Little Bean and the Christmas Surprise!

We had our first ultrasound at Park Ave Radiologists, when the baby was just a tiny 7 weeks! The little heart was beating strong and fast- what an amazing experience! It finally made it REAL to me!




Dan decided that the baby's nickname would be "Bean" because that's what he said that the baby looked like! The baby wasn't moving or anything at this point, and the yolk sac was still nourishing the baby, since the placenta hadn't yet been formed.





During the next few weeks, I had a lot of nausea, but only threw up a handful of times. Mostly, because I LOATHE throwing up. I hate it! I will do anything possible to NOT throw up! And morning sickness isn't like regular sickness, where after you throw up, you feel better. No. You still feel nauseous. And the fatigue is just like being on cold medicine...for 12 weeks! It's just an "I need to sleep, I wish I could nap" type of feeling, that never goes away. I was going to bed at 7pm every night, because I realized that this is the ONLY time I will ever have the luxury of resting and napping during a pregnancy. If I have another child, I will be running around after the first one, and won't be able to have this luxury of alone time!

Work was rough- I started coming in to the office an hour early just so I could throw up and get all that sickness feeling over with. Riding public transportation proved to be a huge test to my ability to not VOM, so I started walking to and from work, and gave up the bus and the subway. Not that this did anything to help my TIREDNESS, but I would rather be tired than throwing up!

I lost about 6 lbs in the first trimester, as a result of just not having and appetite, and wanting to spend all my time sleeping rather than eating. I ate anything that was bland: white rice, plain toast, popsicles, and mashed potatoes. The less flavor, the better! The lemonade thing still stayed with me- I read that lemon helps with morning sickness, so maybe that's why my body wanted it.

The hardest part of these few weeks was keeping this a secret from my parents and family! We told Dan's parents and family when we were at his home over Thanksgiving, but I told Dan I would NOT tell my parents over the phone- I wanted to tell them in person, so I would have to wait until Christmas when we were in Montreal.

My mom is a baby fanatic, and her youngest grandchild is now going to be 14 so I knew it was going to be earth-shaking news for her!  We told both Dan's parents and my parents the same way: with special gifts to open together. For the Dads, we got a book that is called "The Grandparents' Handbook." For Moms, we got baby onesies with a rocking chair on them that say "My Grandma Rocks!"

Here's a video of how it went down with my mom at Christmastime. We gave them the presents as we sat down to Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve.  Keep in mind, NO ONE in my family knew that we were even trying, so it was a big shock to everyone! Basically, she didn't get what we were saying until my sister spelled it out for her. Hilarious!!