Remembering weeks 1-4

Like everything else I do in my life, I’m probably going to go way above the norm and blog way too much about this new pregnancy thing. I apologize now. I want to document all this because 1-) I want to remember every nitty gritty detail about pregnancy so if the time comes when a baby number two ever crosses my mind I can make an informed decision, and 2-) this is the only first pregnancy I’ll have and I’ll probably be way too busy to write stuff down next time. I realize most of this is TMI, so read as you wish and remember, I warned you! So, here is a catch up from the first few weeks.

The pregnancy scare. We’ve all had them. You have this feeling deep down that there’s a baby Mildred attached to your uterine wall and she’s clinging there with the death grip because she knows that you’re just not ready for a baby yet. Call it intuition, but you know you’re pregnant. Your mind tricks you into making up pregnancy symptoms and all. Then aunt Flow shows up and you take a deep breath. It’s happened to us all. In fact, mine came just a few months after we got married and were both still in school.

So, the month that I found out I was really pregnant, you’d think I’d see it coming...right? I guess my sixth sense has never really had a full battery because I’m always the last one to find out everything. Good thing I had already peed all over that little stick because I might have wet myself when I saw that very faint positive line. Was I imagining it? I didn’t (and still don’t) feel pregnant at all. I couldn’t just take one test, I had to be completely positive so I ended up taking three. One gave me a faint blue line, one was barely pink, and I finally had to get one that would blink “pregnant” at me. I still feel like going into the bathroom at 12 weeks and taking just one more test, just to be sure.

Wow, me a mom? The only thing I’ve ever taken care of was my brainless goldfish, Boris, that was blind in one eye and would ram into the tank going full speed. It’s sad to say, but I gave my fish away when I realized the only things fish do are eat, poop, and make a huge mess for me to clean up. Hummmm sounds like something else in my future!
Planning ahead - oh man, prego in Guatemala at 25ish weeks? Let’s play good idea, bad idea. Good idea- travel before you have a baby. Bad idea- before you have a baby travel to a foreign country, sleep on the floor, don’t drink the water, steer clear of the local food, try to build a building, slap a million mosquitoes, and have hardly any health care all while being knocked up. Do they have ice cream or pickles in Guatemala? What are we thinking…Guatemala?

I’m hoping something will change in the next little bit to make me realize I’m pregnant. I’d get excited over any change about now. I’d love a new motherly outlook on life or a change of eating habits even, but life just feels like life and I’ve always ate like I was feeding two.

What a present

In August Chris went on his yearly golf trip with some buddies to Vegas. Even though they had to golf in the hottest part of the day, they played for cheap and from the stories I heard had a lot of fun. To top it all off, Chris won over $600. Sweet! When he was gone I really missed him, so I decided to give him a present when he got home to show him how much I love him!

Here’s the letter I gave him…

Chris,

The other day when we were out at Meri’s, I walked outside and saw you jumping on the tramp with the kids. Nobody knew it, but you snuck away from the family and brought huge smiles to the faces of a handful of little ones. When we were standing in line at the grocery store, a girl with big brown eyes sitting in the cart in front of us couldn’t keep her eyes off you as you smiled at her. When you talk to Navie, you talk to her like she is the most important person in the world. You care, and kids love you for that.

When we make decisions about our lives, you are always strong and have faith. When I feel a little down, you are comforting and know exactly what to say. You are a rock and strong at times and carefree and full of laughs at others. Your laid back personality draws people to you and you have such a generous heart, and everyone loves you for that.

You’ve always talked about the little things in life like playing catch with our kids in the yard or teaching them how to use their first set of golf clubs, and I saw how your heart melted when you saw those little Red Sox onsies we passed in the store. You talk about being a dad like our dads have been, the one on the front row of the recitals, games, or whatever new adventure a child could bring. You will always be there for our family and our baby will love you for that.

I’m so glad to start this journey with you. You are going to be an amazing dad and I love you for that.

At this point I could see the crease in his forehead appear and he looked at me with a little question in his eyes. He quickly reached in the bag I had given him and his eyes got even wider as he pulled out the things inside.

Chris would never admit it, but he even got a little choked up. Priceless! I can’t believe how much I love him!

Now we can’t wait until April 13th!

I tag Kami, Paige, Erin, Michelle, Lisa, Ruth, & anyone else that's up for this. What? We tag people for everything else, why not a baby? Come on, you know you want to!

Called to serve

Andy,
To be honest, when I first met you I didn’t really know what to think. You were 14, full of stories (which most of them had to be double and triple checked for accuracy) and crazy about life. If something was in the making, you were smack dab in the middle of it. Now, five years later, I can’t believe how mature you have become!

You rocked your farewell speech sharing your testimony with us all! Chris and I still haven’t been able to stop the tears. You can’t believe how much we are going to miss you, but go out there and conquer Minneapolis. We all know that you have a gift that’s going to make a difference in a lot of lives.

Congrats Elder Torgersen and go rock the Hmong language!