A couple of years ago, I felt ready to have a child and Chadd and I even tried for about three months. I was so caught up in this ideal plan of mine though that I wasn't really thinking about if he was ready or if our relationship was ready for children. We were high school sweethearts and we had been together ten years. I always considered him my best friend but at the time, we had really grown apart and our lives were going in different directions. For this reason along with many others, we ended up separating from each other for about eight months. During our time apart, I formed a much stronger relationship with Jesus and eventually I felt Him calling me back to Chadd. We started seeing each other again in late October of 2013 and after counseling and a marriage course held at my church, we officially recommitted our lives to each other on April 18, 2014. While no relationship is perfect, ours was now stronger than it had ever been and none of this would have been possible without Jesus.
Skip to November 13, 2014…My period was a few days late and while I didn't really have any other symptoms yet besides fatigue, something in me told me, "This is it! You are pregnant!" I didn't want to tell Chadd until I knew for sure because I had all of these cutesy ideas of how I was going to announce it to him. I went to the store after work that afternoon and picked up a couple of pregnancy tests. I took one right when I got home and it was positive! I immediately cried tears of joy and just thanked God for finally blessing us with a child. Our niece, Daisy was staying with us at the time because her mom and Sean had just had a baby girl of their own the day before. I didn't want to call Chadd on his way home from work and tell him over the phone and didn't want to tell him in front of Daisy so I had to wait until Daisy had gone to bed. Needless to say, it was torturous waiting so long to tell him and my cute announcement ideas were thrown out the window. None of that mattered though. Later that evening while Chadd was lying in bed, I escaped into the bathroom and grabbed the pregnancy test where I secretely stashed it. I came back into the room with my hands behind my back and whipped it right out in front of his eyes. His expression was of total shock. We prayed together that evening; we thanked God for blessing us with a baby and asked Him to keep the baby and myself safe and healthy.
Symptoms: In the first 8 weeks of pregnancy, I didn't have that many symptoms. I was pretty tired and had some pains that felt like menstrual cramps. Those scared me but my friend who was also pregnant experienced them too and the Dr. told me they are totally normal. It's weird that no one talks about those. From weeks 9 to about 22, I struggled with nausea and vomiting. I felt nauseous everyday but the vomiting was only maybe 2 to 3 days a week so it wasn't unbearable. There was one time though that Dirk, Chadd, and I were headed to the Orlando Improv to see Dave Coulier perform. We stopped at the Chick Fil A on University and had dinner before heading on the highway. I started feeling really nauseous on 417 and by the time we hit I4, I told my brother he needed to pull over. I guess he didn't feel comfortable pulling over so he got off on the next exit instead. Well...by that time, it was too late. There were two styrofoam cups next to me in the car and they both ended up full of vomit, along with my jeans. Dirk's car remained unscathed though and for that, I was pretty proud of myself! It was around week 21 that I first started feeling the flutters and within a few weeks, I could start feeling her movements, kicks, and hiccups. I lived for these moments! The greatest joy in pregnancy is being able to feel your baby move inside of you. During the last few months of my pregnancy, the nausea subsided but what replaced it was "acid throat" and upper back pains. I didn't really have heartburn...it was just exactly as I stated it, acid sitting in my throat. Nothing really
helped either of these things but it was better than the constant nausea for sure. I'm also typically someone who enjoys cardio and prior to pregnancy, I would usually go to the gym three times a week. Other than walking, I really didn't exercise throughout pregnancy due to the fatigue and nausea. Pregnancy is not glamorous but it is an experience I am eternally grateful for and look forward to experiencing again. Not only is it amazing to feel so close to your baby but another one of my favorite things was watching my belly grow and taking pictures of the week by week progress.
Finding out the sex: I have such a close relationship with my mom and I have been looking forward to having a baby girl because I hope to emulate a lot of my mom's qualities and have the same type of bond with my daughter. This was my first child and though I know I would have been elated whether it was a girl or boy...I definitely was hoping and had a feeling our baby was a girl. At our week 12 ultrasound, Chadd asked if the ultrasound tech saw a penis and she said "I'd be surprised to ever see a penis." This was our first clue that my intuition was right but I knew that twelve weeks was a little too soon to tell. At week 16, my suspicions were confirmed and we were told we were having a baby girl. They showed us the little "hamburger" on the ultrasound. I immediately called our close family members and texted my friends to share the news! It was a good thing too because we had already agreed upon the name, Allie Grace and we did not see eye to eye on boy names. I was so excited that I went and bought her first outfit that night! It was a white polka-dotted denim romper with little white eyelet shoes and a white eyelet bow. I also rallied our dogs, Lily and Kenzie and took several pictures so I could make a Facebook announcement and share my excitement with everyone else!
Cravings/Aversions: I really didn't crave much during pregnancy and definitely never had any of those unusual cravings that people talk about like pickles and ice cream mixed together. While I was dealing with the nausea, my diet pretty much only consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches. I only really craved cold foods/drinks like coke flavored ICEEs, strawberry banana smoothies, flavor ice pops, and Jeremiah's Scoop Froggy Frog with chocolate/vanilla swirl. Unfortunately, I could not stomach vegetables. It appeared that I reverted back to my childhood days. However, I did still enjoy fruit and I just made sure I was consistent with taking my prenatal vitamins daily so Allie still would get all of the nutrients she needed.
Favorite Moments:
- Finding out I was pregnant and sharing the news
- Getting to see Allie on all of the ultrasounds and hearing her heartbeat at my appointments
- Preparing her beautiful purple/teal nursery with Chadd and my mom
- Reading "Oh Baby, The Places You'll Go" and feeling her kick
- Both of my baby showers thrown by my lovely sister, Melissa and Chadd's grandmother, Linda
- Experiencing pregnancy with my best friend, Kourtney
Even though my timeline did not happen in the original way that I had planned, I am so thankful to God for that. He knew what he was doing. I have changed and grown so much in my faith and as a person in the last couple of years. I've always dreamed about being a mother and now that it is a reality, I cannot even express how overjoyed I am. I just look at my daughter sometimes and begin to cry tears of happiness. My wish for Allie is that she always knows how much she is loved by her father and I, the rest of the family, and most of all, Jesus. I hope that she loves Jesus fiercely and that her love for him will outpour and inspire others. I know that she will have some struggles along the way but I hope that she will always lean on God during these times. Finally, just as my dream of having her came true, I hope that all of her dreams in life are realized!
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