January 13, 2012 is the day our lives changed forever! We were finally getting settled in to our new life in Oklahoma and had begun trying to have a baby a few months back. I scheduled an initial check-up with a highly recommended OB just to ensure I'd be on his patient list when the time came. Because of some irregularities he decided to run some tests to make sure everything was alright. Along with these tests he ran a pregnancy test just in case. Although I was hopeful, I'd had a let down the month before when I was 10 days late and the tests were negative so I was pretty sure this wasn't our month either.
On Friday the 13th around 3pm the doctor called. I was surprised to hear from him because I knew his office closed at noon those days. He said " Hi Katie, we have an ultrasound scheduled for Wednesday correct?" "Umm, yeah" "Well we're going to have to change that to Tuesday....do you know why?" "Ummm because one of my tests came back?" "Yes, Tuesdays are the days I see my pregnant patients" "........" "You're pregnancy test was positive! You're pregnant!" "Oh my gosh! Wait, are you serious?! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Thank you!"The conversation went on for another few minutes but I don't remember much of it on account of the shock and the shaking and the tearing up.
I couldn't wait to tell Andrew but for once he'd actually gotten off work early and wanted to hang out with his family for the evening. So I had to sit through 4 hours of dinner and hang out time before I convinced him that we should head home because I had a headache. In preparation for this day Andrew's mom and I had talked about how it would be fun to wrap up a San Diego Chargers onsie (his favorite football team) and give it to him. About a week before I had found one online and ordered it and it had just arrived in the mail this very day! So while Andrew was in the computer room I got the onsie out of the packaging and laid it out on the bed and told him I said something to show him. He looked at it and said "ummm cute" while looking at me like I'd gone crazy. I stood there for a minute, waiting for him to catch on, then burst out "I'm pregnant!" His response "Are you really? For reals? Seriously?!" was followed by lots of hugging and jumping up and down and general excitement.
Not only was this perfect timing because the Chargers onsie had arrived in the mail that day but my mom was scheduled to fly in that weekend for a week long visit so I would get to tell her in person which was really important to me. The trip was for her birthday and so I bought a picture frame that said "Grandchildren are the sunshine of life" and where the picture goes I put a piece of paper with 'Baby Stewart due September 2012' stenciled on it. I wrapped it up and we gave it to her at dinner shortly after she arrived. It took her a minute after opening to read what the paper actually said and then her face lit up and she exclaimed "Really?!...and in September?!"
A few days later I gave Andrew's mom a similar picture frame and got the same excited reaction, plus extra excitement for being due in September. Everyone in Andrew's immediate family (including those of us who have married in) are born in September, November, March, or April. So the fact that I am carrying on this tradition is very exciting!
Later in the week I had my initial confirmation visit which my mom got to tag along to and they did a very early ultrasound. Although I was only 5 weeks so we couldn't really see the baby it was great to know everything was normal and for my mom to get to come to this one appointment.
At this point, symptom-wise I was feeling pretty good. I was going to the bathroom more often (of course) but only had very mild nausea and fatigue, some days I wouldn't even feel anything at all. I remember sometimes actually wishing for more severe symptoms just so I would "feel pregnant" and not like this was all some dream. Little did I know my wish would be answered around 6 weeks pregnant. From that moment on the nausea has been pretty much an all day everyday occurrence. I'm still blessed by the fact that my other symptoms are mild most days and that I rarely actually get sick. Here's hoping the second trimester brings some relief!
