It’s a…

Remember how I thought I would know I was pregnant. And then how I knew it was a girl. Well I know nothing. Because…

Now, bring on the boy names. I’m finding this harder than girl names. At this point, I’m likely to have dog Kai and baby Kai ha.

16 Weeks

Well the sad day I knew would happen is here: my wedding rings don’t fit. I knew my hands were getting puffy as my rings started feeling tighter and tighter. Now I just don’t want to risk them never coming off again and cutting off my circulation (or whatever terrible thing could happen). My mom had a beautiful spare diamond band that looks just like my wedding band so I’ll be rocking that solo. Unless this is a combo of puff & humidity so the fall/winter brings a miracle and I can wear my rings again.

On happier news: we announced on social media this weekend! I had planned a super cute valentines card announcement with a sonogram photo but this kid won’t give me a good picture, so plan B = my love for Hokie football. I designed a onesie on CustomInk and pulled my “Future Hokie” maternity shirt out of the drawer I’ve been keeping it in since, probably this time last year, for some photos at the cottage.

Hoping the social media posts help word travel because I can’t figure out how to tell people in-person without sounding like I’m on “16 and Pregnant.” Seriously, my conversations go like this:

co-worker: “I think I’ll get the hash-browns and eggs”
other person “that sounds good, I’m so hungry”
me: “I’m super hungry too… because I’m pregnant.”

Or another actual example:

coworker: “have you tried the wine bar at Harris Teeter yet?”
me [trying to be normal]: “oh no not yet. Do they have some good wines there?”
coworker: “You need to go try it tonight!”
me: “I’m not drinking for a while.”
pause
me: “I’m pregnant”

I can’t work anything in naturally and I’m definitely starting to show, so this will make for some laughs in the weeks to come.

Questionnaire:

How far along? 16 Weeks

How big is baby? The size of an avocado

Maternity clothes? Yes for shorts & pants, no for shirts or dresses

Sleep: pretty terrible this week

Best moment this week: So many: 1)When I told Jimmy baby can hear now, he repeatedly said “hello,” 2) announcing on social media, 3) starting nursery set-up

Movement: When driving I feel some. Baby must have my car anxiety.

Food cravings: ice cream, cookies – baby’s got a sweet tooth whereas I would prefer fruit or salty things

Food Aversions: sweet potatoes

Gender: I am really thinking girl this week

Labor Signs: this question is irrelevant until later

Pregnancy Symptoms: headaches, acne,

Belly Button in or out? In but it’s coming out

What I miss: not needing 7 snacks & 3 meals to make it through a day – life was easier when it was simply 3 meals & 1-2 snacks

What I am looking forward to: finding out gender

Upcoming appointments/events: nothing until the ultrasound 9/19

Weekly Wisdom: if you’re buying a new rug for the nursery, buy it super early because it’ll need to be aired out like none other. Thank your pregnancy super sense of smell for that because your husband likely won’t smell a thing.

Milestones: Baby can hear.

Bump Picture:

12 Weeks

We’re at 12 weeks! Which apparently isn’t actually the end of the first trimester??? That news certainly curbed my enthusiasm

Wednesday morning we had our genetic ultrasound appointment in the Perinatology (high risk OB) department in the new Tysons Kaiser center. I got an email telling me to arrive with a full bladder so we can get the best picture possible on the ultrasound. Upon reading that sentence, I immediately had to pee and knew Wednesday morning would be torturous.

Pretty sure I only slept 3 hours Tuesday night. Between my night meeting for work getting me home late and trying not to worry about the ultrasound the next morning (which caused me to worry), sleep was not great or happening. Wednesday morning I chugged 30 oz of water an hour before my appointment but I don’t think I drank it soon enough or drank enough because everything was pretty grainy. Honestly, baby looks like a human lizard. But that’s an improvement over a stingray. Hopefully our next ultrasound will give a better picture. I did get to hear the heartbeat though. 164 bpm. I cried.

We’ll work with the kid on being photogenic ASAP

 

Heavily filtered baby pic. Honestly all I can identify is the head. 

Wednesday afternoon I received the best news, Baby is healthy! Our genetic testing results all came back normally. We are so thankful!

Sunday, Kurt & Kate were nice enough to throw a house warming party to show off their new house/have an event to bring the family together so Jimmy & I can tell my family about Baby Racine. It was so great to tell (almost) my whole family together.

To tell everyone, I decided to make cards that had a sonogram picture (of face-plant baby) and wrote “Will you be my family?” I knew if I said “I have an announcement” or just started talking while everyone was gathered, they would all instantly know so I wanted to be a little more creative. My family was so excited! They said I definitely threw them off with the cards so my plan worked 🙂 True life confession: I highly considered taking a sonogram photo off the internet where you could actually see the baby but it felt wrong. So I had to go from family member to family member pointing out where the head was, the fact baby is face down, and that making copies of sonogram photos don’t turn out that great.

