We’re getting our baby!

I know that doesn’t look like much in there, but what we have is a kidney bean with a little flickering heart!  164 beats per minute to be exact!!

So how it all happened – without all the dirty stuff!
They tell you to wait until you’ve had two periods after a miscarriage before you start trying again.  Well after my first one we said, ‘You know what, I’m tired of thinking and worrying about it.  Let’s just stop thinking and worrying about it and see what happens.’  So we did.  Our summer was getting into full swing and we did what needed to be done and stopped worrying about it.  The week after my beach trip with my girls, it was time to check it out and see what was going on.  I was already a few days late, but I just wasn’t sure.  So I took a pregnancy test on Monday and got a faint line.  Maybe it was just too soon.  Took another test on Tuesday and got a faint line.  Maybe it needed to be in the morning.  Took another test on Wednesday and there was a faint line.  (That sounds obsessive and like I was worrying about it now that I write it, but it seemed totally rational at the time!)  So I figured if I wasn’t pregnant, I’d get my period.  It is now 8 weeks since my last period and no period yet!  There must be something going on in there.

Last time I made it to 6 weeks and 6 days.  You better bet your heart that on my 6 weeks and 6 days this time, I was nervous.  Every tweak and twinge I just knew was starting the badness.  I walked around all day squeezing my boobs and making sure they still hurt.  Sorry if that is TMI.  Yep, they still hurt. 

I made my appointment for 8 weeks and some change so that I would be able to hear a heartbeat and feel 1000 times better.  No need to go in any earlier when they can’t tell you anything.  So Saturday leading up to the appointment I had a complete freak out.  I wasn’t having heartburn as bad and my boobs didn’t hurt as bad as they had been.  That was it.  It was all over.  I sobbed and sobbed and my sweet, sweet husband was right there telling me I was crazy and that he was sure the extra stress would not be helpful on the BABY that was in there!  We finally got up and headed to dinner and I was back to myself in no time.

I never thought Monday at 2:10pm would get there.  Sunday drug on like nobody’s business and I didn’t sleep a wink Sunday night.  Monday morning I woke up and immediately called Leslie.  I headed over to her house and was able to be distracted by Anna and a great Skype with our cousin, Kristin, who lives in Minnesota and had been a little detective all the way up there!  Finally it was time for me to head home.
I took a shower and got ready to go.  I was so nervous I felt like I was going to throw up at any second.  I was ultra talkative and I think Jason knew to just keep on going and don’t stop and ask me about it.  Neither of us needed another freak out!

We got there and had to wait.  Dear God – how can you make us wait at a time like this!  After what felt like forever (but I'm sure it was 10 minutes) we finally went back there.  Our NP (Leslie’s favorite) was AWESOME.  She said everything felt good and looked like it needed to.  She knew we needed to hear that heartbeat to be able to get through the next 4 weeks, so she tried with the Doppler and nothing, which was not unusual this early.  She then told us that she was going to sneak us into the ultrasound room because there was a little bit of a break.  She warned me that once the tech heard something I had to get out quick!  So not even putting my underroos back on under my dress we quickly were whisked to the ultrasound room.  We were lucky enought to get the same tech that was with us the last time.  She popped me up on the table, squirted the lube on my belly and started a-searching.  And there it was.  The most beautiful tiny like kidney bean with a flickering heart.  164 beats a minute.  And with that, she cleaned me up, I put my roos back on and out we went.  We had what we came for.

Since we have made it to 8 weeks and saw a heart beat, there is a 95% change of this one making it.  The next hurdle is twelve weeks and after that the percentage goes up even more!

Through all of this I have learned several things -

#1 – Be sure you marry a man who is going to be willing to hold you when you are sobbing uncontrollably for a complete irrational reason.  They may ask you later to explain, but they know just to hold you no matter what.

#2 – As our NP said, ‘If you don’t get what you want, sometimes you just have to cheat!’

#3 – I had no idea that something that itty bitty and tiny could make me so happy!  I can’t wait to see what this watermelon does when it pops out of me!

#4 – Even after a miscarriage and me being so afraid that it would never be the same again – it is.  I am just as excited, if not more so because this one is sticking.  It was just as exciting when we called the whole world and Jason and I are just as excited about being parents to this little bean.  We know we are not out of the muck yet, but we are staying positive.  We are going to believe that the first one didn’t stick around for a reason and that this is ours.  Here’s to keeping your fingers crossed and praying with all you’ve got that this one sticks around until he’s ready to come out and meet us!

#5 – Doing everything right is apparently boring.  With this little bean I have ridden roller coasters in Disney World, drank with my college roommates for a week, been to the beach and body surfed in some pretty big surf, and hung out at a Tim McGraw concert.  This bean thinks he’s already at a party!

