We Made it Through the First Trimester! We Can Do Anything.

Now that the secret is out there, I feel like it's safe to blog again.  Johnny and I are having a baby, due August 1st!  Our families have known since I was about 6 weeks along (thank you nausea for making it very obvious from the start), but we didn't make a public announcement until almost 14 weeks.  Here's the picture we used for that:

The day I left Arkansas I got very sick.  I thought maybe it was because I didn't sleep well the night before but when I woke up in Layton the next day still feeling bad, I decided to take a test.  And then another one.   After I got two positive results at home I called Johnny who was just about to start his first class of the day.  I told him I wanted to go the doctor to confirm it before we got too excited but let's be real, we were both freaking out at that point.  As soon as the doctor confirmed it I started crying (happy tears) and let Johnny know the good news.  We could not believe it! We were definitely trying for this to happen but we had no idea we'd be lucky enough to have it happen so soon.  We feel so blessed!!

Part of me wanted to tell my family ASAP but the other part  knew it was smart to wait it out.  We got the good news on Wednesday, December 5th and by Sunday we had pretty much told our immediate families.  Great job at waiting, right? It's hard to keep it a secret when I'm so sick and I live down the street from my in-laws.  Margo knew I was sick and kept trying to give me medicine for it.  She even asked if I was pregnant but I told her no because we were trying to keep it a secret.  I felt so bad about lying so we decided to just spill the beans.  I'm glad we did because for the next month and a half I rarely made it off the couch.  Margo made us dinner every night and took such good care of us both!

I went in for my first OB appointment at six weeks because I thought I was dying.  That may sound dramatic but I'm not even kidding, I though this pregnancy would be the end of me!  I couldn't eat or drink or keep anything down.  Plus, on Sunday the 9th, I had a traumatic experience at church that included me walking out in the middle of sacrament meeting, passing out as soon as I made it to the foyer, and then waking up to me throwing up everywhere.  Don't worry there was a small audience to observe the scene.  Poor Johnny, he had picked me up off the ground to carry me to the car when I threw up all over him and the carpet.  When I woke up a nice woman in my ward who hardly even knew me was cleaning the throw-up out of my hair with diaper wipes as strangers just stared with a look of concern on their faces.  Sorry for the explicit details but that was the most embarrassing experience of my life!

I called the OB clinic the next day.  First they told me the soonest I could get in was December 31st.  They must have felt bad for me because I definitely cried at that news and they got me in that day. I wasn't up to driving but Margo was a saint and drove me.  The doctor did an ultrasound and I got to see our little baby for the first time!  It didn't look like much but the doctor did point out the crown and the rump of the fetal pole:)  I also got to hear the heartbeat for the first time - incredible! I couldn't believe it was already developed enough for me to hear it's heart pounding so fast.  Here's what I saw at six weeks:
 

The baby is the little thing that says CRL next to it:)

At that first appointment my doctor prescribed zofran for the nausea which helped to keep me from throwing up and didn't really take away the nausea.  Better than nothing, though!  

My next appointment was at 8 weeks and this time, Johnny got to come with me.  It was Christmas Eve and it was definitely well spent!  I love my OB clinic because they do an ultrasound at every appointment.  They even put them all on a DVD for us so we can watch them whenever we want.  I think this is the cutest ultrasound picture we have so far.  Look at that big head, round belly, and tiny little arms and legs!  We're so in love.  This appointment was Johnny's first time to hear the heartbeat and he definitely teared up.  It was precious.

At the end of January we went in for my 12 week appointment and everything looked good there, too.  I can't believe how much the baby changes from one appointment to the next.   Baby still has a huge head and nice round belly here. 

I go in a week from today for my next appointment.  There's a chance we'll get to find out the gender, since I'll only be a day away from 17 weeks, but we're trying not to get our hopes up.  

I finally started feeling better around 14 weeks and I'm so thankful for that.  I still have occasional nausea but mostly I'm just exhausted all the time!  I'm glad I quit my job right before I went to Arkansas because otherwise I would have definitely had to quit when I got back.  Also I'm glad I didn't get pregnant while in school.  I might have been a college dropout the way I handled my first trimester.  Everything has worked out so beautifully, just the way it was supposed to, and the Lord is blessing us more than I ever knew possible.

Here's a couple of belly pictures, just for kicks.  

14 weeks on the left and 15 on the right!  It's so weird to see my belly getting big because I still can't believe I'm pregnant sometimes.  Don't mind that I already look exhausted.  I hear it only gets better from here:)

Now that I'm caught up on the last three months of the most exciting news in our lives, it'll be easy to give little updates from here on out.  Thanks for making it to the end of this if anyone did!