Questionnaire:

How far along? 12 Weeks

How big is baby? The size of a clementine or plum – I will go with plum because finding a clementine in the summer is hard

Total weight gain/loss: – 1 lb from last week so -4 lbs overall but I fluctuate by as much as 3 lbs from one day to the other so honestly I have no idea.

Maternity clothes? Still rocking all my normal dresses. We timed this well.

Sleep: Hit or miss depending on the night.

Best moment this week: Tie between telling my extended family & hearing the heartbeat for the first time.

Movement: none that I can feel yet but apparently Baby is starting to squirm/respond if I poke my stomach (lightly) so naturally I’m bothering my baby on the regular

Food cravings: honey nut cheerios

Food Aversions: honey nut cheerios <– I want these so bad and keep eating them but I get sick every single time. I’ll never learn.

Gender: Guessing girl but I keep calling Baby a boy so who knows

Labor Signs: N/A

Pregnancy Symptoms: nausea, vomiting, fatigue, emotional, feet are hurting, terrible acne

Belly Button in or out? In. Please stay in forever.

What I miss: coffee.

What I am looking forward to: fall weather when it’s cooler, I actually am showing and it’s football season.

Upcoming appointments/events:  2nd prenatal appointment 8/8

Weekly Wisdom: Confirm your husband knows where each baby appointment is at least 3 times. Get his acknowledgement of the agreed location in writing. Preferably watch him write the location down in front of you so you all are on the same page literally.

Milestones: Baby Racine is healthy! Baby is also developing reflexes this week.

Bump Picture:

I was fighting a stuffy nose and obvious extreme fatigue during these photos

6 Weeks

Telling Jimmy’s Family:

This weekend we went to Massachusetts with Jimmy’s parents and sister Katie. Perfect time to tell his family in-person. I bought a Disney baby book – the crinkly read to an infant kind, that I wrapped up. I also got a blank card to write “Please read to me February 2017.” I knew we wouldn’t survive all day without telling them, so we planned on telling his parents at lunch. We went to a local Italian place – delicious. When we were all seated, I told his parents we “got them a little something.” His mom opened the gift bag, saw the Disney baby book, and immediately gasped and said “you’re pregnant!” Everyone was really excited. I tried to film, but did a terrible job because I didn’t want them to know I was filming. So basically enjoy the audio and the table/bread basket.

Katie didn’t get in until that night, so we had to wait to tell her. Once she did get in, I tasked Jimmy with telling his sister:

Jimmy: “Katie, we have a new nick name for you: Aunt Katie”

Katie: “Why? Is someone having a baby? Is Jeremy [their cousin] having a baby?!?!?”

Ingrid: “No. And that wouldn’t make you an aunt”

Katie: “Wait… are you having a baby?”

Ingrid: “Yep:

Katie starts screaming and jumping up and down. It was priceless 🙂

Then we told Jimmy’s extended family including his grandma at our family dinner. After grandma said some sweet words, Jimmy took the opportunity to say: “Everyone here is moving up a notch. Aunts and uncles to great aunts and great uncles, grandma to great grandma, Ingrid and I are expecting.” Everyone was overjoyed. It was a great night. Grandma said she knew – she sensed it. And she thanked us for making her a great grandmother.

Questionnaire:

How far along? 6 Weeks

How big is baby? The size of a chocolate chip

Total weight gain/loss: -1 lb (-4 lbs total)

Maternity clothes? N/A

Sleep: Still exhausted most all of the time.

Best moment this week: Telling Jimmy’s family

Movement: N/A

Food cravings: comfort food – this plus my hatred of vegetables this week is not looking good for keeping weight gain in check 😦

Food Aversions: vegetables – this makes me really sad because I used to eat SO many vegetables

Gender: I have zero guesses

Labor Signs: N/A

Pregnancy Symptoms:  I am tired and have waves of nausea – even my first time vomiting – thinking this will continue to get worse. However, I am hungry all the time. Oh and I have acne 😦

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss: Being able to plan meals in advance. I never know what will sound good until an hour or so before the meal. Also, my bed, at every moment of every day – I’m seriously tired!

What I am looking forward to: 2 more weeks until our first prenatal appointment. Praying for a healthy heartbeat.

Upcoming appointments/events:  First appointment is July 6 – time go quicker!!! <– seriously!

