Finding out!

It was Sunday July 7th, 2013.  Everything was normal, except that it wasn't.  I woke up to my alarm and got out of bed to get ready for church.

I had no reason to take a pregnancy test that morning.  I hadn't been having any symptoms, and I was still a day early.  But, I'm a notorious "stick-pee-er" and thought, "what the heck".  I was still groggy, and went about my business.  As I was just stepping into the shower I remembered, "Oh ya!  My test!" (literally, that's how non-excited/expecting I was about that pregnancy test that morning).  I was floored to see a positive result!  I collapsed on the toilet seat, put my face in my hands and starting bawling.  I wasn't even expecting to react that way!  I was so overwhelmed!

Once I collected myself I ran over to my cell phone to call Steven.  Half way through the ringing, I realized, "Crap!! I can't tell him now!  He's taking his board exam!".  Yep, he had woken up early that morning to go and take Step 2.  It was an 8 hour test which meant that I had to wait until 5:30 that evening to tell him that he was going to be a dad.  It was 7:30 in the morning then.  LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE.

It was a whirlwind getting to church, and the primary lesson during sharing time was not easy on my "on the surface" emotions.  It was the first Sunday in July, and the theme that month was "Families Can Be Together Forever".  I was a mess.  I had to keep running back into the bathroom to wipe my eyes so no one would notice.  Luckily I had something fun prepared for singing time that was unrelated to the theme so I was able to act normal.

We have 8:30 church this year, so I was home by noon.  Time went by excruciatingly slow that afternoon, but because I had time on my hands, I figured I could come up with a "cute" way of sharing the news with Steven.  I started going through my book collection and found Dr. Suess's "Are You My Mother?".  I decided that I would write "Father?" and tape it over the "Mother?" on the front cover, write a little note from the baby on the inside cover, and wrap it up and give it to Steven when he came home.

His reaction was perfect.  He had a small look of confusion at first that quickly turned into realization.  He ran over and gave me a big hug and wouldn't let me go.  I think the poor guy was in shock, well actually, I was still in shock too and I had had all day to absorb the news!  However, the shock quickly turned into excitement, and I had to BEG him to keep the news from his parents for a day.  He is the worst liar on the planet so this was asking quite a lot from him.  I had already ordered flowers to be sent to our parents announcing the news and his parents' flowers were being delivered the next day.  My parents, however, didn't receive theirs until the following week.  My mom and I are really close, so that week was a long one for me.  I even lied to her and told her I had started my period that Monday.  I just wanted everyone to be perfectly surprised and not expecting anything at all!  It was perfect!

A little side note- I did overhear Steven later that evening announcing our news to his gamer friends online.  This was hilarious to me.  He was so excited!  But really?  Do you really think these random people all over the world care that you're going to be a dad??  Maybe they're that close, I really don't know.  It was so funny.  The man cannot keep a secret if his life depended on it and he just HAD to tell someone!

All in all, it was the perfect day (aside from the waiting).  We are so thrilled to be parents!  March can't come soon enough!

Stories of the first trimester!

Hi friends!  Well, if you haven't heard already, The Neeley Crew of Two is soon going to be a Crew of Three...which is very exciting.  Only one major problem-I've gotta come up with a new name for our blog!  "Crew of Three" just doesn't quite have the right ring to it.

Tomorrow I will be 15 weeks, and right now I'm feeling...better :).  I still throw up just about every single morning when I get out of bed, but I get through with my "morning puke", eat a good breakfast, keep my snacks on hand at all times, and I usually have a pretty good day after that!  This semester all of my classes start in the afternoon which has been a tremendous blessing. I've been plugging along quite nicely.

Now lets rewind about 9 weeks.  At 5 weeks 6 days (yes, I know the exact day!) I was SLAMMED with morning sickness.  Actually, it was more like "all-day-all-night-sickness" and "heave-till-you-burst-capillaries-under-your-eyes-sickness".  It was...horrible.  Ugh, it was so awful.  I lost 10 pounds.  I was in Arizona for weeks 6-9 when it was at it's worst.  It was such a blessing to be with my mom!!  I don't know what I would've done!  I also came down with bronchitis while I was in AZ so I was just a ball of hormonal, sickness mess.  Good times, yo.

I would definitely say that my biggest symptom has been nausea, but there were also a few things (actually two things) that NO ONE warned me about.  First of which is that you MAY experience extreme nausea accompanied by extreme hunger.  Conflicting feelings?  Not when you're pregnant!  Holy cow!  I don't know how it's possible, but I feel the sickest on an empty stomach and vice versa (hence the necessity of having snacks on hand!).  Usually when I feel like I'm about to die, I'm also freaking starving! This usually turns into a vicious cycle of eating and throwing up...at least it did during the first trimester.  Now that I'm "officially" a second tri girl, it's just in the mornings.

Now the second thing that no one warned me about kind of crosses the "tmi zone".  If you're sensitive to that, you may not want to continue reading, but it's been nice having you :).

Are we ready?  Are you sure?  Ok, I'll fess up.

The second thing that no one, and I mean NO ONE, warned me about was that you may get extremely constipated.  Oy, that one has been killing me!  YIKES.  Also, if you take zofran while you're pregnant to help with the nausea, it's biggest side effect is that it can make you constipated.  This all leads to you being a plugged up hot mess.  I don't know why other friends/pregnant people didn't warn me about it. I mean, ya, it's kinda gross.  I certainly haven't been at the pinnacle of attractiveness lately, but I definitely would've appreciated a heads up about that one.  So this is for my friends who haven't had a baby yet, it MAY (every woman is different) happen to you.

Other than all of that I really haven't been dealing with much.  My face is constantly breaking out, and I'll get the occasional headache, but I feel like thats nothing compared the nausea and, you know, the poop thing.  But like I said, it's definitely getting better, and I'm hopeful that with each coming week it'll only get better...that is until I'm the size of a planet (and student teaching!), but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Being pregnant and knowing that a little life is growing inside of me makes me gush and squeal with happiness.  Our plan was always to wait to have children, but now that it's "our turn" I find myself constantly smiling to myself all day.  Regardless of what I've been through, and will go through later, I have no doubt that it will all be worth it a million times over.  What a wonderful and sacred calling I have been blessed with.  I couldn't be more grateful.  Now I need to stop typing before I start crying haha.   Three weeks until we know if we're having a little boy or girl!!

-Amber