(First Trimester) Sharing the news with immediate family!

Josh and I had taken a trip to Florida recently and I was talking with my grandmother about pregnancy; she told me that each time she announced her pregnancies (all 5 of them) she put a pair of booties on the Christmas Tree. I am not sure how she ended up having Christmas at the right time, each time, but that’s how it worked out for her. She also mentioned that my Great Aunt Hazel would say after the 3rd baby; “oh another one, really?” This cracked me up!
I wanted to share the news with my immediate family in a creative away, and after hearing her story I decided to get booties for my parents, grandparents and mother in law and send them in the mail with a note. I had already spilled the news to my sister on the phone about a week prior, she was very excited, as I expected 

(First Trimester) What happened to personal hygiene and sleep?

~* written from my perspective; pregnant for the first time, nervous, and hormonal; take these posts with a grain of salt please *~
Week 7; What happened to personal hygiene and sleep?  Written March 13th
Before pregnancy, I showered most every day, cause that’s just normal, right?  But since pregnancy somehow this has completely gone by the wayside and I am not sure how that happened?  I realized today, Friday, that I hadn’t showered since Tuesday or maybe Wednesday and with all the sweating during the night, I was pretty gross, so I managed to take a shower.
It would seem I’d have plenty of time to shower, since I haven’t slept more than 5 hours per night in weeks, but somehow each day goes by and I have completely forgotten about this normal part of my daily routine.   Do my hair, what?  Make-up, hell no!  Brushing my teeth…if I get to it.

(First Trimester) Consulting with the doctor, finally!

~* written from my perspective; pregnant for the first time, nervous, and hormonal; take these posts with a grain of salt please *~ Week 6; Written March 2nd.
One of my biggest stressors is that Josh and I don’t have insurance until April 1^st, he changed jobs and we had a lapse in insurance until the new insurance kicked in.  This causes me a lot of anxiety, especially now that I am pregnant and I called my primary care doctor about a consult.  She was able to get me in on Monday , two weeks after I found out I was pregnant, for a consult.  This consult entailed figuring out who would deliver the baby and assume my care on April 1.  She recommended a birth center, since I preferred a midwife, near Swedish Hospital about 20 minutes from our house.  I had already found that same birth center online, and so it was great to hear her refer them.  I talked to her about the “world of no” that I was experiencing being pregnant and asked her about what I CAN do during this pregnancy.  She recommended NO medicine, no sushi, no nuthin’ during the first trimester; but then she said after that, things aren’t so strict.  She mentioned she had a few beers during both of her pregnancies and she ate the food she was comfortable with, she ate a turkey sandwich everyday during her pregnancies saying that lysteria is very rare in the US and if you are worried about it, nuke the lunchmeat for 10 seconds.   She also said she had coffee, but cautioned me against sushi, and specifically ahi tuna, which is a bummer.  I suppose the sushi will taste real good in November…

(First Trimester) Is the world trying to make a newly pregnant woman completely paranoid?

~* Written from my perspective; pregnant for the first time, nervous, unsure what to expect and really hormonal; take these posts with a grain of salt please *~
The first week; Over the next four days, I tried to deal with all the things that I couldn’t have while pregnant and picked up a book that promised ‘277 stress free tips for pregnancy,’ but one of the first things that the book told me was that I couldn’t sleep on my back anymore, and that I needed to really think about my diet, protein, no junk food, etc. Here we go again, more, NO’s. I didn’t like the book anymore; every “no” caused me MORE stress, not less. Did I sleep on my back last night, did I kill my baby? This is madness! How do women deal with all of this? The final straw came when the book told me to avoid high altitude, I live in Denver at 1 mile high, and my love is hiking. Not just any hike, but I love to climb big mountains, and realized that I couldn’t hike a 14er this year, according to the book; this really made me sad. I had pictures in my head of being pregnant and still hiking; it’s something that calms me and puts me in a good head space. I needed to ask my doctor about this high altitude “no.”

Day 1, Pregnancy, A world of no? (first trimester)

~* Written from my perspective; pregnant for the first time, nervous, and hormonal; take these posts with a grain of salt please *~
Pregnancy; A  World of No?  Written Feb 24th, 2011
Day 1; the positive test.  I found out that I was pregnant on Tuesday 2/22/11 at about 12:30pm…and from that moment on, it seemed to me that pregnancy is all about what you can’t do, how you can’t sleep, what you can’t eat or drink.  I don’t do well with “NO.”  And all of the pregnancy books cautioned me against doing pretty much anything that is normal for me, and coming to terms with this is going to be a journey for me, here is the start of that:

Pregnancy shocker, just when you think it won't happen, it does?

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~* Written from my perspective; being pregnant for the first time, nervous, and hormonal; take these posts with a grain of salt please *~

Post written Feb 23rd.

Some people say getting pregnant is easy, in fact, all of my friends say that because it (fortunately) was very easy for them; I was that person who struggled to get pregnant.  I want to share this part of our journey because I am sure there are other couples out there feeling the same way.

Josh and I always said we’d have kids when we were 30, Josh kept pushing for 29, but I wasn’t ready then.  So, when I turned 30 we tossed out the birth control to see what would happen.  Apparently nothing happened.  Some months, I was really glad I wasn’t pregnant, especially in the beginning because I couldn’t imagine being responsible for someone else quite yet.  But then as the months turned into more and more months, then a year went by and I actually started to feel a little sad when each month, I wasn’t pregnant.

Exciting News! And more blogging to come!

My husband and I are excited to announce that we are expecting a baby this fall, on Halloween to be exact.  We have kept this news to ourselves or close friends/family for a while now, so its exciting to be able to share the news with everyone else!  I have been writing about my pregnancy experience since taking the positive test back in February, and can finally share it with all of you.   Pregnancy has been a journey for me so far and I expect it will be a long strange journey when I finally deliver this fall.  My blogs are about my experience with pregnancy and worries about motherhood; hopefully when reading this you will take it with a grain of salt and can understand my sense of humor throughout this trip!

I'd love to hear your comments about my experience, I am writing this to hopefully work through my insecurities and create a dialogue for other moms-to-be who have felt as confused as I have.