Our Precious Child

This blog posting is my mini journey through the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. As you can see, I first started writing it on March 15th, so its kind of long, so only read if you're really interested because its long. :-)

3/15/12
So I found out a piece of life changing information this morning!....I'm pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right now, only my blogspot and me know. I'm saving a special reveal to my sweet husband. Last night, I had a feeling, but I'd had that feeling before and the pregnancy test had shown up negative so I wasn't getting my hopes up too high; however, I decided to write my husband, and the future father of our child, a letter because I wanted him to know the words came from me before we even knew we were going to have a baby. Today, I am going to find a nice card and handwrite the words in. A while back, I came across little camo onesies, one with a pink cartoon deer and one with a blue cartoon deer on the front. I bought them as I thought they'd be a cute reveal someday whenever that day came along. Today is the day! I made this cute little note that says  "Congratulations Daddy! You've got a huntin' buddy!" and I'm going to hide it all out in his suitcase in Boyd tonight so he stumbles across it....but I'll make sure I'm there when he does :) I feel like it'd be special for him to find out in his original home surrounded by his family versus the home we currently live in which we're not so in love with. I  can't wait to make that special little nursery...just for our son or daughter. I can't believe I'm saying that! I've always wanted to be a mom and now its real. I'm a mom...whether he or she is here or not, I am now housing LIFE that the Lord created. How incredibly special....I'm in love!!!!!!

At lunch, I hopped on vitaminworld.com and bought the most expensive prenatal vitamins I could find :) They are from "Garden of Life" which is reputable for having the highest quality vitamins. 30 days of vitamins was $32...heck I can fuel the life of my child for less than one tank of gas for sure! Amazing how my mentality has already switched...now, its all about my child and the decisions I make are for him/her.

I can't wait to tell Derrick tonight!!! Wooooooooohoooooooooooooooooooooo!


So we didn't end up going to Boyd that night. Rather we went to Richardson where we stayed the night in a hotel so we could film for my brother's investment seminar the next morning. I didn't really want to tell him late at night after a long drive in a random hotel, but I didn't want to wait an entire 2 more days to tell him because I couldn't keep it in that long, so when we were about to drive away, Derrick realized he forgot something and ran back into the house. I had prepared a card with "Daddy" on it along with the onesies. I almost put it on his seat so he'd see it when he came back, but I hesitated too long and he came back. Then he realized he forgot something else and off he went again. I was like ugggghhh...should I or should I not?? I went back and forth as I never imagined our child's reveal to be in the front seat of my Jeep, and again, I was too late. He got back in the car and then remembered where the thing he was looking for was. So he went BACK into the house. By then, I'd had lots of time to think and I realized how long it would be before I could tell him, and I realized we had a 5 hour drive ahead of us that could be the most special drive we'd ever had, so I pulled the trigger. I scrambled for my suitcase and grabbed all the goodies and set it on the front seat of the car and got my iPhone ready. He came back expecting to hop in and drive away and there on the front seat was a card with "Daddy" written on top. He looked really confused and then his eyes got huge and he was like "NO WAY!?!?!." I was shaking and nodding and nodding and nodding trying to keep the camera on him :)

So glad I caught that first look! :)

He commenced to kissing me and sure enough, we had the most special 5 hour drive of our lives. Every few minutes I'd say "hey, guess what?!" :-D It's an odd, odd mental shift to realize there are now 3 of you in the car. The hardest part has been keeping it a secret. We want to tell everyone, but are going to wait til at least Easter to tell our family and best friends.

These pics were taken the night we found out in the Hilton Doubletree Hotel in Richardson, TX :)

March 15, 2012...I'm pregnant!

Feeling on top of the world

3/24/12

So I've known about our baby for 9 days now and it still hasn't quite sunk in. However, I definitely feel different on a daily basis. For one, I've been wiped out tired. I've read that this is very normal, but by the end of the day I just want to sleep and dragging through the afternoons at work have been difficult. Part of this is my cold turkey stoppage of coffee...which I've never had very much (usually only about 6 oz a day anyway), but I didn't realize how much it helped give me the little morning kick starts that I needed. Other than that, I've felt fuller and "fatter" already, but supposedly that's normal too. Lastly, food tastes SO good! I think my taste buds are heightened because everything is just so yummy. I haven't been eating more I don't think, and if I have its been healthy food as we stocked our house full of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and such, but its all so great! haha

Derrick already refers to me as "you two" and says "how are my babies?" He even attempted to hear a heart beat....I'm not even quite sure if a heartbeat exists yet, but either way its adorable. He's excited and that just makes it so much better!

