Pregnancy: Second Trimester

You know, the second trimester really was a breeze.  I didn't have any of the typical symptoms.  I didn't look too pregnant until the very end; I just looked like I had slightly upped my cookie and cake intake (which I might have...).  The main highlight of this time period was finding out the gender of our little one, and that has pretty much been the highlight of this whole pregnancy!

Everyone says that they don't have a preference about the baby's gender.  I don't really believe that.  I mean, of course you will love it and be excited no matter what, but I think deep-down everyone has a preference.  We're just too scared to say it out-loud because we don't want to jinx it!  Well, I'll be the first to admit that Matt and I both wanted a girl.  Reason?  Hello, have you seen all the cute hair bows on Pinterest lately!?  I was all over those.  And come on, do I even have to elaborate on my dreams of Matt with a little baby girl?  Stop it.  Too precious.  Also, I'm the oldest in my family and Matt has an older sister, so I guess it's also what we're both used to.  Ok, and my mom aka the-most-excited-woman-in-the-world-to-become-a-grandma couldn't contain herself and had already bought several outfits, mostly girl ones, in anticipation for Baby's arrival, and let me tell you, they are adorable!

The big day finally came-- Halloween!  My parents and my sister met us at the clinic, and we all sat together in anticipation to find out if we were going to have a Jenni Jr. or a Matt Jr.  I swear the wait for this visit was longer than all of the other ones combined!  Finally it was our turn, and the nurse led us all into the room, got me situated on the bed, rubbed the gel on my bump, and then started the exam.  I was intently watching the screen, trying to make out what was what-- no idea how the nurses do that.  She started by taking basic measurements, pointing out the legs and arms.  I watched as carefully as I could and thought I saw a little miniature leg type thing moving around with the other two legs.  BOY!  I didn't say it out loud, and for 5 seconds I have to admit I was a little disappointed... but only for 5 seconds.  She continued her exam, measuring the head, checking for clubbed feed, for a cleft lip, and examining the heart valves.  

Then she said, "Well, do you know what it is yet?... You're having a baby boy!"  

YAY!!!  I was so excited!  Who needs hair bows anyway!?  We were having boy and he wasn't shy about letting us know.  He will probably be embarrassed by the pictures when I pull them out to show his girlfriends-- already looking forward to that.

The nurse said that everything looked good.  Our baby boy was perfect.  And "will be very handsome" she mentioned on our way out.  Perks of marrying a good looking guy--good looking kids!

Now, I would have gone this whole pregnancy without telling anyone if I could, but Matt insisted that people would want to know and that we should post something on Facebook.  I consented, and we announced our pregnancy and Baby's gender simultaneously with this post to Instagram/Facebook:

Told you he wasn't shy!

Pregnancy: Telling the Fam

Sumner Addition
In case you weren't aware, this is the first grandchild on either side of the family--one spoiled baby coming right up!  My parents, especially my mom, have been dying for grand kids for as long as I can remember.  I swear my mom was more excited for me to get a baby than for me to get a husband (although she didn't advise going in that order).  I knew that breaking the news to my parents was going to be a huge deal, and, like breaking the news to Matt, I wanted it to be awesome.

My mom's birthday fell at about the 10 week mark for us.  Waiting that long to tell my mom took serious self control.  My sister, Amy, knew about it, and helped us get it all on video (except that she had some fuzz in her phone blocking the sound!  I'm not bitter, really).  We bought a bib that said "I love Grandma," wrapped it up, and gave it to my mom when we went up to celebrate her birthday.

Her reaction?  Priceless.  

She tore the wrapper just enough for her to see the words and then proceeded to yell, "IS THIS A JOKE?  AHHHH!  THIS BETTER NOT BE A JOKE!"  Over and over, getting to her feet and pointing her finger at Matt.  I think he was legitimately afraid.  (Note to siblings: never joke about being pregnant with mom).  When we assured her, in between screams, that we were in fact having a baby, she couldn't contain herself.  More screaming, jumping, tears.  Yeah, it was awesome.  My poor dad and brother in the corner were so confused.  My mom had thrown the bib on the ground and started yelling before explaining what was going on!  

Bloomfield Addition

We planned on surprising Matt's family in a similar way.  We got the same bib for his mom and planned on giving it to her when the family came up to Provo to drop Matt's sister, Judy, off at the Missionary Training Center (MTC).  They got to our place pretty late the night before Judy's drop off, and we told Wendy that we had a gift for her.  Sending a daughter on a mission is a hard thing, so we got her something to help make the transition a little easier.  She opened it up and just started laughing.  I looked at Matt with a confused look... Then she said, "Wait, are you pregnant!?"  Yes!  Everyone was really excited, except for Judy, but only because she won't be able to meet the little babe until she gets back from Mexico!