Weekly Wisdom: Don’t try to power through too many days/activities without rest, it’ll catch up with you and knock you down while laughing

Milestones: Baby’s first flight – turbulence and morning sickness aren’t fun

Bump Picture:

5 Weeks

Telling My Family:

We wanted to tell both our families in person. We lucked out and had two weekend trips planned with each family back-to-back. Father’s Day weekend we went to the Cottage with Kurt & Kate so we were able to tell my family together. I went back and forth on how to tell my family. Finally we decided on putting Kai to work. We got him a blue bandanna that said “Guess who’s going to be a big brother? This dog is!” I put it on him before we left so he could hit the ground running to tell his grandparents. Unfortunately, everyone was not outside like I thought they would be; they were all inside and would not go out. So, Jimmy brought Kai inside. Kurt was the first to notice so he helped out by grabbing Kai so my Mom could read the bandanna. She started to read out loud and then stopped, stared straight at me and asked: “you’re pregnant?!?”I said: “yep” and then she started screaming. Here is my “film discreetly” video:

Everyone was super excited for, oh, the whole weekend. We had a great time celebrating on the boat, in the pool, and relaxing.

Questionnaire:

How far along? 5 Weeks

How big is baby? The size of a sesame seed

Total weight gain/loss: down 3 lbs total

Maternity clothes? Fitting in all my clothes great thus far

Sleep: Still exhausted most of the time. Had a burst of energy Tuesday night so decided to go to Target, get ALL their “green” cleaning supplies and clean two bathrooms, oh and vacuum the upstairs.

Best moment this week: Telling my family

Movement: I think I’d be alarmed if I did feel anything

Food cravings: Not really.

Food Aversions: The smell of my Greek yogurt as I packed breakfast on Monday morning sent me running, but I bucked up and held my breath. It was that, or not eat, and not eating is not an option.

Gender: I cannot wait to find this out.

Labor Signs: N/A

Pregnancy Symptoms:  I am tired and have waves of nausea but it’s not bad yet. Thinking this will get worse

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss: My energy. I want to sleep all the time. But alas, I work full-time, so that is not an option. Power through! (without caffeine, this is a cruel situation)

What I am looking forward to: 3 more weeks until our first prenatal appointment. Praying for a healthy heartbeat.

Upcoming appointments/events:  First appointment is July 6 – time go quicker!!!

Weekly Wisdom: If you feel good one day, take full advantage of it – clean, cook, shop, socialize, whatever, because tomorrow, you might feel terrible.

Milestones: None ?? Baby does look like a shrimp on my Nurture app, I thought that was funny

Bump Picture:

We’re Having a Baby!

I always thought I would instantly know I was pregnant. That I had this great mind-body connection and I would be able to tell immediately. Like when I know I’m getting sick. Hahahaha, I was totally and completely wrong. I had no clue at all. I basically took a home pregnancy test because my period was late and that never happens. Then I took a digital test because faint lines are difficult to believe. It said pregnant – I sprung for the digital one because I did not want the stress of figuring out if that was a second line or not as my only source of confirmation. Of course Jimmy chose this day to go into work early and who tells someone via text??? So I started the longest day of my life. Luckily I had a good amount of work to do that day, otherwise I would never have survived.

Now the fun part: telling Jimmy. I [searched Pinterest for] all these different ideas: go out to a nice meal, spell Dad in pepperoni on a pizza, have a “Hello Dad” onesie, get a funny card, etc. I am a planner by nature. I actually scored Executive on a personality test – that shows you how much I like to plan and execute. However with this, as much as I wanted it to be special and fun, I also wanted it to be natural. Therefore, I chose not to film this amazing event in our lives. On one hand, I really wish I had, because well, it was funny, but it is also nice that it was private. I plan on filming other things though – like telling our families.

I had to wait for Jimmy to get home to tell him. Longest. day. ever. He, thank goodness, got home around 7, so we ate dinner and started watching an episode of Rules of Engagement on Netflix. He asked to pause the show for something so I took it as an opportunity to start Mission Tell Jimmy.

Ingrid: “Oh, I got you something.”

Jimmy: “You did?”

Ingrid: “Close your eyes.”

Ingrid leaves the room and returns to give him the digital test still showing “Pregnant” and a copy of The Expectant Father

I: “Open your eyes.”

J: “You’re having a baby?!?!”

I: “Well, we are having a baby, I mean, umm, you’re the father.” [did not foresee the conversation turning into an episode of Maury but sometimes that’s life]

J: “No. [pause] Yea. [pause] This is good. [pause] Good timing. [pause] This will be an adventure. Hopefully this is a very healthy pregnancy so you can have 3 in 2.”

I: 3 in 2? [pause and look confused, then light-bulb moment] 3 kids in 2 years?

J: Yeah [nodding] That way you can be home with all the kids.

I: You want two sets of Irish twins? [pause and mentally decide he’s in shock and to address this comment another time]

End scene.