15 Weeks: Boy or Girl? Game On!

I have to admit - after getting past a not so fun week we have had a lot of fun getting to know the sex of Baby Fish a lot earlier than we normally would.  After blurting it out on impulse to the first person who would listen to us we have since "matured" and had a little more fun with it getting our friends and family to guess what they thought before we made the big reveal...here are some pretty amazing responses:

"I'm voting girl because she needs to rock glitter tilts..."

- Courtney

 (an unfortunate choice in jeans in my early college years that I will never live down).

" I'm gonna go rogue and say boy. He is going to come out with hiking boots on."

- Rena
(Yes, Rena is a New Yorker currently residing in Chicago - so naturally anything in Portland will be born with hiking boots;-)

"I'm voting girl - this little bump is quite the scene stealer!"

- Lindsey
(A reference to the wedding mishap in the post "The Announcement")

"I vote Hermaphrodite!"

- Jamie

(You can always count your older brother to be a complete ass)

We are excited to announce that Baby Fish is officially a bouncing baby boy!  When the nurse told us in our appointment we let out a little bit of a "Whoop!" and high-fived leading her to say that was the best reaction she had seen in a while. We are just thrilled that whoever follows will have a big brother to help show them the ropes - because you saw how supportive they can be up above ;-)

14 Weeks: Growing Belly But Still No "Bump"

Last week at work I had a "moment" very similar to that of Katie's Wedding. I had a wave of being dizzy and light headed and rather than let it go to the same level as it did before I decided to take a seat. It was at that moment I realized - damn these pants are tight!

So what is a girl to do when you realize your pants are squeezing your will to live? The classy thing of course, I unzipped my pants, found a saftey pin and pulled my shirt down so my lil wardrobe malfunction remained my lil secret - until now that is. It's all starting to make sense after reading my pregnancy app that Baby Fish is now the size of a lemon - however my belly resembles more of a night out at Tasty N Sons (if you haven't eaten there do it - it's totally worth feeling 14 weeks pregnant afterwards:-) rather than the perfect, cute, lil bumps you see on the celebrities plastered across the front of all the tabloid magazines. Apparently they call this phase of pregnancy "thickening" - isn't that just a great word that makes you feel beautiful everyday? I'm pretty sure a man came up with that one.

After doing some searching this weekend I've found Portland isn't really a mecca for maternity wear but lucky for me fashion right now is very conducive to a growing belly.  After finding a few great sweaters and a shiny new pair of shoes at Ann Taylor life is more comfortable again. I did break down and drag Brett to A Pea In The Pod in the search of some maternity work pants - but after an hour of trying on every pair in the store I've decided to stick with skirts for a while. Sadly when you get pregnant someone, somewhere must have mandated that well-fitting, stylish pants are off the list, perhaps there is a business opportunity here - if only I knew how to sew.

13 Weeks: Pregnancy Rollercoaster

I've decided I'm not good at this being pregnant thing. I'm still waiting for that blissful happiness and effortless glow people keep talking about and it's just not happening. In fact, I feel like a I'm losing my mind out of worry half the time - and lucky for me there are plenty of people out there who love to tell you things to worry about during pregnancy. If possible I would like to fast forward 7 months to being a parent of a happy, healthy child. I'm not sure why women love doing this so much everyday is a roller coaster:

Up: You find out you are pregnant! Hurray, in 40 weeks you'll be a parent of a bouncing baby girl/boy who will wrap you around their little finger till the end of time.

Down: Just don't tell anyone for 3months until you are in your 2nd trimester since you have a 10%-25% chance of having a miscarriage - buzz kill!

Up: Yeah! You made it to 13weeks and now you can share the news with all your friends and family! Finally no more sneaking in faux-cocktails during dinner with friends.

Down: Your Prenatal Trimester Screening comes back with your baby having a higher risk for down syndrome then he/she should for my age. Oye so much heartache and we aren't even parents yet.

Up: After a whirlwind three days we had our call with a genetic counselor and went in for an appointment where the poor woman got to hold my hand as I waffled back and forth between my options for an hour and a half. After deciding to go through with the slightly invasive CVS test to put an end to our worrying we found out last night that all things point to normal! Or at least as "normal" as a child of ours will be:-)

Next stop on the roller coaster - finding out if it is a boy or girl!

Throughout this short little journey I've made the mistake of looking to the web and books for answers - and to be honest all they do is strike the fear of god into you. Especially if you make the mistake of reading the user comments that often accompany expert posts who love to share their own personal horror stories. New rule - Megan is banned from websites, blogs and books about pregnancy - she will rely on the advice of a trusted doctor, nurse practitioner and her fabulous family and friends moving forward.

As we said before - Baby Fish certainly does have a flair for drama.

Baby Sitters Cost How Much?

