The First Trimester

 This was our original idea for our baby announcement. But then we realized we needed someone to take the picture. And I think we all know what happens when you ask a stranger to take your picture.

Written on July 9th, 2013

I am about 12.5 weeks now and almost to the 2nd trimester. I think I've mentioned that I knew I was pregnant from basically the moment of conception. The first two weeks were the longest though, waiting to find out if I was really pregnant or just going crazy. Then the rest seemed to drag until I went on vacation and had other things to think about.


I had my first ultrasound on Friday May 23rd. Mike came with me and it was a little anti climactic when the baby was so small and barely had a heartbeat. They told me I wasn't as far along as I had thought, which was a big bummer. In the beginning it was all I could think about and do to count each day. Reach a new week marker. So to be told I was a week and a few days behind what I thought, it was a little disappointing. Poor Mike also showed his weak stomach for all things medical. All he had to do was walk into the Dr. office and he was feeling queasy. Things didn't improve from their either. Since I was only a few weeks along they couldn't do the ultrasound from my stomach but had to do it... Well the "other" way. I thought he was going to pass out... Not even joking. We are going to need some serious help in this area or I will honest to goodness loos him in delivery. The first sight of ANY bodily fluid and he will be passed out. Good thing we have time to prepare him for this. Good thing we have time to prepare ME for this, what am I talking about!

The next ultra sound I had was 2.5 weeks later on June 11th. Mike wasn't able to make it so I was on my own. I had been having mild cramping the whole pregnancy, which I have read is normal. Of course you always worry about miscarriage in early pregnancy so I was a little nervous about what would come up on the screen. When I had a minute in the room to myself before the ultrasound I actually said a prayer. I just wanted HF to know that I was prepared for whatever path he had for me and that I would need his help regardless of that path. I was so happy so hear the heartbeat and even more happy when I saw the little one dancing and moving all about. It was incredible. I could have sat and watched my little one dance all afternoon long. The Dr. had other plans though and it was over in a min. Bummer. I was sad Mike missed out on all the action but I know there will be plenty more appts for him tag along on.

I have been really blessed in my pregnancy. I was really tired starting at 6 weeks but felt pretty normal other than exhaustion. Then weeks 7/8 I had some mild nausea. It wasn't horrible, just uncomfortable and inconvenient to be dealing with at the end of the school year when things were so busy. I discovered though that on the days I worked out I felt perfectly normal and was just a little more tired than I would normally be. Then when I got to 9 weeks I was basically feeling like myself again. I still find that on occasion I will feel nauseous, and usually if I eat something small it goes away. My motion sickness is at an all time peek and I wear the sea bands any time I'm not the one driving.  I haven't had any pregnancy cravings, just a few food aversions. When I wasn't feeling well I couldn't look at raw veggies. I also was just a little picky with food. One Sunday I made a meal I thought sounded so good. I made grilled chicken, corn n the cob and watermelon. I ate all of 5 bites and had to stop because it didn't taste good anymore. But I'll take that over being sick in bed or over a toilet any day. I think it's fun because all these pregnancy symptoms are things I've heard about from friends and now I'm having them. Sometimes I think, "WOW, they didn't make this up, I really am super sensitives to strong smells (or some other related pregnancy symptom.)" I have stopped wearing perfume because it makes me nauseous and when people would smoke all around me in Europe I had to cover my nose from the stench because it made me want to through up. I still do feel kind of sick in the middle of the night, but since I was adjusting to a new time zone and eating foods I don't normally eat I'm unsure if it was pregnancy related or just my body getting back at me for what I was putting it through. One very welcome change is my growing chest, yes please. Not so much for my growing stomach. At this point I haven't "popped" yet. I'm not by any means noticeably pregnant. What I am is noticeably chubby around the midsection. A lot of us have a little gut that we can suck in and hide to some extent. I am no longer really able to hide mine. It is here for the duration I guess, but I wish I would just look pregnant and not fat.  Oh well. I knew this was part of the deal. Oh, and another thing about pregnancy and hormones... My skin looks worse than it did when I was going through puberty. I mean seriously! My forehead and sides of my face are covered in bumps. Occasionally I get large unwanted blemished... I also got really bad acne on my back. At one point the girls I babysit asked what was all over my back. That's when I knew it was bad. Thankfully that had stared to calm down a little, oh the joys. I really do love this new adventure of pregnancy and can't wait for it to turn into motherhood. I know it will come with its challenges but I also know nothing will bring me more joy. I can't wait till January so I can meet this little one.