#6 – We are so not in control.  Everything does happen for a reason and everything ends up working out like it’s supposed to.  Now this bean is going to have a cousin in October (Jeffro and Johnna) and another one in February (Leslie + Will)!!!!  I could not be more excited to be pregnant with all of the fam and be apart of watching this family grow!  We knew once this family started growing, it wouldn’t stop!!

Sexy, sexy men in soaking wet t-shirts!

For the past couple of years, Leslie, Will, Jason, and I have all gone to a country music concert.  We saw Rascal Flatts a couple of times and this year we moved on to Love + Theft (we had no idea who they were, but they were good!), Dierks Bentley, and Tim McGraw. 

We loaded up in Will’s car and headed to Raleigh.  Will + Leslie were nice enough to use their hotel points and get us a suite so we didn’t have to worry about driving back late.  Leslie did some awesome driving and we pulled right up to the parking lot and were able to get an awesome parking spot right down for the entrance.  It kills me how people think it’s ok to get to a concert at 8:30 when it started at 7:00 and think they’re going to get a good seat.  People kill me.

Anyway, we all stood in line waiting for the gate to open.  We saw people sitting around the front of the line, but didn’t think much of it.  All of a sudden, when the line started moving, they stood up and started to move with it.  Leslie and I were not going to have that.  She screamed out ‘Cheaters’ a few times and I Bon Qui Qui’d their ass and ‘Rude’ed them.  We continued to yell for a little bit and got a few people to take a step back before they got their face busted in – by our burley husbands, not by us.  After we both calmed down we made our way into the amphitheater and managed to get great seats.  Once we sat down, the breeze was blowing and it ended up being a great night.  Once we all got a good coating of sweat on us, we were good to go!

The concert was amazing!  The songs were great, the people watching was fantastic (plenty of jorts for all to see), and those two sexy, sexy men in their sweat soaked t-shirts were worth every penny.  Don’t worry – the boys had plenty of skanks to look at.

Love and Theft

Will + Leslie

Dierks – no shot is ever going to do him justice.  He was so sincere in his thank you for all of us being there.  He said he fondly remembers the days of playing for tips – I can’t even imagine how wild it is to be him and remember those days and then to look out that night and see ALL of those people there. 

Timmy-Boys stage.

Faith is a lucky, lucky woman.  I wish I could have been the chick that got to grab his butt.  Scared the shit out of him, but I’m sure it made her life!

Will, Leslie, Ja, and me.  Thanks for a great time, guys!

Wrightsville with the Heges!

Will’s parents have an AWESOME condo down at Wrightsville Beach.  Will’s sister, Erin, put together a little weekend getaway for a few couples for her birthday.  Leslie + Will, Erin + Aaron, me, and Block all stayed at the condo.  Jason had football and a party he had to go to in Winston and Block’s wife, Talley, was out of town with her mom.  We had a great weekend of lounging at the beach and the pool, and a TON of hysterical laughter.  The girls had some great conversations : ) and the boys did all their serious man bulljiving.  It was a short trip, but we made the best of it.  We ate at Bluewater and Dockside.  Dockside had the most awful service known to man – it was beyond ridiculous.  Even Aaron who have been in the service industry for 8 1/2 years was knocking them for how bad it was!!  Bluewater had one of the most amazing meals I have ever had – Calypso Shrimp.  If you ever have the opportunity, jump on it!  Even though we spent a lot of time enjoying ourselves, I only got one picture.  It is a pretty good one though!

The true couple out of all of us -

Thanks Hege’s for letting us stay at your awesome place and thanks Erin for putting it together!!

UNCW Girls Beach Week 2010

Once Ja and his fam dropped me off in Wilmington, I was ready to sit back and relax for the next week.  Riley had been hanging out with Deddy the week I was in Florida, so I was excited to get back to him and to be able to spend some time with the fam.  Mom and I were able to bop around on Monday and go shopping a bit and get stuff ready for the girls to arrive Monday night.

Since my UNCW girls and I had been together in March, we decided that it would be awesome if we could get together for more than a long weekend.  Since most of us are teachers, we started to plan a week in the summer that we could all come down to Wilmington and relive our college days.  Kelly, Katie, Michelle, Jenna, and Jenna's boyfriend, Scott, made it down!!!  No one lives in Gramps' house now, it was the perfect free location!  (Background on Gramps’ house - When my grandpa moved down to Wilmington with us my parents built a garage apartment behind their house.  It is the perfect place for someone to live.  It has a small kitchen and a bathroom and it just a big open room.  Perfect for about 6 air mattresses to be set up wall to wall for us to crash on!!

That week was AWESOME!!  We got up in the morning (progressively later as the week went on) and headed to the beach.  We knew we wanted to hit up all of our old eating spots, so we had to be diligent with our meals!  We needed to go to the Bagel Basket, Flaming Amy's, Trolly Stop, J. Michael's, Hieronymus, and I'm sure I'm leaving places out.  We had a lot of ground to cover and a limited number of meals.  So after beaching it all day every day, we ate at our places, and then hit up our favorite night spots!  Downtown Wilmington was kind of dead earlier in the week, but we got to see a GREAT band after much persuading (Bibbis Ellison) and we also got some good time at our favorite, Level 5. 

