There's something in the water

We are happy to announce that we are 11 weeks pregnant! We're very excited and things seem to be going well so far. We've had one doctor's appointment, at nine weeks, and we got to hear the heartbeat. The doctor and nurses said that everything looked perfect (they kept using that word after every check they did...bloodwork was perfect, diagnostic screening was perfect, my uterus was perfect, and the heartbeat was perfect). It was very reassuring. We'll have another check-up and hopefully an ultra-sound on Nov. 5.



Now for the pregnancy story. It's been a funny ride up to this point. I found out I was pregnant the day after Jeff left for Chicago. He flew out on Thursday and that day at school I just felt funny...and I'd been waiting for my period for about a week. I decided to ignore it that day, but by Friday afternoon I was getting really suspicious. I was super tired, and my tummy had felt like it had butterflies all day. So after work I stopped by the store and bought a test. I took it as soon as I got home and sure enough, there was the postive pink cross. So many thoughts raced through my head...mainly, do I call Jeff in Chicago, or wait until he comes home? Of course he was going to be gone for 5 more days, and couldn't sit on this news by myself for 5 days, especially with a stay-at-home weekend before me. So I called him and left on a message on his cell.

A friend from church had invited me over for dinner that night, and she had just found out that she was pregnant about 2 weeks earlier. So of course, all she could talk about was pregnancy and it was killing me to just sit there and not say anything. After I left her place at about 8:00 I called Jeff again (10:00 PM his time) and he was a very noisy high-school football game. I had to practically yell into the phone "We're pregnant!" There was some stunned silence and then "Wow! Ok...really?!" We didn't talk for long, but he called me back the next day and we got to talk all about it. Those couple of days until he got home felt like the longest in my life!

Since finding out that we were pregnant, we have found out that 2 other couples in our church (our little church of about 100 people) are also pregnant, and we're all in the same bible study! Our due dates are May 14 (mine), May 15 (Jeph and Leanne) and May 20 (Josh and Marcy). So now there are tons of jokes circulating about what we actually do at "bible study" ;) It's going to be fun going through this process with these other couples though. They are quality people and we already spend alot of time with them, so now we'll have even more to talk about.

My whole school already know the news now too, but not because I made a public annoucement. I ended up telling my class because there were a few weeks that I was not feeling well at all (I think I'm finally on the tail end of it!) and one morning I had to throw-up in the classroom sink. Only a few kids noticed because they were busy doing some group research, but I decided that I needed to tell them in case it continued to happen. They got really excited and I told them that nobody else in the school knew, so they needed to keep it a secret for just a little while. Needless to say, that didn't work. I pretty sure some of them started spreading the news that day at recess.

Anyway, I decided to tell my principal that day too, knowing the news would get out soon. He was not even surprised when I told him, and in fact, he said "You're the second person who's told me their pregnant today." Our staff is very young, and there are many young, married women in there prime child-bearing years, so I had to go on a mission to find out who else was pregnant. The next week I told my fourth grade team, and they were all really excited for me, and they've been a huge support (stepping into my room for a few minutes on their prep time, while I run down the hall to use the bathroom). That week, during an inservice training, I found out who else was pregnant. Another woman who was a new hire this year, a first year teacher too, was sitting in the traing, in her sweats with a blanket on her lap eating saltine after saltine. I figured it out early in the morning, but by the end of the that day, via the school-staff grapevine, basically the whole staff knew that Sara and I were pregnant. Both of us were uncomfortable after sitting all day, and we both had massive amounts of snacks piled up on our tables, whereas the other tables just had bowls of candy.

So there must truly be something in the water out here. :) But I was good timing to drink the water I guess. Most likely we'll have the baby just a few weeks before school gets out, so I won't miss too much work, but I will have some extra weeks off, if I decide to go back to work the next year. We have a lot decisions to make, and a lot projects to complete prior to the baby coming, so we would appreciate your prayers!