Telling the Family

As mentioned before Mike was really excited to start telling people. I wanted to wait and tell my family after our first ultrasound just to be sure everything looked ok. But I was easily swayed and Mike convinced me that Mother's Day would be the perfect time to tell mY mom (I was barely 5 weeks.) So that morning I called my brother Bryant and let him in on the good news. He was so excited, he has been begging for a niece or nephew for three or four years now. He even got us baby gear for Christmas this year. Anyways I sent him out on an errand to break the sabbath. I had him buy a picture frame that said grandma and put a picture of our positive pregnancy test in it. I wish it was an ultra sound picture but we didn't have a lot to work with. I also had him get a card that said grandma. Inside the card I had him print out a message I had written to her as well as a picture of me holding the pregnancy test, prof that it was actually mine. So that afternoon we Skype with my family during the Mother's Day lunch. When the gifts were presented Bryant stuck my gift for mom in the mix. She opened the card first and read "Grandma" on the front. I played it off like he had gotten the wrong card, then had her open the gift. When she first saw the frame it took a little while to process. The whole family was around the table and getting excited as they all started to understand. Then she started to doubt me saying "is this a joke." I guess one April fools pregnancy joke will earn you that reaction. When I told her no and that it was May AND that it would be an awful joke to pull on Mother's Day she started to cry and said "My baby is having a baby!" It was pretty sweet. My sisters were ecstatic and immediately started to fight over who would be the favorite Aunt. My dad was all smiles and so excited to know all the details. It was fun to share our good news with them. This is the first grand baby on my side of the family so they all can't wait. My brother Andrew was at work that day so I had to call him that night to tell him. He had one of my favorite reactions to date. He was so excited when he heard and asked a ton of questions with a lot of emotion in his voice. He's hoping it will be a little quarterback that he can teach to pole vault. It was so fun to chat with him, as always. I love my family.

 

 

Poor Mike had to wait a few more weeks to tell his parents. We had agreed to wait until they came to CT for the open house over Memorial Day weekend. We had told his sister Camille earlier though since they were expecting and had been teasing us about jumping in on this grandchild rotation. Then his sneaky twin sister Melanie somehow squeezed it out of him before hand. She knows him well enough to know when he is acting funny or dodging certain questions. But other than that the other siblings and parents remains in the dark. We waited until long after the open house was over Friday night to share the news with the family. I had made this cute picture of the ultrasound with the words "Coming January 2014 .... Baby Jenson" and put it in a frame. I told Mikes mom that it was my late Mother's Day gift to her. When she opened it she wondered if her eyes were playing ticks on her. When Mikes dad saw the picture the first thing he said is {with his hands in the air, as if to be thanking the heavens} "We've been praying for this for years!" Haha I guess after being married almost 5 years and no kids, your almost asking for that sort of reaction. It's either A) disbelief or B) Thanks to The Lord for prayers answered. So fun.

Right before I went on vacation I told my grandparents. I knew my dad was having a hard time keeping it a secret and so I figured I'd let him off the hook. My mom was visiting them in Columbus one Sunday and so she had us all FaceTime together. While we were on the phone I showed them a picture of the ultrasound. It was the same question of whether or not it was real. I was able to take some really precious screen shoots of their reaction. My grandpa was smiling from ear to ear, while my grandma was more reserved (probably waiting for me to tell her I was just joking or something.) It was fun to clue them in. This will be their first great-grandchild, I hope we can have my grandpa be apart of the baby blessing. Whether in CT or OH, it would be so special to have him be apart of that.

Right before the school year was over I decided to tell one of my coworkers. I had worked in Elise's classroom the past 2 years and have really grown to love her. She is just the kindest women. I knew she would be excited. We had planned to go to a book fair and were driving together. She asked what my plans were for next year and I told her I would have to take some maternity leave. She was so excited and was upset she couldn't hug me because she was driving. When she was able to stop she flew across the seat and gave me the biggest hug. Then she told me she had been saving some nice maternity dressed for me. She had bought them for her daughters and they ended up not fitting, but she thought they might work for me. So she saved them (for over a year) until I made my announcement. I'm pretty sure she was almost as excited as my own mother. I can't wait to share all my pregnancy details with her as I know she will be anxious and interested to hear all of them .

