatigue), then we got a big binder full of information about what I shouldn't be eating (no deli meat?! Bye bye, Subway :-( ) and shouldn't be doing (no lifts or stunts allowed for me in Annie, luckily I currently haven't been blocked for anything like that). Finally we were sent up to the lab to get four vials of blood drawn and to fill a container with urine. Luckily being pregnant has made me have to pee a lot so that part was a breeze. We setup our next appointment with Dr Duckworth, the OB-GYN we were assigned, for February 11th and we were on our way. No test results, no warnings for anything I might be at risk for, and no ultrasound like they had told us there would be when we setup the appointment. They, in fact, told us that we wouldn't be having an ultrasound until 20 weeks! That's halfway through the pregnancy!

I looked it up and that is the industry standard for your first ultrasound, but for a worrier like me that seems really far away. How do I know that everything is progressing the way it should be before then? We’re also kind of in a dilemma right now on whether we should stay with Diane Duckworth at St. Cloud Medical group or switch to Robin Marushin at Centracare who was recommended to us by a friend. The difficult part of living in a smaller town is that there are not a lot of reviews or information out there on either doctor so I don't know how I should be making my decision. I feel like it's really important to be going with a doctor right away who you mesh well with, as well as has the same view on your birth plan as you do so that you won't feel pressured into making a decision you're not comfortable with. I mean, it's not like I'm just picking a clinic to go to for a strep test or something. I was hoping at this first appointment I'd get to meet the physician I was being assigned to so that I could ask them questions on what they're c-section and induction rates are and other things of that nature so that it would be easier to make a choice. Unfortunately, our next appointment isn't for another 8 weeks so it's kind of up in the air right now where we will end up.

On a more fun note, we went over to my parents' for Christmas with my older sisters and nieces and nephews. Just my luck, deli meat sandwhiches were on the menu, so I picked at some chips and veggies and dip for dinner. After barelly being there half an hour, I ended up breaking down and telling my mom about Baby Legg. When I pulled her aside she started crying before I even told her anything because she already knew what was coming. Seeing her cry made me cry which was refreshing because it was the first time it felt kind of real. We're waiting to tell my dad and sisters on Sunday, Christmas Eve we'll be telling my extended family, and Christmas Day we'll tell Jon's parents and brother. It's really early in the pregnancy to be telling so many people but Christmas just feels like the perfect time and Jon and I are trying to have the outlook right now that nothing is wrong or will go wrong until we know differently. Not being in control is going to be a huge struggle for me, though...

And So It Begins

Well if you're reading this blog, you've probably already figured out the big news....Jon and I are expecting! We've been trying since the beginning of November and I'm already knocked up in December! It kind of came as a shock....even though we both clearly wanted this, otherwise we wouldn't have been trying. I guess I just didn't expect the second time I took a pregnancy test to have it be positive! We couldn't be more excited!

I just took the pregnancy test yesterday over lunch so it hasn't fully hit me yet that there is a baby growing inside of me. That thought is really strange to me!

I had planned to tell Jon in a cutsie way when I found out I was pregnant. I've always had images in my head of recreating Full House's meal of "baby foods" (baby corn, baby back ribs, baby shrimp) from when Becky told Uncle Jesse that she was pregnant. We recently got a new chalkboard that I just finished painting to match the white trim in our house so, for simplicity's sake, I thought maybe I'd write some sort of message on that. Once I took the test and the lines started showing up, however, I immediately yelled for Jon to come in and then I just croaked, "That looks like two lines to me...does that look like two lines to you?!" So much for the element of surprise! I wrote him a message anyways so that I could feel a little bit better about my lack of creativity:

Sure, it was done in a hurry...and my artistic skills might be quite lacking...and sure, it's no Becky's baby dinner...but at least I made the effort!

Our first doctor's appointment is setup for next Wednesday. The nurse I spoke to told me we'd already be doing an ultrasound at the first appointment! I'm so out of my element here, I didn't think ultasounds happened until further into the pregnancy! I'm only 4 weeks along, what can you possibly see at this point?! My preliminary research informs me that little Baby Legg is the size of a poppyseed right now. Maybe seeing my poppyseed baby in my belly will make it more of a reality for me.

I decided to start a blog from day one to document all the excitement and changes we'll be going through for any friends or family that want to stay up to date, and if not for that, at least we'll be able to look back and fondly remember this time when the baby is up screaming all night and we want to pull our hair out! More to come after our first appointment next week!