WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!

Well, friends, this blog post has been about 6 weeks in the making! As a writer, I knew I wanted to start documenting our first baby right away. But, I also didn’t want to tell anyone yet. So, I started writing this blog post on the day that we found out and thought it’d be super fun to take everyone along for the ride.

How I Found Out

What most people don’t know is that we had actually been trying to have a baby for a while. However, we found it extremely vulgar-sounding to tell people we were trying to conceive (HA!), so really only our super close friends and my parents knew. As for the good news, we found out right at 4 weeks when Aunt Flow didn’t make her regularly scheduled appearance. I had not felt good all month, so I had taken a pregnancy test on a Thursday with yet another negative result. While it was another upsetting experience, I took it as that and moved on.

I went to Charlotte over the weekend to go to an event and the Hamilton show with my mom, and I couldn’t make it through the night in my heels — the same heels that got me through 4 years of business school and all those days of business professional attire. My feet were so swollen after standing at the cocktail party, walking around, and sitting through the show that my mom even made the comment, “Are you sure you’re not pregnant?! Are you sure?! Those are pregnancy feet!” (Think: Kim K swollen feet, y’all! It was so bad!) I didn’t say anything at the time, but I knew right away that I needed to come home and take another test.

Monday morning came, and I took another pregnancy test. It appeared to be negative, but as I looked at it out of frustration I saw something in the light. I decided it was nothing, threw it away, and went to enjoy my coffee over the morning news. Meanwhile, I couldn’t stop thinking about what I thought I saw. A few hours later, I couldn’t stand it any longer. I took yet another test. This time there was definitely a second faint line. Extremely faint, barely there, yet it was a glimmer of hope. I took a couple more tests as the week went on and the line got darker and darker. God was blessing us with a baby — and all of the praise, honor, and glory of this little bundle goes to Him!

“For this child I have prayed and the Lord has granted the desires of my heart.” – 1 Samuel 1:27

How I Told Rob

After receiving that little of glimmer of hope, It took me everything in my power not to call Rob at work. I knew I was going to have to test again a few days later to confirm that I was indeed pregnant, but I knew that I still wanted to tell Rob when he came home from work. I picked up some newborn footsie pajamas from Walmart. When he got home, I asked him to come look at something for me. Once he came into the bathroom, I gave him the test and asked him how many lines he saw. While he was looking, I pulled out the pajamas and told him we were having a baby. Needless to say, there were a lot of happy tears!!

How We Told Our Parents

We originally wanted to wait till our first doctor’s appointment to tell our parents, but they didn’t schedule me for my first pre-natal appointment till almost mid-November (since we found out so early!) We knew that we definitely couldn’t wait that long to tell someone. Not only were we so excited to tell them, but we also knew we were going to need prayer and advice as we embarked on this new journey together. I’m also a super bad liar, and I’ve always known my mom can read me like a book. After all, she knew before I did…

We told our parents we wanted to FaceTime them to “discuss the holiday plans for this year.” When we got them on the phone, we casually said, “We just wanted to talk about the holiday plans — because we have one more person joining us this year!” We then held up the onesie and pregnancy test. There was a lot of “STOP IT. ARE YOU REALLY?! OH MY GOSH. I’M GOING TO CRY!!” from my mother, “NO WAY!! I’M GOING TO BE A PA-PA!!” from my father, and “OH MY GOODNESS. I’M SO EXCITED!!” from Rob’s mother. Oh yeah – there were a lot of happy tears too! I almost wish we would have recorded it.

Mini ‘Bumpdate’

Week 4

• How far along?: 4 weeks // We found out on 10/15/18!
• Baby is the size of a: Poppyseed
• The Bump: SUPER bloated – I look like I ate an entire pizza by myself.
• Symptoms: A lot of nausea and bloating. Thankfully, I haven’t gotten sick yet! I’m also finding myself more tired than usual at the end of the day.
• Food Cravings: Burrito Bowls from Moe’s and Kraft Mac n Cheese
• Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: I almost threw up in Kroger walking past the seafood counter!
• Sleep: Sleeping hard – also having crazy, weird, and vivid dreams!
• What I miss: Coffee! Drinking an excessive amount of coffee every day! I immediately cut out almost all of my caffeine, and I have limited myself to one small cup of coffee per day.
• Maternity Clothes: Living the leggings life as usual – but definitely looking forward to maternity jeans 😉 HA!
• Best Moment of the Week: Finding out we’re pregnant, telling Rob, and telling our parents!!
• What I’m excited about/looking forward to: We scheduled our first pre-natal appointment in November, and we can’t wait to see our little nugget before Thanksgiving!!