Sweet Pea

 One time I was reading through a pregnancy blog and it listed "5 things you can stop worrying about now that you're pregnant." One of them was "having a flat tummy." I have never considered myself as having a "great stomach." I'd never parade around in a bikini because I don't have the figure for it. Now that my child birthing years are upon me I know I better document my pre pregnancy stomach. If what I hear is true, it might not ever look like this again. Plus I also thought this was a super cute pregnancy picture.

 May15th-22nd
This week I am 6 weeks pregnant. They say at this point the baby is the size of a sweet pea and it has developed a little heart bulge. So far I have been pretty lucky, fingers crossed it stays like this. My symptoms are pretty minor and on and off. Sometimes, my stomach is in knots, fells bloated or I have minor cramping. I am pretty tired all the time, which is actually pretty normal for me. I have noticed that I have to burp after every meal, that is so strange because I NEVER do that. Last year when my coworker was pregnant she said the same thing and I was thinking "yeah right, that's not a pregnancy symptom." But low and behold, it is. The only other true symptom is having to race off to the ladies room to relieve myself every 30 min. My coworkers may be getting suspicious. It's been pretty easy to keep my secret since I don't really feel pregnant and it hasn't really sunk in yet. I'm sure that will all change when we go for the ultra sound next week. That will make it all a lot more real. When Mike's sister asks how I am doing he tells her that he forgets I'm pregnant because I'm my same old self. Which I guess is good. My mom said she never had morning sickness and neither did her mom, this is one things I am hoping is genetic!


(*Note: The following week I had an ultrasound and they took measurements gave me a much later due date than the one I was using from my LMP. So technically I was only 5weeks here.)

Fortune Cookies

I've imagined the day I would tell Mike we were expecting for years. How I would tell him, what his reaction would be, would he cry, ect. When we started trying to have kids I created a secret pinterest board and started collecting ideas for how I wanted to tell him. I didn't love any of them though. Then one day an idea hit me and I knew that was what I wanted to do, so right then and there I set my plan into motion. Not even knowing that I was technically already pregnant.

I wrote the following poem and stuck it on the wall in our room to ask him on a date for Friday night. I recognize I'm not a poet, but its the best I could do in the little time I had.

To my dearest,

I'm sure you may know, I hate this time of year,

It makes me quit sad when you are not near.

Leaving home early and returning so late

I may not recognize you at this fast rate. 

So I have made a decision, one you can't refuse

Friday night will be mine. Here are some clues,

Be home promptly by 7:45,  as timing is key

And please look nice, my darling sweet pea.

No need to eat a large lunch at noon

Or the timing of things will be inopportune.

I love you my dear and I hope I've been concise

I promise it will be well worth your studies sacrifice!

Love you,

Keesh Cakes

That night we went to dinner at P.F. Changs. I was bursting to tell him, but still I kept quiet. After our appetizer the server brought out a plate of fortune cookies. I tried to nonchalantly get Mike to open one, but he didn't care to. So I had to keep waiting. It was hard to focus and have a meaningful conversation when all I wanted to do was tell him the good news. He even made the comment that his friend and coworker, McKay, had predicted I was going to tell him that I was pregnant. Since the CFA is in 3 weeks he thought it was odd that Mike was leaving the office so early (7:30.) I had to laugh at that one. Since Mike complained that he was already pretty full I knew he wouldn't be the one to make the first move for the fortune cookies, so I had to take action. I told him we needed to read our fortunes. My stomach was doing flips with excitement. When he read the fortune it said.... "You're going to be a Daddy!!"

Now this is the funny part. As I mentioned I had imagined this moment A LOT, but NEVER did I imagine it like this. He started laughing and the conversation went as follows

Mike: "This is to funny, I have to send this to McKay." 

Kristin thinks to herself : "Wait! What? He finds out he is going to be a dad and the first thing he wants to do is text a friend? He doesn't want to kiss me, or ask when we're due? He just wants to text his friend.?" 

Kristin: (a little defensively) "You see something like that and you don't want to say anything to me, the first person that comes to your mind is McKay?" 

Mike: Yeah, it's funny.

Kristin thinks: He doesn't realize I'm making an announcement, I start laughing uncontrollably.

Kristin: Mike! This is a customized fortune, I put these here!

Mike: No way, your joking...

Kristin: (scrolling through my phone for picture of positive pregnancy test) No, For real. I'm pregnant. See here is the proof.

Que server coming over to our table to pack up our left over dinner.  Poor guy.

