Thursday, July 7, 2016

#Phamfetus

For Father's Day I put together this little collage of just a few of the pictures I had of Nathan with various kids: 

I thought it was funny that I had so many pictures of him with kids--my brothers, our nieces and nephew, kids we've babysat, etc. Basically since we met I've always noticed how he has acted around kids (it was always something important to me because I've always seen myself with a big family), and basically he's the best. Kids really just love him, and he's been ready to have a kid for a long time now. I have zero doubts that he will be the best dad out there, and that his kids will adore him.

So when to start our own family was a constant topic of conversation in our home, and the homes of our families. We both wanted kids, but timing and practicality were another thing. Me finishing school was a big factor, and we put it off for a while in order to hopefully work things around my last two semesters. After lots of thinking and wishing and discussing, we decided in January to throw these annoying little pills away: 


Then wait a few months for the hormones to work their way out of my system. And there's our Valentine's Day picture, just because I think we're cute and I really do love that man.


And then we decided to start trying in March, and hoped it wouldn't take long. During my Spring Break we spent a few days away from all the craziness and went to Baltimore. Lots of walking around, visited a few museums and the aquarium, and ate lots of delicious food. It was a nice little get away.


 The best fish tacos I've ever had from a local seafood restaurant 

 And a little relaxing in between weeks of studying and busy work trips and day-to-day business

 We ate at some interesting little fast-food fried chicken place one night because Nathan had been wanting to, and they were actually really good. Chicken and cat fish nuggets. 

...Which made this man oh so very happy

After spring break we got back to our normal routine and I remember not-so-patiently waiting to find out if we were pregnant or not. Nathan and I talked about the "what-ifs" pretty much every night, which probably made those two weeks go by even more slowly. We ended up taking a pregnancy test at one point, a little too early, that came back negative. It was pretty devastating for us, and I decided to myself that the next one I took, I would take alone, without telling Nathan. After a few more days, on March 26 I got up to go to work at 530 in the morning, and decided to take another test, as now I was 3 days late. And, sure enough, we were pregnant: 


 I quickly left the bathroom, sat on Nathan, and told him to look at the pee stick. To which he confusedly sat up and asked what I was doing. And I told him we were pregnant. We hugged for a minute before I had to rush off to work. And I guess the news made it hard for him to really think about anything else that day:


Keeping it a secret really didn't last any time at all. My family knew we were planning on trying in March, so they were expecting me to be pregnant. Basically, they were just sitting there waiting for the news, so we ended up telling them fairly quickly... like the next day. And it wasn't a surprise to anyone, really.


And then ensued all the daydreaming, wondering whether everything was going okay, going back and forth on whether it was a boy or girl, a little bit of nausea with occasional pukes every now and then, extreme exhaustion where I slept wayyy too much--all the normal stuff. Nathan has been to almost all of the doctors appointments so far, and the first one was pretty exciting for him. They did an ultrasound when we were only 7 weeks, so we got to see our little bean sized baby:



On Mother's Day our little fetus was about the size of a gummy bear, so Nathan bought some gummies and flowers. And it was perfect. 



Now amidst our own excitement of being pregnant and all that jazz, there was also huge excitement for Gray and Ande and their first baby, which was born in May. We were all waiting for her little arrival, and after quite the eventful few days, little Lori came to join their family.


 I can't wait to see him with his own baby. Part of me feels like as long as Nathan is home and not nursing, that baby will be all snuggled up in his arms. 

 I feel pretty dang lucky that I get to create a family with him. 


And just last Friday the excitement grew just a little bit more. We had our 18 week appointment, and they were also going to do a scan to check the gender. The entire pregnancy Nathan has been saying how much he wants a little girl, and everyone knew that's what he was hoping for. I think I thought it was probably going to be a boy, but I thought it would be nice if Nathan got his wish. So with a lot of excitement, off we went, hoping our fetus was in a good position for us to clearly tell if it was a girl or boy.


 Her little legs were wide open for us! It was pretty clear that we will be welcoming a little girl come December. Nathan was definitely happy.

There she is in her 18 week-old glory. She had her little feet crossed, and a hand up by her head. 

So as you can see, we've been very excited for this new adventure of ours. We hope and pray that everything continues to grow and develop just as it should, and that all continues on healthily. Most of all we are just ready for December to hurry up and get here--this pregnancy feels like it's been dragging on, and I am so ready to see Nathan be a Dad to this little one. We feel pretty lucky these days.