Week 5

• How far along?: 5 weeks
• Baby is the size of a: Appleseed
• The Bump: Still SUPER bloated
• Symptoms: The nausea hasn’t been as bad this week. However, I think this is the most tired I’ve felt in my entire life. It’s definitely been a week of taking it easy!
• Food Cravings: Chick-fil-A Chicken and Polynesian Sauce
• Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: Not really making me queasy, but coffee definitely isn’t tasting the same for me anymore. I’ve not been very into it. (Which is good!)
• Sleep: I’ve been super uncomfortable every night, but when I do sleep it’s hard! The weird and vivid dreams are continuing as well.
• What I miss: Coffee… SO. TIRED.
• Maternity Clothes: I hate wearing jeans.
• Best Moment of the Week: Telling the rest of our immediate families!
• What I’m excited about/looking forward to: Bump’s first (secret) Halloween! Although, I’m really having aversions to chocolate for some reason as well…

Week 6

• How far along?: 6 weeks
• Baby is the size of a: Sweet Pea
• The Bump: I’m either super bloated… or maybe just fat…
• Symptoms: Morning sickness is REAL, friends. I also have zero motivation, and all I want to do is nap with my dogs all day.
• Food Cravings: Polynesian Sauce from Chick-fil-A
• Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: Coffee and Chocolate. Also, eggs made me sick this week – which is weird because I’ve been eating eggs almost every day up until now.
• Sleep: Still having dreams, but I’ve been not getting great sleep this week. It doesn’t help with how drained and tired I am feeling.
• What I miss: I really miss my healthy eating habits. I’ve had to embrace those bad carbs to keep my nausea in check, and the balance is hard with a weak stomach.
• Maternity Clothes: Anything pushing on my stomach makes the nausea worse, so I’ve been embracing all the joggers and sweatpants this week working from home!
• Best Moment of the Week: The Bump App said Baby Nugent was starting to flap its little nubby arms this week, so Rob and I have been laughing about that all week. All I can hope is that the baby doesn’t have short arms like its mama!
• What I’m excited about/looking forward to: Our upcoming doctor’s appointment – we’re ready to get the show on the road so we can tell everyone! It’s been SO hard keeping it a secret!

Week 7

• How far along?: 7 weeks
• Baby is the size of a: Blueberry
• The Bump: Feeling like a stuffed ravioli.
• Symptoms: All I can say is that morning sickness is no joke…
• Food Cravings: I’ve been so nauseous that I can’t even think about food right now. However, I did see a chocolate muffin at Walmart while grocery shopping that I can’t stop thinking about.
• Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: Everything.
• Sleep: I got one of those huge pregnancy pillows, and I’ve been sleeping a little bit better! The pregnancy pillow must be awesome because I’ve also had an awful time keeping the dogs off of it…
• What I miss: I miss feeling normal and not sick. I hope that it passes in the upcoming weeks!
• Maternity Clothes: I’m still embracing all the joggers, sweat pants, and yoga pants.
• Best Moment of the Week: It was a really rough week…
• What I’m excited about/looking forward to: I finally get to go to the doctor next week for my first appointment. Rob and I are also SO excited to make our announcement on Thanksgiving in a couple weeks!

Week 8

• How far along?: 8 weeks
• Baby is the size of a: Raspberry
• The Bump: I’m pretty sure the bloating is not going away any time soon.
• Symptoms: The morning sickness hasn’t been as bad this week, but it’s still there. I’m so thankful that the doctor prescribed me medication so I can be a functioning human again. I am also always tired. I could sleep all day every day if I would let myself.
• Food Cravings: No cravings this week.
• Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: I’m convinced that everything is making me queasy or sick at this point.
• Sleep: My pregnancy pillow is my best friend. I’ve been sleeping so much better. However, the dreams have gotten weirder and more vivid!
• What I miss: I miss feeling normal and not sick. I also miss my healthy routine – I haven’t been going to the gym because of my fear of getting sick while I’m there. (Talk about embarrassing!)
• Maternity Clothes: I’m still embracing all the joggers, sweat pants, and yoga pants.
• Best Moment of the Week: Going to my first doctor’s appointment and scheduling our first sonogram!
• What I’m excited about/looking forward to: Seeing the baby on the sonogram soon!!

Week 9

• How far along?: 9 weeks (Happy Thanksgiving!)
• Baby is the size of a: Cherry
• The Bump: I feel like a puffy marshmallow.
• Symptoms: I’ve been feeling so much better since I’ve started taking the anti-nausea medicine that my doctor prescribed. However, it makes me even more tired than I already am. (If that’s even possible!)
• Food Cravings: Chocolate Chip Pancakes and Jimmy Johns! I’m so sad that I am unable to eat deli meat. I want a sandwich SO bad!
• Anything Making Me Queasy or Sick: I’m feeling so much better this week! I have a hard time cooking meat though. The look of raw meat makes me want to gag.
• Sleep: I’ve been sleeping SO well this past week with my anti-nausea medicine. (I typically am really sick in the morning and evenings.)
• What I miss: I miss my healthy eating and exercise routine. I am slowly starting to get more active again since I feel better, and I am going to start back at my workout classes next week. Fingers crossed!
• Maternity Clothes: Me and my stretchy pants will fit in at this year’s Thanksgiving!
• Best Moment of the Week: Announcing our pregnancy to the world!
• What I’m excited about/looking forward to: These months ahead until baby is here. As we enter into our last holiday season as a family of 4 (Me, Rob, and the dogs!) I desperately want to soak it all in!

We couldn’t be more thankful this year as we prepare for this new chapter in our lives, and we hope you’ll join us in our excitement and prayer for this little bundle of joy. This sweet baby of ours is already so incredibly loved, and we can’t wait to celebrate this perfect gift that God has given us.