Mike: Are you serious? Wait. What? {dazed and confused face.} But that was so fast. Are you kidding me?

Kristin: Yes, I am kidding. Happy April fools day in May. Of course I'm not kidding. I'm pregnant. 

Mike: But we just started trying, it doesn't happen that fast, does it?

Que pregnancy hormones

Kristin: You sound like your not even happy about this. *tears* I didn't think this is how you would react.

Mike: {Laughs}Of course I'm happy, I'm just in shock. I wasn't expecting is. Are you crying? Are those pregnancy hormones already? 

Kristin: I don't know. I guess I just worked really hard to make this special and I wasn't expecting you to take it this way. {realizes shes acting ridiculous now, but can't help it!}

Mike: {Comes over to sit next to me and kisses me} I am happy, really happy. I just am in shock. I love the way you told me, this is great!

Kristin: *sigh* *smile* "Good!"

Then I finally got to tell him all the details and share in my excitement with someone. Right away he wanted to start making phone calls and telling people. I told him he wasn't aloud and that I wanted to make sure everything was okay before we started to tell people. BUT that I would make one exception to the rule. We could tell Jeff and Camille (his Sister and Brother-in-law.) We had been planning to try and get pregnant around the same time. They are due at the end of September so we wanted to let them know that we delivered on our end of the deal.

 After dinner we walked into Barnes and Noble. I wanted to buy our baby (that feels weird to say still) a book. I love a good reason to buy a book. We decided on a sentimental board book for Baby Jenson.

When we got home we facetimed with Jeff and Camille and their reaction was about the same as Mikes, disbelief and then excitement. The babies will be about 4 months apart. They are expecting a boy so now Mike is even more set that this little one has to be a boy. I've always said I would be sad if I had a boy first but now I really don't care and will be just as thrilled with whatever it is!

After the phone call Mike wanted to tell more people. He wanted me to call my mom and tell her right away, but I told him absolutely not! I didn't want to cheapen it with a random 10:30 phone call. The final activity of the evening was watching "What to Expect When Your Expecting." I have been waiting to watch it till the night I told Mike we were expecting. It was the perfect way to end the evening, cuddling and laughing! What a fantastic evening!!

Ready or not, here we go!

After 4 and a half year of marriage Mike and I decided we were ready to add some little ones to our family. I stopped taking BC in January, a new years resolutions of sorts I guess. Get Pregnant was my goal for 2013. We both figured it would take several months so we weren't going to stress about it. We would just let natural run its course. The last week of April I was standing in front of my class and I was hit by this wave of exhaustion and nausea. I sat down and still felt this weird feeling in my stomach. My stomach felt sick, but the rest of my body was fine. It was very strange. I was also very tired, but that's not really a new thing. Then I had this thought pop into my mind, "I think I'm pregnant!" I had been tracking all the things the doctors want you to track when you are thinking of getting pregnant so I knew it was a possibility, but I wasn't due for my period for 2 more weeks. It seemed to early to be having symptoms. So I tried to pass it off as a stomach bug. I didn't mention it to Mike though. I wanted to surprise him with the good news {assuming I was really pregnant} in a "cute" way. So I kept it all to myself. Fast forward two week and I was ready to take a pregnancy test. I still had no appetite and  was not feeling like myself, but now I was running to the ladies room to relieve myself every 30 min. I took a test Sunday morning and it was neg. I took one again on Mon morning, still neg. I told myself not to get my hopes up I might be making it all up. So I didn't take one Tuesday morning. However, by Tuesday night I couldn't help myself and took another. This time I saw the faintest pink line!!! I started jumping up and down, then cried, then dropped to my knees to say a prayer of Thanks to Heavenly Father. I immediately started praying for the baby to develop properly and that I would have a healthy pregnancy (something we always prayed for when my mom was pregnant.) Mike walked in the door 10 min later. I wanted to tell him right away, but I still was nervous the line wasn't dark enough. I also didn't want to cheapen the surprise moment I had been planning for him. So I kept it to myself and went off to a girls night. Again, I wanted to spill the beans, but I kept the excitement to myself. I had a digital pregnancy test at home for "confirmation" purposes and decided to use it on Wed morning, just to be sure. It read "pregnant" in under a minute. It was official. I was pregnant! And I somehow needed to keep it to myself until Friday night when I could set my plan for Mike into motion. Longest 3 days of my life!!