Telling David
My brother, David, is currently serving in the Salem Oregon mission.  I sent him a package in the mail with nothing but a pacifier with a note attached.  He was ecstatic in his email the next week.

Pregnancy: Trimester One

Here are some highlights from the first trimester--

Morning Sickness
We found out we were going to have a baby when I was about 4 weeks along, and let me tell you, morning sickness is a real thing! For about three weeks straight my schedule was pretty much sleep, eat, throw up, sleep, eat, throw up... You get the picture. Luckily I had about 2 weeks of sick leave saved up from my job at the health department, and my boss was fine with me working from home and/or using the sick leave for those last two weeks. It was such a blessing not to have to take the train 1.5 hours each way to Salt Lake every day.

Matt was such a trooper through the whole thing--holding my hair back when I threw up, taking me out to eat so I didn't have to cook, doing the dishes (which I totally milked for all it was worth, I admit it), making sure I always had a plate with assorted crackers and cookies and Ginger Ale by my bed. Seriously, he was wonderful. The sickness lasted about three weeks, but I continued to throw up about once a week until I was 15 weeks along. Fun stuff.

I sent this picture to Matt when he texted me one day (probably around noon) and asked what I was up to... 

Diet and Exercise
I was determined to eat healthy every day and exercise... yeah, that lasted like three days. It was all pizza, mac and cheese, and steak from there! Seriously, I've eaten more steak in the last few months than I've eaten in my entire life! Matt, of course, hasn't complained. I've tried to continue eating the way I had before, which wasn't health nut status, but not bad either. I've been trying to go walking in the mornings, and I'm not perfect at that, but I really haven't gained too much weight (the doctors aren't worried, so I'm not going to worry!), so it's all good.

First Ultrasound
This was one of the best highlights from these first 12 weeks. Because we didn't see the doctor for the first time until I was 12 weeks along (issues with switching insurances with the new job), we were able to do an ultrasound at our first appointment! I'm so grateful that Matt has been able to come to all of my doctor's appointments with me, especially that first one. We were so excited, and nervous! It felt like we were being initiated into a new club.

The nurse was the sweetest lady. She pointed Matt to the room saying, “Over here, Dad” and my heart flipped. Dad!! Matt!! DAD!! I loved it, absolutely loved it. Matt though, was confused and admitted he looked around for his dad hah!

The nurse took my vitals- blood pressure, weight, height, etc. and then gave me a gown to change into and said the doctor would be there shortly. We there in the room, and it was all so surreal. We were at an ObGyn clinic about to have our first baby check-up! Our baby! Was this real life!?

The doctor came in and started with her routine check up. She was very funny and helped us feel at ease. Why were we so nervous!? She started feeling my stomach and said, “Oh, there is your uterus right there!” What the heck? How can she feel it!? I couldn’t feel anything different haha. Everything seemed to be in order. Then she said, “Well, should we have a look at him?” YES!!! OH PLEASE!!! She told us that if it is a baby, we should be able to see it on the ultrasound. Panic... wait, what if we can’t see anything. As she left I started to worry-- ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, yeah, all of it. What if our baby wasn’t perfect like I’d been imagining? Would I be able to handle that? She came back in a few minutes later with the most archaic piece of equipment that I had seen in real life in 10 years, but I guess if it works, why fix it? Then Matt said, “I was a little worried when you said ‘If it’s a baby, we should be able to see it’ I was thinking, ‘So, if it isn’t a baby, what will we see?’” Then the doctor said, “A puppy!” We all started laughing and the tension that I had been feeling was calmed a little. Matt is so good at helping me feel that way.

We sat in anticipation as the doctor rubbed the jelly on my stomach and moved the probe around. All of a sudden, on the screen we saw our little one. I have never experienced anything like that in my whole life. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I was so overcome with emotion as I looked at the screen and watched our perfect little baby! It was actually inside me! It all became so much more real. We created a tiny human, and it was alive and moving inside me. The doctor pointed out the different body parts to us. Then she said, “Let’s see if we can get him to move around a little bit” and she started wiggling my stomach and the baby started moving around! It’s arms went up and down and it completely flipped around! WHAT!? It was so incredible!! She let us watch for a few more minutes, took some pictures, and then left to get the measurements to check my due date. I got dressed again as Matt and I looked at each other in total wonder. We really were parents...already! Wow. The doctor came back and said that Baby is right on track for its length and that I was due on March 18, 2015.



Then there was the blood test... yeah, we all know how much I love those. But, I was determined to make Matt's first blood-drawing experience with me an uneventful one. He was so encouraging as we waited again for our name to be called, knowing that anything blood and needles is my biggest fear. I was shaking and panicking, but he reassured me that I could do it! And I did. It look three tries with two different nurses to find a vein (very typical-- see why I hate it so much?!), but I didn’t pass out! I cried, of course, that is just a natural side effect, but over all, I’d say it went quite well!