3/29/12
Feeling good today! Last week was exhausting. This week has been overall boring, but not as exhausting. Food still tastes great though. On the menu for tonight is breakfast! Waffles, pan sausage, and eggs....but it seems as though my most favorite "craving" so far is weirdly...cheese. Chunks of colby jack, queso, cheese quesedillas, and macaroni and cheese have been thoroughly wanted and deliciously enjoyed :) I have our first doctor's appointment set for April 5th at 3pm. Besides Derrick, the one and only human being that I have told "I'm pregnant" to was the secretary at the doctor's. It was so weird and I think I said it kind of excitedly, but ha! I forget they hear that every single day. :)

4/9/12
Easter weekend is over and we spent the weekend in Boyd. On Thursday, Derrick & I went to the doctor and we got to see our baby's heartbeat!! It was SO awesome. We got our first ultrasound pic...he/she was 1.36 centimeters :) So like 1/2" We decided we wanted some people in our lives to know so we decided Easter weekend was the weekend for family.
We were going to reveal on Sunday, but Robert, Linda, Logan, Kelly, Austin, and Tricia were all at the house Saturday night and we all had a great dinner together and then were going to watch "We Bought a Zoo." We weren't sure if everyone was going to be at the same place with the same relaxed environment on Sunday, so we decided to pull the trigger. Derrick & I had gone to Hobby Lobby and bought all the fixins to make the most special Easter eggs ever and we used them for the reveal.

Logan & Kelly got a head start :)

So we got a great look from them while the parents were still trying to figure it out

They were SO excited!! I think they've been waiting for grandkids for
 4 years, 7 months, 25 days (since our wedding day) :)

Aunt KiKi and Uncle LoLo

Austin was a little freaked out...I think he likes being the baby in the family :)

Triplets!! Just kidding!...just a pic with all the eggs

On the outside, we wrote "For Easter, we wanted to make y'all something very special." On the inside, we put an ultrasound pic with "Grandparents," "Uncle Logan & Aunt Kelly," and "Uncle Austin" on photo. :) We also put pink and blue Easter grass, "its a boy" and "its a girl" candies and lil rubber duckies. 

From then on, we kept calling Derrick's parents Pops & Granny and they were very excited. Robert had a dream we were having a girl after he said he wasn't sure if he'd be able to sleep that night. So cute!

4/17/2012
On Tuesday, April 10th, I had put together a dinner with my immediate family saying we needed to get together since we were apart at Easter. We headed over to Mom & Dad's for a wonderful meal of chicken spaghetti and lots of yummy veggies and bread and such. We ended up talking for several hours, and if you've ever been around my family, you'll know that the majority of the conversation revolves around business. With all of us working in the same building and so much change going on with the companies, there was lots to talk & argue about. It got kind of heated haha and I wasn't sure if that night was going to be the night for baby booties and twinkle stars :) But...things evened out and we delved into some great conversations and eventually, I brought out the big guns. And the following were the results...

My mom and dad's face....I randomly held up the camera and just captured whatever I could...glad I got them both! barely... :)

HaHa! I totally knew I'd get exactly THAT look. A polite disgust. :) Jason's a little freaked out, but I expected it so its ok.

The next night was Wednesday and my Uncle Doug & Aunt Laura invited us to go with them to Hallettsville for dinner and a movie. They have played a really important and special role in our lives...they've invested into loving us and we'd probably consider them our best friends in Shiner. :) We went to a nice Italian restaurant and ended up finishing up early so we burned some time by driving through the park. I told Uncle Doug that I had a fun little Easter gift for them if he wanted to pull over in a pretty little spot. Instead, he just stopped in the middle of the road. haha. I passed up the Easter egg and got the awesome following reaction that included a very high pitch and cute squeal from Aunt Laura. It was funny because at first Aunt Laura couldn't get the egg open and Uncle Doug kept saying "Hatch it! Hatch it!" :) Too cute.

