Returning to *our* story. Day 2

So back to our love story. I'm sure y'all are just on the edge of your seats waiting for the rest of this! You can only imagine our excitement and anticipation to see each other the following morning. T had slept in my brother's room who is on a mission and I slept in my room. I woke up the next morning and quickly made myself look presentable. Yet to my horror, yes, to MY horror, I looked in the mirror I have in my room and about fell to the ground unconscious.

My lips were BLUE. I thought "what the heck is on my lips?!" I tried wiping it off and nope, it didn't come off. I then realized that it was from some soft kisses T left me with the night before. I guess my skin was just that sensitive having been a while since I had kissed somebody! haha

Horrified, I text T to ask him what in the world I needed to do. I could NOT have my family see this. You can imagine, my hands were so shaky and sweaty. I was so nervous. He text me back laughing saying I should put on black lipstick. Yeah, like THAT was going to hide it! haha (I didn't own any black lipstick anyway.) Panicking, I went through all my make up and tried to cover it up. Let's just say, it was a pretty funny looking set of lips.

So we meet downstairs for breakfast. My Mom is standing in the kitchen and my younger brother J is at the table. Not even 3 min downstairs my Mom comments from across the room "C, what happened to your lips? It looks like you have something on them. Did you eat something?" I tried so hard to avoid it and said I was trying on new lipstick. She thought I was weird.

Throughout the day she kept asking me over and over again, "..seriously C, what's with your lips?" I just wanted her to stop asking! haha I'll get to the rest of this blue lips story later on.

After breakfast, T and I went on a hike in our Preserve in our neighborhood. We had so much fun as we followed the trail to a small waterfall and sat on the rocks in the little river-bend. We talked so much and just had a blast. This is when T mentioned that he could talk to butterflies. haha Oh my gosh, he has to be one of the funniest people I have ever met in my life. (Don't worry kids, we don't have a Dr. Dolittle on our hands!)

That evening we had plans to meet up with my Dad at Dave & Busters in Austin. As we were finishing getting ready for the night, I was in my Mom's bathroom with her helping her do her hair and getting all dolled up, she said, "Now C. I think it's so funny your lips are blue. But I really am stumped as to why they are that way! Did you fall and get hurt?"

I swear my Mom was playing dumb! I thought for sure she read right past that and was just trying to get it out of me. I start laughing and say "Mom. Think about it. My*LIPS* are blue. They aren't hurt..." ****LIGHTBULB**** "Ohhhhhhh....." my Mom says. "Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! I really didn't mean to draw so much attention to them! I seriously had no idea!" I laughed and told her it wasn't a big deal but that it was sort of embarrassing. We laughed so hard. I told her not to tell my Dad.

Mom, T, J and I get to D&B's first, then my Dad shows up from work. We are sitting at the booth and he sits across from me and seriously one of the first things he says to me with this confused look on his face, "C, you have something on your lips". I start laughing. Silently. Then I just try to ignore it. Now that the attention had already been brought to it, I couldn't stop giggling! My Dad looks back at me and with this continued confused face says "No, seriously C. You have like blue ink on your lips." "C, I mean it. You have pen on your lips." Finally, my mom interrupts and says "S, stop." Then he stopped. haha I never confessed to him till the night before our wedding.

Dinner was wonderful and so much fun. Then after we ate we went and played on all the games they had, boxing, shooting, wave runners..you name it and they had it. I love playing arcade games there!

Afterwards, my family went back home and left us to go see a movie. We went and saw Coraline in 3D.

Here is the only picture we took that whole weekend. This is in the theater. Seriously! How silly of us not to take more. This was taken on his cell phone so it's not the greatest quality. But, this is the weekend that true love took over.

And so the pregnancy journey continues...

I was doing pretty good as far as feeling great up until about week 6/7. Exhaustion, no appetite, throwing up, nausea, more exhaustion, and so forth. I thought it would never end.

Yet, it did. About week 18 is when things started calming down and week 20 I started feeling like a normal human being. Thank goodness! I felt so bad for T because I'd come home from work and just be so sick and tired. Thank goodness he has been the biggest sweetheart in the world and has taken care of the things I haven't, plus some.

Usually, at the hospital we go to, we weren't suppose to find out the sex of the baby until our sonogram at week 20. Yet, we cheated. We paid to have a 3D/4D ultrasound done. Best $80 we spent! It really brought things into perspective as we could see her. I didn't believe it. I asked the lady if they were just playing a video feed of someone's baby and pretending it was mine. She said "shake your belly", so I did. The picture went all wobbly and shaky. Well, I guess it's real then! We were told that this company has a policy that if they are wrong with the gender they will refund in full. They are pretty confident in their skills.
It was pretty funny because T asked the lady not to blurt out what the gender was, he wanted to be prepared. So when the lady found the perfect view, she had us guess. T says "That's definitely a boy right there. I can see it." I didn't want to say anything! lol I didn't want to be wrong! haha So, as we all know now, the baby is a girl! We were so excited! I felt assured because all along I felt like the baby was a girl but was nervous to say anything because I didn't want my "motherly instincts" to be wrong that soon! lol

Another funny story, when we went to the hospital and they did our sonogram, she said she wasn't "sure" if the baby was a boy or girl. Therefore, I am even more grateful we paid for an u/s to have a guaranteed answer! We have had another 3D/4D ultrasound that reconfirmed our baby is indeed a girl!