Since finding out we were expecting I've had fun wrapping my head around what it means to be pregnant while my financial planner of a husband has been wrapping his head around the cost of being pregnant, having the child, first year of the child, college tuition and so on. It's a good thing we have our babysitter costs nailed down! Check out this video of our niece Olivia signing her life away as our personal babysitter on our way to our Auntie/Uncle date to Wings and Waves. Poor thing didn't find out till later we were actually pregnant - she has already started to renegotiate her wages:-)

12 Weeks - So That's What You Look Like!

Today we had our first trimester screening and it was the first time we got to see our little baby look like well  - a baby! Here's our little girl/boy just hanging out at just over 2 inches long, right on target for where they should be. This picture was taken right after the technician started poking and prodding to wake him/her up - and boy did they ever wake up!

 This picture makes us laugh just a bit - even though it looks eerily similar to a very famous painting...

...what was actually going on was this! After baby woke up he/she started punching, kicking moving all around until they turned my uterus into their very own slip n slide. Pushing off the bottom to the top and sliding all the way back to the bottom just to do it again. It was amazing to watch and strange to think all that activity is going on inside and you still can't feel a thing!

The Announcement

There is nothing more exciting to take a pregnancy test (or five) and realize that you are pregnant! It's a happy moment - which is then promptly shut down by all the books, blogs, websites and innocent bystanders insisting that you keep this a secret for two more months. TWO MONTHS! Well - were weren't quite that good. We let our immediate family in on our little secret with the use of the below image that was delivered in a picture frame to our parents, brothers and sisters (in hindsight we are sad we didn't video tape reactions because they were way better than we anticipated).

 

All was running on course, our first Doctors appointment went smoothly, we saw the heartbeat and learned everything was going well around 9 weeks. Even with the news we had planned to stay true to the 1st trimester rule. That was until Baby Fish decided otherwise:

11 weeks and Hood to Coast weekend (an annual relay in Oregon where a team will run from Mt Hood to Seaside Beach). I had agreed to drive down and get Brett and Kim after the run with my trusty assistants at my side (a 3 year old Goldendoodle named Huck and a exuberant 9 year old niece Olivia).  We were on time - the runners - about an hour or so late. No big deal - we are at the beach! So we walk around, take in all the sights, get sand everywhere and Olivia even teaches Huck how to dig in the sand (a new skill we are hoping doesn't translate to our garden). The runners arrive, we drive back the hour and a half drive with just enough time to change clothes and head over to their cousin Katie's wedding.

Side Note: Baby Fish has decided that he/she has a very particular eating and drinking schedule - every two hours. When not appeased we lovingly refer to what happens "The Beast."

The wedding was a beautiful Portland wedding in the middle of Alberta Park on a sunny/slightly scorching day. As we are all standing around watching the ceremony unfold The Beast starts to reveal itself. I start feeling a bit light headed - assuming it is from the heat Brett and I move to the back where I let Brett know I'm "not feeling so well." A few seconds later I collapse into Brett and he calls for his Dad for help bringing attention to a little situation I was trying to keep hidden from the rest of the guests. Upon waking up in a chair that had manifested itself out of thin air (thank you Barb) a doctor who had been attending the wedding starts asking me all kinds of questions "are you diabetic, are you...." in a haze I finally just look up at her and say - "no, I'm just pregnant." We spent the rest of the wedding accepting congratulatory kisses, hugs and belly pats from Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Apparently you can't plan everything to happen the way you see fit.

The girls in New York have declared that we will definitely be having a girl - since only a girl would be diva enough to try and steal the spotlight from the bride - what do you think?!

Welcome!

Hello friends and family! Ever since we let out the news of our lil bun in the oven we have received many requests to keep everyone informed on all the updates. Seein as how we are new to all this - we aren't sure if that is just another "nice thing" to say to two, soon to be dumb struck parents or if the sentiments are true. So rather than bore you all with hour long phone calls about baby heart beats, growing bumps and the latest cravings we figured we'd create a space where we can keep you updated - if you so choose! This also helps us seeing has how we have a lot of love for friends and family spread all throughout these United States.

Now with this being said - there are rules to this here blog.

Rule #1: Any reader who will feel a gnawing need to correct the spelling, grammar or punctuation are invited to steer clear (you know who you are). Fine tuning our language is not how we chose to spend our rare downtime - that and any who know us are aware that it's simply not a strong suit of ours.

Rule #2: This is a place for us to share news with our friends and family. We may post a sonogram photo or baby bump photo here or there but we will not be sharing that info on Facebook so please respect our privacy and keep all photos and news on this site and not out in the larger social media world.

Rule #3: No more rules. We hope you will read, enjoy, post and comment. We'd love to hear from you as we continue on this new adventure!

Much love,
Megan & Brett