Wednesday morning before work, after I had just confirmed my suspicions to be correct.

The Cure

I'm not the Debbie Downer type. But I do feel like its ok to have bad days very once in a while. Days when it's best if people just leave you a lone because talking to you, looking at you or even breathing to loudly around you will irritate you to no end. I had a day like that the other day. Luckily it was my free afternoon. So I decided I was going to shirk my responsibilities and do a few things for "me!" I stared the afternoon with a mani/pedi, which was lovely. Then I went to the mall to pick up my sweet new TIffany Co. Sunglasses that just happened to match my nails perfectly. Then I went to pick up my dinner from Cosi. I'm in love with their tomato basil soup and margarita flatbread, yumm!! Then I went home and ate my dinner on the couch while I watched gossip stories about celebrities. I decided not to lift a finger to clean the house (even though it needed it and my in-laws are coming tomorrow.) Then I opted out of my nightly work out routine and went to bed... At 8:15, before the sun had fully set. And when I woke up this morning I was so glad that was how my afternoon went. Because if I would have done all the things I needed to do and went to bed late... I would have had another bad day. So I'm making a resolution to find time for myself. Like a lot of others I rarely so things for myself, and I think it's unhealthy. So here's to my mid-month resolution. May it be the cure to the rest of my bad days. Only 2 more weeks of school for the year.... I can do this!!

Catching Up!

I think it is safe to assume that the past 5 months will be able to fit into 10 pages in my 2013 blog book. Embarrassing. But there's not much I can do about it now. The truth of the mater is I'm just glad those month are over. They were terribly busy and stressful. We had a few highlights that deserve their own posts but for the most part things were pretty boring.

The last 5 months for Mike consisted of- work, studying, taking the GMAT, applying to grad school, studying for CFA, work basketball league, City of Stamford rec. basketball league, flag football league, and occasionally relaxing.

The last 5 month for Kristin have consisted of- early morning tutoring 3 days a week, work, two afternoons of babysitting, one afternoon/evening of classes, classes on Saturdays, mounds of reading, several lesson plans, studying, writing a children's math book, house work, playing family psychologist, trying to make it to the gym, and keeping enough food in the house so that we both stay alive.

We have managed to squeeze in date nights most weeks which I love and treasure! In March we spend a week in the Southern Caribbean and in April we spent a long weekend in Utah. Other than those here are a few more highlights from the months January to May.


In January Mike's sister Kayleen came to CT for a visit. Surprisingly she didn't come to see us, but her boyfriend Jake. Oddly enough, Jake is the son of the man who hired Mike and allowed him to live with them for 3 months before we got married in the summer of 2008. We have come to love this family dearly as they have taken care of us over the past five years. We were overjoyed when Jake went from boyfriend to Fiance of Kayleen in January and then to Husband and brother (to us) in April!!

We have spent many Sunday nights and weekend missing the Johnson's since they moved last summer. Luckily when Ben got put on a case in NYC for a few weeks he was able to sneak away to CT on Sunday evening for a quick visit.

My good friend for high school, Aaron, and his family were stationed in CT for a few months this winter. Luckily, we were able to set up a time to meet together for dinner and catch up. He has the sweetest wife and little baby girl. It is so much fun to see your friend grow up and start beautiful families.

One Friday night we went to a fun birthday party for my good friend Amanda. Ashley is a great party planner and always has the best games. We played pin the sunglasses on Amanda and Downton Abbey bingo. It was so much fun! I wish I had more time to spend with my friends. I will make it an after grad school resolution!

I also got my first flat tire. I thought it sounded funny driving it home one night, when I got out to take a look it was completely flat. The next morning we were going to try and drive it to the tire place but the tire was to flat. We had to change it in the middle of the street in our work clothes. We made a pretty good team and changed it in about 20 min. Ok so maybe that's not very fast but it was my first time and only Mike's second, so I was pretty proud. Turns out it was just a nail and a $7 fix. We dodged a bullet on that one.

Also one night we made delicious crepes. That's about as exciting as things get on a Sunday evening around here folks. We shaved expensive chocolate from Fairway then melted it in the double boiler. We made the crepes then stuffed them with chocolate, strawberries and bananas. Then we topped it off with whip cream and... PRESTO,your having a french flashback! It was seriously amazing!

I'm sure I have a few other pictures on my camera that might be worth writing about. But seeing as this post took me all week to write I'm not to hopeful those posts will make it to the blog anytime soon.