Since the very beginning I have been so anxious to start showing. I thought at week 16 that I was showing for sure. I look back at that photo and laugh, because I still look tiny as ever. You can imagine my excitement when I started getting random strangers saying "Oh, so how far along are you?" "Is it a boy or girl?" etc. I beamed knowing people could tell I was pregnant. Although those comments didn't start coming till about week 24, I didn't care. It was all worth the wait.


Oh! As I began to feel movements in my belly, T and I decided we wanted to buy a doppler (For those of you who don't know, a doppler is used to hear the baby's heartbeat.) , so we found one on amazon and were so excited to use it! It was a great way for us to connect to the baby and for T to have a part of this time of the baby's growth. Just today, we tried an experiment. T laid his ear on my belly and heard my heart beat, then he moved a little and could hear a heart beat significantly faster than mine. Then this cute little girl started kicking him in the head. :)

This whole pregnancy has been so amazing. Week by week it's incredible to think there's a little human growing in my body. I love this little girl more than I can express. It's so wonderful feeling her little body inside of mine, she'll kick out, push out, and I can feel different body parts. It's seriously a miracle. I never take one moment for granted. I thank our Heavenly Father every chance I remember for this little miracle.

I can't believe I am 30 weeks pregnant already! I have less than 10 weeks before she will be here. We can't wait. We have decided on a first name, and are pretty sure on the middle, but it's possible we might change it. So as of right now, her name is E.

I am going to include some photos. I'll share some belly photos and a few of the ultrasounds. I hope you enjoy!

16 weeks 18 weeks 2 days

19 weeks 2 days 20 weeks 1 day

21 weeks 2 days 22 weeks 1 days

23 weeks 2 days 24 weeks

27 weeks 28 weeks 30 weeks

E at 18 weeks E at 26 weeks 3 days

Changing things up a bit...

I decided that I need to make a post about our little one that is on her way! Because I have been so focused on making this blog start from the beginning of "our" time, I have been slacking and before I know it the baby will have come and I might forget some very important details.

So, if you don't mind, I am going to make this post and dedicate it to our baby girl we are so patiently waiting for.

T came home from Iraq January 31st 2010. After 6 months of being separated I think it's fair to say that being together again was one of the most incredible feelings. I never want to have to go through a deployment again, however, I am sure we will and at that time I will put on my BGP's (Big Girl Panties) and get my game face on. Until then, we will just enjoy our lives together each and every moment.

At this time when T came home we set up our place and were just looking forward to living life. Then an opportunity came up for T at work. If he were to take this year long commitment (with some not so great circumstances) that he would be un-deployable and would be made sure to be home at least a full year before even being considered to deploy. (If he didn't take this job offer, he could have deployed 6 months after being home.)

After he accepted the opportunity we began to think. We had discussed having a baby before but we both had felt in the past that we didn't want T to miss out on the whole experience of the pregnancy and possible birth of the baby so we were putting that off till it seemed right. We told family and friends that we weren't going to have a baby for at least 4 years. :) (Oh you know how excited people get when a couple get married. "When are you having a baby?!" "Are you pregnant yet?!" etc)

We then realized what a great time it would be to have a baby. A FULL year home??? If we were lucky enough to get pregnant right away then he would be able to be around for the full 9 month pregnancy, birth and at least the first few months of baby's life. It sounded great! But we were still iffy about it. So we took it to the Lord. We prayed and prayed then fasted some to receive an answer if we were to have a baby. Then we decided that "hey, if there is a baby ready to come RIGHT NOW, then we will get pregnant." So we took that faith and went with it.

I'm sure that every couple has felt the same emotion as we did as we were attempting the whole "getting pregnant". The timing, anticipation and worry that comes with it all. I began to realize the reality of "what if we can't conceive?" That began to really scare me, worry me to the point that I was afraid to try. After discussions with T, I realized that it was all in the Lord's hands and if it happened to be that I couldn't conceive or would have a miscarriage, it was all because the Lord had it planned that way and we would then go with different options. T is very good about keeping me in the "now" and not letting me get ahead of the situation, or myself.

April 7th 2010, T had just left that morning to go to work. After he left I started to realize that it was about time I could take a pregnancy test. So after much debating, I decided to take the test. (Lesson learned, probably should wait for when your spouse is home to do these sorts of things. But I was so nervous of it being negative that I didn't want to be disappointed WITH T being there.) I about hyperventilated as I waited those few minutes for the results. As you can guess, it was positive! I jumped up and down! I was thrilled! I quickly came up with an idea on how to tell T. I decided I'd go up to his work that night (at this time he was staying the night up at work) with some dinner, sparkling apple cider and cute glasses. I drove the hour up there and he was so confused why I was there. lol So I broke the news to him and this is how it went:

Me: *Pulls out sparkling apple cider and glasses that were hidden in the back seat*
"Alright babe, it's time to celebrate!"
T: *Confused look on face* "Celebrate what? Our anniversary? It's not for another 4 days..."
Me: *smiles* "No, silly.....because we're going to have a baby! I'm pregnant!"
T: *even MORE confused look on face* "You're not pregnant."
Me: *laughs* "Yes baby, I am. I took the test this morning"

It took a bit convincing and I even took the test to show him. lol Needless to say we were thrilled and it was quite a change to our emotions that night.

I guess-ti-mated my due date to December 14th. So at my 11 weeks mark I had an appointment out on base. We were able to have an ultrasound and to hear the baby's heart beat. Heart beat was strong and at 160. Here is a picture of the cute little bean as we called it.

There it is. So tiny and precious. You can see a little head, body, legs and arms. It was a start to an amazing journey.