4 weeks

We decided to document our weekly pregnancy progress with this chalkboard I found on Bonanza...along with obligatory growing belly pics. First installment here!:

SURPRISE!

Today my husband, Tom, convinced me to start a blog. Why? Because today, in the matter of minutes (3 to be exact), our lives changed forever. Today, we found out that we’re going to have a baby. Surprise!

Initially, we were planning on starting our family in the summer of 2014, at the beginning of Tom’s last year of medical school. Since 4^th year isn’t very demanding, he would have a whole year to help raise our first child before starting residency (aka: disappearing into the hospital for an indefinite period of time). But since we read that it takes most couples 3-6 months to conceive, we decided to "put it into God’s hands" sometime in May (in hopes of getting news around September). As it turns out, God hands work rather quickly – because 2 weeks later, here we are!

I started to suspect something last week when I had consistent headaches, bouts of nausea, and uncontrollable fits of crying and/or laughing (yes – sometimes concurrently). Of course, I found alternative explanations for each: lack of caffeine, stress, and the season finale of The Office, respectively. Nevertheless, on our way to the Leschke's cottage for Memorial Day weekend, my astute husband convinced me to buy a pregnancy test – just in case.

We decided to take the test on Sunday morning, even though I wasn’t late yet. We figured that if it was negative, we could officially call me crazy for being so emotionally invested in a T.V. show and move on. But if it was positive, we could stop anxiously wondering, what if? So when I woke up, Tom handed me the stick and I went to do my business - calling to him to start a timer afterward. I realized that although I was telling myself it would be negative, I was instinctively putting my hair back and brushing my teeth so that we could take our first picture of the 3 of us right afterward (see below). Of course, I made the mistake of checking the test immediately and there was only 1 line, telling me I was not pregnant. I was surprisingly disappointed, but reminded myself that the directions said to give it 3 minutes to process. I tried to distract myself from looking again, but just as Tom came to the door saying, “2 seconds left,” I picked up the test and – low and behold – 2 lines! I turned to him with tears in my eyes and said, “You’re going to be a Dad...” A huge smile danced across his lips as I reaffirmed the news: "I'm pregnant!!" 

...and then there were 3

We spent the rest of the day canoeing, hiking, and riding on the trails, discussing our wild excitement, inevitable anxiety, and overwhelming happiness. We grilled steaks for dinner and toasted with glasses of Welch’s Sparkling Grape Juice (sure to be a staple over the next 9 months), followed by an evening bonfire on the dock and roasting of s’mores.

The news was heavenly. The day was perfect. And we? We are so, so blessed.