First Trimester

As you know, we found out a baby was on the way. Hubs and I went through a whole bunch of emotions. My first one was excitement, then immediately followed by gripping fear. I didn't mention it on here before, but we went through two first-trimester miscarriages from October 2011 to March 2012. After those, to say I was scared would have been an understatement. Moving on...

The only people that knew about this pregnancy right away were Hubs and myself. That lasted about two days. I couldn't stand it and told my sister in law, Amber, and my cousin, April. I knew I needed two prayer warriors who would be there to hold my hand (or my hair if the morning sickness got bad) through the whole pregnancy. 

We went for the 8-week scan and when we did, we saw the most beautiful little alien on the ultrasound display.

Of course the baby was upside down and butt-first to the camera...takes after me!

I need to pause a second and mention that my doctor was ah-may-zing throughout the pregnancy, but he was just about as excited as Hubs and myself to see this little one on the screen. Dr. Megehee was with us through the hard six months we had, and he was thrilled when I got pregnant with that jellybean in the photo.

Right after the ultrasound, Hubs and I went to tell our moms. Thankfully, they both work within a block of Dr. Megehee's office. We just pulled them both into their offices and showed them the picture you see up there. We told my mom first, and she cried. When we told Brent's mom, she screamed. It was sweet. We didn't tell my dad at first. After the last miscarriage, he said he didn't want to know until it just couldn't be hidden anymore. So we honored that. 

Fast forward to the end of June/4th of July week. Hubs and I were at the beach and we spent our last evening there with my parents, my Aunt Debra, and Uncle Jack. We went to eat at Doc's in Orange Beach, and thanks to a lovely combination of shrimp, heat, and someone's body odor, my pregnancy nose kicked into overdrive and I got super sick. My dad knew something was up when I turned green, ran to the bathroom, and came back all smiles. But he didn't say anything... (my aunt totally called me out on being pregnant when she and I were in the elevator later that night).

Well, as some of you know, living in a small town where everyone knows everyone can make your secrets get out sooner than you want. That happened to Hubs and I, so I had no choice but to tell my dad before I was ready to. But he was thrilled and very surprised we had waited so long to tell him. The real shock was my mom's ability to keep it a secret from him for almost a month. 

My friend Stephanie and her boyfriend Ryan came to visit, and I knew I couldn't have her in town and not let her in on the secret. Steph and I became best friends in college, and were totally inseparable about 24 hours after we first met. We met up at a cookout in Scottsboro, and afterward she and Ryan came over to our house for a little visit. I told her, "Hey, go look at the pictures on the fridge. There's some new ones." She saw the ultrasound pic and said, "What's this picture of? Wait...WHAT??? OH MY GOSH!!"

Less than an hour before she found out about Baby Benson

So I had someone else in on the secret! Sorry I had to wait to tell you, Steph. Please don't hold that against me...

I mentioned my sensitivity to smells earlier. The only smell I really could not tolerate was body odor. It would make me gag. Band camp with 120 high school kids at the end of the summer was...yeah...

I had some food aversions in the first trimester. I didn't want anything that wasn't a citrus fruit or something sour. I lived off lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, orange juice, orange Gatorade, lemonade, and Warheads candy. Oddly enough, I did NOT want pickles. Or meat. 

Nausea: oh yes, morning sickness is very real. I didn't get sick in the mornings. I felt nauseated all day. Joy.

Weight: I gained seven pounds in the first trimester. Not bad!

Bump: I didn't start showing at all until the second trimester. Pictures of that to come in the next entry.