The hand over mouth came after the squeal. :) I LOVE that I caught Uncle Doug's face in the rear view mirror!

They were so excited. Ironically we had been talking earlier in the evening about how "babies are everywhere."

4/29/12
So we are 11 weeks now and before announcing it next weekend we of course wanted to tell our 2 sets of best friends, the Phillips and the Maders. We knew we wouldn't get to see the Phillips before we were at least 12 weeks, so we had to settle for a Skype date with them rather than face to face, but it was a special moment in the midst of a special conversation. We'd been talking about planning a summer vacation with them for weeks so we posed our need for a Skype date around that and chatted it up for quite a while before finally popping the news and introducing Baby R to them via the computer camera. :) They of course were so excited and the only thing that I regret is that I forgot to have my camera with me which I'm so upset about because I have captured everyone else's reaction so perfectly. I am sad that I will never see those wonderful faces again in that "No way! Oh my gosh!" look. :)

This weekend, we finally got to see the Maders. We had plans of telling them 2 weekends ago as our Goddaughters, Karis & Kelsie, had a 2 year birthday party planned. Unfortunately, they got hand, foot, and mouth disease and their party had to be cancelled so we didn't get to see them as we had planned. This weekend, we invited the Maders to Rockport for a weekend getaway and I had all kinds of ideas of how I wanted to tell them but I think I picked the very best one. :) I was thinking of making the girls cute lil tshirts that said "I'm going to be a big sister...sort of" or "We have a secret" but I wanted the shirts to be something cute enough that they could continue wearing past those 60 seconds of reveal and I couldn't think of anything generic enough so I finally passed on that idea to something along the lines of writing a giveaway line in the sand at the beach when we went. I'm glad I passed on that idea because I'd forgotten how rocky the Rockport beach sand is :) plus it was very windy and we were kind of in survival mode at the beach so thinking that wouldn't have been the right moment. Instead, on Friday night, we all went out to The Boiling Pot in Rockport. For those who don't know, the boiling pot is this place where they pour your food out on the table (consisting of boiled shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausage, and crab) and give you bibs and butcher paper covering the table with crayons to color. So we were just chatting away and enjoying each other's company and coloring on the butcher paper waiting on our food when I challenged Brittany to a game of hangman...totally natural right. Well I gave her:
_ _ _   _ _   _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. She casually played as the girls distracted her here and there and she got up to DUE IN NO_E_ _ ER and Ian got it. He was like "no way!" and was all excited looking but wouldn't give it away. Brittany was like "Due in Nowhere??" It didn't sink in until we gave her a couple more letters and then it hit her. It was classic! I knew she would be the most excited of all and sure enough she was indeed.

Ian got it

Brittany couldn't figure out why we were laughing and I was taking pictures of her. 

And then it hit her!

Our sweet Maders

I forgot to take a pic until after dinner so excuse the shrimp and mustard :)

5/1/12 So always and forever, I will treasure the first two gifts we received for Baby Ratliff. Upon finding out, my Uncle Doug & Aunt Laura gave us Baby Ratliff's very first book which is totally precious. Its a beautiful book and we'll love it forever. 

Today, we received in the mail a very special package from the Phillips with 2 cards and 3 homemade baby burp cloths (Aggie as you can see!). Kelley made them herself and they are so incredibly cute. Trent sent us a blue card with a special handwritten note to "our son" and Kelley sent a pink card with a special note to "our daughter" - how precious is that!! We just love them so much - couldn't ask for more incredible people to influence our child's life as he/she grows. 

5/9/12
So the news is out; hence, my blog posting! :) We had another doctor's appointment on Monday and the nurse found a happy and healthy heartbeat again with the little doppler machine. It was strong and fast and we were thrilled. So...it was time to tell the world! I had trickled out the news to a few of my good friends who were all thrilled for us and I got a chance to tell the boss men at work and then it was Facebook time. We quickly received, as of today, 48 comments and 64 likes in a couple days. Just reminds us how blessed we are and how blessed and loved our precious child will be! Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement!