The adventures of finding an OB

After we had confirmation that I was actually pregnant, a different set of worries set in. Is this a viable pregnancy, what will I do if I miscarry, that pain in my side must mean it is an ectopic pregnancy and I am going to die - those types of worries. But if you know me at all you also know that I am a worrier, and I tend to try and account for every possible situation. I also wanted to get in to see an OB as soon as I could as I know that they normally like to see you for the first time between 8 and 10 weeks and I was already over 6 weeks pregnant. The first OB I called was the one used by one of my good friends who was currently 8 months pregnant. But they were already full and not taking anymore patients. The second OB I called was recommended by another good friend of mine who had just had her second daughter. This time we were in and able to get an appt for Friday July 25th, a week after our wedding.

We decided that we would need to tell my parents first and then the friends that were in our bridal party, partly because they were our closest friends and partly because they would be the ones that noticed I was not drinking at the upcoming events and the wedding. Everyone else could wait until after the wedding. We wanted the focus of our wedding to be on Andrew and I getting married and not the pregnancy. We told my parents on July 2nd, right after the first doctor's appt. They took the news very well. They asked us if we were ready for this and if we were scared. They also shared some of their feelings when they found out they were pregnant with me (their first born). I know my mom was very excited and my dad was not sure what to think. His one comment was that he was "too young to be a grandpa". I think it will take him awhile to realize that it is happening.

The next step was to tell our bridal party. We would be seeing most of them on the fourth of July and figured it would be easier to tell them in person. We also figured it would be easier for me to tell the girls and Andrew to tell the boys (minus my brother who we would tell the next time we saw him). I think the news came as a surprise to all of our friends, but everyone was very happy for us.

The next few weeks flew by as we had last minute plans to coordinate for the wedding and events to attend to. Finally the wedding came and it was as perfect as it could be. My dress fit perfectly, the weather was gorgeous, and I was marrying the man of my dreams. I knew that after the wedding was over we would be able to focus more on the pregnancy and get together a plan of action.

Thats it for now, more later!

The Beginning

I have been reading blogs for a long time and this is my first attempt to start one of my own. The main purpose for this blog will be to chronicle my first pregnancy and continue onto my experiences as a first time parent. I am currently 18 weeks pregnant so I should probably go back a few months and start at the beginning and tell a little about my life in general.

I am 27 years old and just married my wonderful Husband Andrew. This pregnancy however starts a little before the actual wedding date. I really should go back and mention that Andrew and I have been dating for over 2 years and were engaged about 9 months before the pregnancy happened, just to clear up any confusion or speculation that this was a shotgun wedding. So lets start when and how I found out I was pregnant.

June 2008 was a very busy month as we were preparing for our wedding coming up on July 18th. It was filled finalizing wedding plans, wedding showers and friend's baby showers (I had 3 friend's who were currently pregnant, 2 who were due that summer). Towards the middle of June I noticed that I was just exhausted, but I figured the schedule was just getting to me as every night of the week there was something planned and no time to relax. Other than that nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. On June 20th Andrew left for the weekend to Lake Chelan for his Bachelor Party and I finally had a weekend off from planning and events that I could just relax. My plan was to go to the movie store and rent a bunch of chick flicks to watch the whole weekend. And that is what I did. The weird thing was, I was a lot more emotional than normal. I don't cry at movies, and I was tearing up at almost every film I watched (even when the movie was not even sad). I also hardly ever drink soda, but all I wanted was anything carbonated (I drank a lot of coke and sprite). I just started thinking that I was overly exhausted and that I needed more rest. Sunday evening Andrew returned home and I thought nothing more about it. It was back to work on Monday morning. All during work I kept thinking about how weird it was to be so emotional and what could be causing it. It also dawned on me that my period should have shown up by then, but it was only a couple of days late so I thought it must be on the way. The more I thought about it the more i wondered. On my way home I picked up a pregnancy test just in case, just to give me peace of mind that I wasn't pregnant. On Monday evenings Andrew starts work at 6 and doesn't get home until after 3am so I usually don't see him. I had the pregnancy test, but I didn't end up taking it until later in the evening, I was that sure that I wasn't pregnant! When I did end up taking the test a second pink line appeared, it wasn't as dark as the base line, but it was definitely there.

This is when I freaked out, the thoughts going through my head were denial (I can't be pregnant) denial (I can't be pregnant) denial (I can't be pregnant). After awhile it was slowly soaking in and I was both excited and scared. I was excited because I always wanted to have kids and I knew we were in a place where we could handle it (House, stable jobs, huge support system with my parents just down the road). I was scared because I am a planner, and I didn’t have a plan for this, I didn’t know what to do, Andrew and I had discussed trying in a year or so, but not this soon, and i was not married yet - how was my wedding dress going to fit? I also had to figure out how to tell Andrew. I couldn't tell him at work over the phone, that would not be fair, but could I tell him at 3am when he got home?

I ended up sending Andrew a text message to wake me up when he got home, just in case I didn't wake up. When he got home I was definitely awake. I sat straight up in bed and told him we needed to talk. Looking back on it now, I know I scared him half to death. I told him that I thought I was pregnant and showed him the pregnancy test with the 2 pink lines. He asked me if that was all? He thought I was having second thoughts on the marriage or that something horrible had happened. I think he was so relieved that I was just pregnant. He could also see how worried I was and wanted to make sure that I was ok. He reacted exactly how I needed him to, supportive and letting me know it was alright and it was exciting.

From there I think we took 5 more pregnancy tests just to make sure that we had the right result (the lines just kept getting darker - so it was almost guaranteed that we were pregnant). I also scheduled an appt with my regular doctor to see what I needed to do next. Our appt with the doctor was on July 2nd and both Andrew and I went. She basically said if I had taken 6 pregnancy tests and they were all positive, there was no doubt that I was pregnant. She asked if we would like her to do a test just to make sure and we both said yes. Of course that test was also positive. The doctor asked if we needed a recommendation to an OB/GYN and we decided that we wanted to have the baby at Evergreen where most of our friends either had their children or were planning on having their children.

I think I will stop with this post for now, before it gets too long. But I will be back with the rest of the story and current updates. If I can figure it out I will also post pictures!