During that week I also got to see my best friend since the 5th grade, Maggie, and when Ja got down later in the week we were able to get some drinks with my good friends Carrie and Kim, and Carrie's husband, Matt. 

To me that was the perfect week.  Got to spend time with my fam, my very best friends, my husband, and the beach!!!  I am definitely a beach bum from way back.  I would like to die sitting in a beach chair at Wrightsville!

Some pictures from the week:

Michelle, Katie, Scott, Jenna, Kelly, and Maggie at Firebelly trying to decide if we are young enough to still be able to pull off a Baltimore Zoo.  The glass with the straws contains 11 different liquors and some Sprite, I think, and the goal is to drink that entire glass as someone pours the beer on top.  This used to be our go to drink because it was a cheap way to start the night off so you didn’t have to buy too many beers!

And we have success!  We are not too old!!  YAY!!!

Lyndsay and Kelly at The Whiskey.  Lyndsay is a good friend of ours from UNCW who invited us out to hear one of the best bands I’ve heard in a long time.  I linked to Bibis’ facebook page, but that is nothing like hearing her in real life.  That was a great night.  Thanks, Lynds!

Katie, Michelle, and Kelly.  Kelly was my roommate my freshman year of college and Katie and Michelle lived two doors down from us.  The four of us lived together the whole four years of college – in one arrangement or another!

Josh, Michelle, and Jenna.  Josh is another really good friend of ours from UNCW who still happens to be in Wilmington.  He will be packing up soon and heading to Duke to start PA school.  We were so glad we got to spend at least a little while with him!

Michelle, Katie, Jenna, Me, and Kelly.  A little later in the week we decided to have a nice dinner.  Since most of us were teachers, this was the night that we got paid!!  One of our favorite places to go when we wanted to celebrate something (and we never had a hard time finding something to celebrate!) was Hieronymus.  The have the BEST shecrab soup and cheddar bay biscuits.  Red Lobster ain’t got NOTHING on Hieronymus.  Since we were going kind of fancy, we all decided to rock our maxi dresses (or maxipad dresses as my husband calls them!).  All of the girls look BEAUTIFUL!

After our lovely evening at Hieronymus we headed downtown to our very fav – Level 5!  It is a rooftop bar right on the river in downtown Wilmington and was always our hot spot when we were back in college.  Lucky for us there was NO ONE there that night and it was Throw Back Night.  Usually having no one at a bar is boring, but when you have all of us, all we need is some awesome music, a dance floor, and an empty beer bottle.  We play Spin The Bottle – Bust A Move edition.  If the bottle stops on you, you HAVE to break it down.  The few people that were in the bar with us were great sports and played along.  And no – it is not embarrassing at all.  You look like a loser if you don’t play.

Jason got down to Wilmington Thursday night and he came out with us.  Since there wasn’t much going on but us, he was our official Protector of the Pocketbooks.  He graciously held the bar down while we were out jiving it up!

If that doesn’t look like a badass dance party, I don’t know what does.

This is 1036 Page Avenue.  This is where the girls (and I) lived our junior and senior years.  I technically lived at home in Gramps’ house those two years, but I did have my name on the bathroom door.  I was over there 87% of the time, so it counts!

FLORIDA!!

Not long after school got out, Ja + I took a trip to Florida with his parents.  His grandma and her husband live about an hour from Orlando and his aunt lives a few hours away.  We made it down to his grandma’s on a Tuesday afternoon and stayed with them until Thursday.  We had a great time of playing marbles and shopping at Beall's.  We still aren't totally sure how to pronounce that, but it is like a TJ Maxx or Kohl's and we had a definite shopping trip planned there!  We also ended up with a really nice leather recliner that will one day be in our nursery.  Thanks, Jim + Ellen!

On Thursday morning we packed up and headed to Orlando.  The hotel wasn't ready for us when we got there so we headed to Downtown Disney for a while so we could meet up with Ja's Aunt Patty.  After a little while we got a call that our room was ready, so we checked into our hotel and then we went to Universal Studios to eat at Margaritaville.  Ja + I ate there on our honeymoon in Las Vegas and we could still taste the Volcano Nachos! 

Friday and Saturday were spent at Disney.  I had not been back since the trip we took to get engaged, so we still had 2 days left on those passes.  We did as much as we could in those two days.  We got to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Hollywood Studios (which I will forever call MGM).  We had a really good time even though it was hotter than a ballsack in a jockstrap on a hot summer day.  Ja + I both decided we would not take our children to Disney until they were at least 6 or 7 years old and we would definitely never go during June again.  Who would have thought that Florida would be miserable in June?!

Sunday we packed up our chair and headed up.  Ja headed back to Winston and I was in Wilmington for my next adventure!