I'm not fat, I'm pregnant!

Yup! That's right! In case you have been seeing some photos of me and wondering if I have forgetting to do sit ups, I'm not getting fat... Brendan and I are expecting a little baby Fox come January!

Over the winter, Brendan and I decided that as much as we loved our fur-babies (dogs) Carrie and Abigail, we would love a human baby even more, so come spring we decided to start trying to make that a reality! The first month, I bought a total of 9 pregnancy tests which I started taking the moment I could find out if I was pregnant.. the first 6 were negative and I resigned myself to wait to try again next month. About a week later, I was feeling really tired and not myself so I decided to take one more test. I walked into the bathroom calling over my shoulder to Brendan that I was about to waste another $3 to confirm I still wasn't pregnant. Then about 3 minutes later, I ran out of the bathroom screaming with this in my hand!

May 8th: PREGNANT!

Brendan and I were both shocked and super excited. It had taken my mom a really long time to get pregnant with me so I had assumed it probably wouldn't be that easy for us. As we sat down for dinner that night, we could hardly find the words to thank God for this miracle. Often, we're still speechless, but every night before we go to sleep Brendan grabs my hand and says, "OK let's pray for baby," and we lay silently speaking words of praise to God for this gift of life.

We decided at that point to wait to tell our parents until they both came to visit for Memorial Day. The next several weeks were very hard because I am the worst at keeping secrets. In fact, even my parents were surprised I lasted 2 weeks without telling them.  I called my parents when they were on their way down and asked them to put it on speaker because I had to tell them something (completely different) and they thought I was telling them I was pregnant then, meaning my parents don't think I can even keep a secret for 2 hours! Naturally, since I couldn't spill the beans to my parents, I told my best friends and my grandmother, Nanny. Nanny actually guessed I was pregnant before I told her and ruined the surprise, but its ok.

We had our first doctor's appointment on May 23 and at that point Baby Fox was so little that you could hardly tell it was there, so Brendan has nicknamed the baby "Spot" which our families have also adopted. Since Spot was so small and they weren't sure what the due date would be, we had another appointment 2 weeks later so they could get a better idea of when we should expect our new addition  (January 17!).

At the next appointment, we confirmed that there was one Spot there (although Brendan secretly was hoping for twins), and Brendan informed me that Spot had graduated to Peanut in that photo, but the name Spot had already stuck.

8 Weeks! 1 x is the head the other is the bum!

I've decided to do a bump board and am torturing Brendan weekly by making him take photos of the same thing. This is the first week I did!

of course in this one you can't actually see the drawing of the lime! but It's true, no margaritas for 7 more months!

My first trimester was relatively uneventful. I didn't really get sick, I just was EXHAUSTED all the time and pretty emotional. Usually, when Brendan goes to sleep early, I have trouble sleeping but some nights I would roll into bed before him... at 7:45.

This week officially marks my second trimester and I've started to have a little bit more energy which I expend sweeping and vacuuming dog hair and cooking. We went to the doctor on Monday and listened to the baby's heartbeat which was awesome! On August 9th we find out the gender, although Brendan won't be there so I am going to TRY to have them put it in an envelope so we can find out together.. but once again I'm bad at keeping secrets.

I missed week 12 so you'll notice a pretty big difference in bump size here!!

I saw this little survey on another blog and thought it was a pretty good way to track how everything is progressing so I'm going to start using it too!

How far along? 13 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: gained 2 lbs
Maternity clothes? 2 pair of maternity jeans and a top (thanks Mom!)
Stretch marks? No
Sleep: Sleeping A LOT
Best moment this week: Hearing the baby's heartbeat!!!!
Have you told family and friends: Yes!
Miss Anything? Sushi, hot dogs (especially around holiday weekends!) and wine.
Movement: No
Food cravings: Fruit and Lemonade
Anything making you queasy or sick: the smell of trash cans and cleaning out the fridge
Have you started to show yet: A little bump so far... looks more like a food baby to me.
Gender prediction: I say Girl, Brendan doesn't have an opinion.
Labor Signs: No
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!
Looking forward to: Finding out the gender & feeling the baby move!