My favorite part of this whole first-time-to-the-clinic experience was watching Matt as he watched the ultrasound. He lit up like I have never before seen. I was so happy to see how excited and in awe he was! I sure do love that guy, and am so excited knowing that through this whole journey, it will be him by my side every step of the way.

Parenthood: here we come!

Pregnancy: Finding out and Surprising Matt

Since I've been so terrible at keeping any kind of journal about my first pregnancy, these next few posts will serve as an overview of this roller coaster ride we've hopped on.

This baby was a total surprise... sort of.

In the spring of 2014, we decided it was time to start trying to have a baby, and we were so excited! Then, we started looking at the calendar and decided that we should wait a few more months to plan around possible internships, etc. Well... Heavenly Father had another plan for us.

We were at the grocery store in early July, and Matt told me to get a pregnancy test because “you never know,” even though we were both pretty sure that this one would be negative, just like the others I had taken in the last few months once I stopped taking birth control. I consented, though fully convinced it was a waste of money because we had been careful, bla bla sparing you the details here.

When we got home from the store, Matt handed the test to me as he was unloading the groceries with the instructions to “go do this thing!” I sat down and the toilet and proceeded to relieve my waters (which weren’t very much at the time, I have to add). I looked down and stared in shock as a faint blue line appeared in the first circle indicating a positive test. Bulging eyes, gaping mouth, yeah, the whole thing. Immediately, I hopped off the toilet, grabbed a cup, and began downing as much water as I could thinking this must be a fluke because I didn’t pee enough. More pee, no change.

I placed the test in the garbage and walked out of the bathroom trying to be as nonchalant as any person just realizing that they are pregnant possibly could be. Matt asked me how it went and I said, “negative” like I had the other few times in the past months that I had checked.. You see, Matt was dead set that I would never be able to surprise him about getting pregnant because I fail at pretty much every attempted surprise. I'm a terrible actress and just can't stand to wait, but I had made up my mind that if there was ever one surprise that I had to get him with, this had to be it! And it had to be good, so began the brainstorming...

The next day was a Tuesday. I woke up, thought about being pregnant. I took a shower, stared at my stomach the whole time, and thought about being pregnant. Ate breakfast, thought about being pregnant. You get the idea... I could think of nothing else. When I got to work, all of the feelings overwhelmed me at once, so I ran to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and cried.

"I’m not ready to be a mom! I’m not old enough. The house isn’t ever clean enough. I’m not mature enough. I don’t cook well enough. I’m not spiritual enough" were the thoughts going through my head. More tears. I just didn’t feel at all prepared for this... but then again, isn’t this what I’ve been preparing for my whole life? Too many emotions. I had to pull myself together. I wanted to tell someone, anyone! Just shout it out in the bathroom so I could let someone else know. Then, all at once, a feeling of love came over me as I realized that someone else did know, someone who made this all possible. Heavenly Father knew. He knew that, despite all of my fears of inadequacy, I was enough and that although I didn’t feel ready for this responsibility, He assured me that I could do it. And with that reassurance, all of my fears faded away. I finished the work day with a feeling of peace that slowly turned into excitement. I was going to be a mom! A mom! Me! I had a human starting to grow inside me! Cool!

On Wednesday I stopped by the store on the way home and picked up another pregnancy test. I had to be completely sure that this was all real. This time I was prepared. I drank three full glasses of water and then entered the bathroom. Within seconds, the test was another positive. I decided right then and there that there was no possible way that I could wait until Saturday, our one and a half year anniversary, to tell Matt our news. I had to tell him tonight! But wait, how was I going to do it? Remember, the surprise had to be perfect! I’ll admit, I spent a little bit of time on Pinterest looking up creative ways, but they all seemed kind of corny to me, and I hate corny. I also spent some time looking through pregnancy apps on my phone. They had all kinds of baby tracking helps and a hundred other baby related things. I finally found one that I liked, downloaded it, and found out that our baby was currently four weeks old and about the size of a poppy seed. And there was my idea.



When Matt came home that night, I told him that I had a gift for him for our year and a half anniversary, but that I was too excited to wait until the weekend to give it to him--totally believable with my track record. Matt, of course, was totally fine with getting it right then and there! So, as he sat there at the kitchen table with his eyes closed and hands outstretched, eager to receive the gift, I opened the cupboard and poured out one teeny, tiny black poppy seed and placed in on his palm. When I said, “Open your eyes!” he looked down and his face said it all.

Matt: “I don’t get it...”

Me: “It’s a poppy seed!” More bewilderment... “That’s how big our baby is!!!!!!”



And the surprise was perfect. Brush my shoulder off. Matt responded with, “WHAT?!” and the biggest smile! I started to tear up--happy tears this time, and Matt grabbed me in the biggest hug. We were having a baby and we couldn’t have been more happy!