So, after starting and stopping another blog, I think I will stick with this one. I love reading everyone else's blogs to find out about their kids and their lives in far away from me places, so I figure they would like to hear about what's going on with us! I am currently working as a Graduate Assistant at the University of Memphis in the Reading Masters program. I am 15 weeks pregnant so I guess I will start with how we found out we were going to have this little bundle and what has happened since then:
It was September 11th, 2009. We had just pulled into Murfreesboro to see all our dear friends and to watch the MTSU vs. Memphis game. We were staying at the Straka's house and just loving being around Graham! (I wish I could see him everyday!) When Jen and I got to talking, I told her that I was feeling strange and both of our thoughts immediately went to I bet I'm pregnant! So, having taken one pregnancy test the day or two before we had come to the boro, I asked Josh if we could just get one more to make sure. He said, "No, you have to wait til we get home (we had a test sitting waiting in the bathroom in Memphis)."
So the night went on and finally, Jen needed to run to the store for something for the tailgate. So JEN asked Josh if we could "puleeeze" get a pregnancy test! He finally said yes and we went to the store. While at the store, the Kroger actually, we asked the sole person working (it was around 11:00pm) if she could open the case with the tests and stuff in it. She sort of rolled her eyes and said, "In a minute." After she begrudgingly walked over to the case I noticed she was sniffling so I asked her, "Are you feeling badly?" After that her whole demeanor changed! It was wild, after helping me get the test out, she said, "I don't know which way you want it to go, but I hope it's the way you want it. I just want to tell you that 23 years ago I had one that was positive and it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me." It was so sweet! SO...back at the Straka ranch, we decided that I should take the test when I woke up in the morning, accuracy and all that. So, at 4:00 am I woke up and had to go to the bathroom...so I took the test and it was positive! I speed walked back to the room where Josh and I were staying and tapped him (sound asleep at 4am, mind you) and said, "We're gonna have a baby!" to which I received a "[groan] that's great! [snore]" So the next morning sweet Jen and Graham were playing in the den when I got up from not really sleeping the rest of the morning. I told her and we giggled for a while, it was really fun to be there with all our friends when we found out! After that weekend we knew we needed to tell our families, of course! So we planned to have dinner with Josh's parents on Tuesday and with my parents on Thursday (Sally was coming in town that day, so we were having family dinner anyway!). To surprise the families I bought some bibs from Target and monogrammed them to say: "I love my aunt Rachel and I love my uncle Allen, etc." We gave one to each family member. Josh's parents suspected something, so they weren't terribly surprised, but they were very excited! My family was not suspecting anything at all so they did the whole, "Really, really, really?!" thing and cried and such! It was really fun! Sally even insisted on wearing the bib around! Allen of course ran straight to Facebook and put it on his status, so after making him take it down, we made many speedy phone calls to make sure that people didn't find out on Facebook! SO that's the story of how we found out and how we told our familes! We had our first doctor's appointment on October 9th, which was pretty anti-climactic since they basically just told us we were pregnant. The next visit was November 13th and we heard the heartbeat! It was amazing! Also, the baby will be referred to as Nemo (a nickname coined by lovely Aunt Tracey Clairmont) from this point on...well I guess until we know the sex and have a name! Tracey also wants everyone to know that she is not responsible if Nemo comes out with a damaged arm, it is just a nickname. :)