9 Weeks

I am now 14 weeks, as of today(!!), but I've been wanting to post this for a while(5 weeks!). It took me a long time to figure out how to make this (Chris figured it out) and how to post it. We made it on Word and then couldn't get it to go to the blog. We downloaded it as a pdf, I emailed it to myself, took a pic of it on my phone email, cropped out the time/battery/signal, posted it through the Blogger app, and tada!! It's finally here!

So this is me at 9 weeks. Honestly, I don't look much different now than 5 weeks ago. But since I just hit the second trimester mark(wahoo!), I think that will be changing soon. (I will post a pic and update for 14 weeks in my next post.)

"Spring, Spring, Spring"

On a previous post, found here, I showed you the flowers that bloom every year around our home. The previous owner had a lovely garden in the backyard with a pond and stepping stones. The person she first sold the house to pretty much let this gorgeous garden go. It's sad that we only get to see bits of it pop up every year. And on our ever-growing list of things to do this, sadly, falls toward the middle/bottom because of more important jobs.

This morning, as I looked out the window, I noticed all of these beautiful purple and white irises blooming. I wish they were in a prettier part of our backyard, but they definitely give the yard some color. I really like that despite what the other owner may have done, these flowers continue to bloom every year.

Revealing Lil' Gilburt

We revealed the pregnancy to my parents a few weeks ago at dinner and Chris' parents via webcam. Everyone was pleasantly surprised and excited for another little one to come around. My sister's little girl and our baby will be 3 months apart. I can't wait to see both of our kiddos running around with my niece and nephew.

I wanted to have a fun reveal for my extended family. Since I had told Chris via Scrabble, I figured it would be a fun way to show everyone else. My sis gave me a great idea. I usually make whoopie pies for every family function and was planning on making them for Easter at my grandad's. (I used my new whoopie pie maker, as my old one was worn out. Here is a link to my new one: Baby Cakes WH-24 Whoopie Pie M (Google Affiliate Ad)My sis told me to tape this picture underneath the whoopie pies and see how long it takes everyone to figure it out. I knew this idea was only going to go one way or the other. Either someone would figure it out in the first few minutes or it would be hours later.

Here are the whoopie pies awaiting to cover up the picture.

I printed the picture out from my computer and used a self-laminating sheet to keep it clean.

Getting close to covering it all the way

All done and you can barely see the picture

Now came the waiting game. 

You can see the gray top of the Pyrex dish just sitting there waiting for someone to open it.

An hour later....still no one has opened it

Finally, my sis dug in and took a few

We kept telling everyone to try my new recipe. So slowly they came...

And still slowly they came...

By this point, a small portion of the picture was showing, but no one had figured it out yet

Still not figured out yet...

Family started to get suspicious as we kept telling them to eat more. And they FINALLY figured it out!!

I love my aunts' expressions in this picture

The dish looked like this when it was finally figured out

 

Some were surprised and some responded with "We knew it!!" But all in all everyone was excited to have one more baby on the way. Before there were 5 first cousins pregnant. I just changed that number to 6! Our due dates are April, May, June, July (2), and October. The pregnant cousins took a picture together. 

I think we are going to run out of room at Christmas events. There are already 16 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. By Christmas there will be 15 great-grandchildren!! We are truly blessed and I know Meme is grinning ear to ear seeing all of these babies grow from her and my grandad's love.

There's Going to Be a Lil' Gilburt

Chris and I are happy to announce that we are expecting a lil' Gilburt!! 

Children were always on our list as a married couple. Since our wedding, we have been practicing NFP (Natural Family Planning) and seen how it has changed our view of marriage and family. After much praying, we decided that it was time for us to start trying for a baby. God works in mysterious ways because it didn't take too long before we found out that we have been given this wonderful gift.

February 17th changed everything. I went shopping with my parents the day before and just didn't feel right. I thought I was coming down with the flu and started googling my symptoms(googling my symptoms usually leads to me thinking I have cancer or will die in three days). Luckily, my symptoms all pointed to one thing...pregnant!

I took a test the next morning and right away it came back positive!! An emotional wave of shock, excitement, and pure joy came over me. I couldn't hold my secret for very much longer. I ran to the Scrabble board that we have and started to place tiles on the board. I walked back into the bedroom and asked Chris to take a look at it.

 

He was so excited and just kept laughing. I don't think he thought we would get pregnant so soon, either. I was only four weeks pregnant and wanted to keep this a secret for a bit longer to make sure this baby was going to stay with us. It was hard keeping my mouth shut and I only told a few confidants who swore to secrecy too. 

The crazy thing behind this pregnancy was everything else that was going on in our lives. The day after I found out about my pregnancy, I signed my contract for my new teaching job, we were in the middle of getting Chris a new car, and finally at the closing of our never-ending refinance for our house. I'm just amazed that I was able to keep my stress level down (or so I think) and that this baby made it through all of that.

I started to call around for doctors and found one that strictly uses NFP. I really wanted a doctor who knew the in's and out's of NFP and promoted it. When I called for an appointment, they wouldn't see me until I was 10 weeks! That felt like a long time to wait and hold my tongue.  

10 weeks finally came and Chris took a day off to go with me. I'm so glad he did because it was an experience that I would not have wanted to do by myself, for good reasons. Since I was 10 weeks, they were able to listen to the heartbeat and do a sonogram. 

First, they did the heartbeat. I was so nervous at this point because it was the test that proved if I was still pregnant or not. (I knew that I was, but this was the confirmation that this was real.) The nurse kept moving the detector all over my abdomen searching for the heartbeat and it made me nervous. It took about a full minute for her to find it, but when she did it was a racing heartbeat. I looked at Chris and his face lit up. It was one of those moments that I will never forget and will always cherish with him.  The baby's heartbeat was at a steady 170 bpm. 

Next came the sonogram. I was really excited about this one as we got our glimpse of what this lil' Gilburt looked like. It didn't take the doctor long to find him/her. He called the baby our teddy graham. I think we will call him/her our lil' Gilburt. Although the baby doesn't look like much right now, it is amazing to know that there is a baby inside of me that is growing and will call me mom one day.

Here is lil' Gilburt's first picture

 

The doctor gave me a due date of October 24. My calculations were only off by a day, October 23. We will know the sex of the baby around the beginning of June. This should coincide with our trip to England and we will reveal the sex to Chris' side first. We honestly do not care what the sex of the baby is as long as they are healthy.

Expect a lot more blogging to be lil' Gilburt centered. As this baby continues to change our lives, I expect no less with my blogging. 

In my next post, I will tell you how we revealed the pregnancy to my extended family.