dec 24 - we're expecting a pretty great gift!!

oh my word, so much has gone on since march 31st... i don't know how to catch up! well, april 18th is the day ed & i discovered we are expecting. we were on a fabulous weekend away and took a test in the hotel and were... (not sure what word describes us... in awe?)... well, thrilled to see the little pink + on the pregnancy test. then, after a weekend of talking freely about it, we came home and kept it hush for several weeks more. i did call the doctor and set up an appt, but otherwise, everything was quiet. until april 26th when i got a migraine, couldn't take anything for it and ended up throwing up all night. but then, the throwing up continued EVERY DAY. NOT a typical migraine experience for me. that was the start of "morning sickness" (or in my case, "24/7 sickness"). three trips to the ER (one on April 30th in order to be well-enough to attend sandy & travis' wedding, then again in may and our last visit was june 6) to get an IV & anti-nausea meds in order to rehydrate and all the while, keeping this under wraps for weeks!

i did break down and tell aunt betsy, susie & my mom at mother's day. i really needed to be able to talk about it - especially when i was feeling so sick! thankfully, my history of migraines & puking gave no one (boys, co-workers, friends, etc) reason to think this was anything different. there were occasional questions of "pregnant?" but those have been asked since i was in high school, so it was easy to play off. finally, when i was close enough to my second trimester (and still sick enough to be encouraged that we have a healthy & growing baby), we told the boys. it was june 4th when ed called a family meeting and informed the boys (while watching the pens play) that our family would be getting bigger. it took a split-second for taylor to turn and say "is buffy pregnant?" and i just looked at him. drew jumped up and came over to hug me and say how excited he was and ev came and hugged me/stood close to me (with repeating hugs over and over again). it was really fun. the next day, ev came and put his hand on my tummy and asked if he could feel any kicking. i told him "not yet, it's a little early". a half-hour later, he came back again to feel. i had to explain that we'd be waiting a few weeks and i'll let him know when he can check it out.

in the meantime, when we were still only 8 weeks (and still not telling anyone), ed was among the many cuts at his office (over 50%!!) and lost his job. yikes. we quickly transferred medical insurance back to my plan and he started the process of looking for work. he also has gotten A LOT of work done on the house. (he says it's amazing to see what can get done when you aren't working... good to find some silver lining!) our trim is going up and our rooms finally look/feel a little more finished. and we've cleaned out the basement and gotten a lot organized. next up is the baby room that's going to come from our current laundry room/office on the second floor. yeah!!! (i'm really excited about this!!)

hmmm, i guess that's most of the "update". i'm still pretty sick every day. tomorrow should be 13 weeks and i'm hoping to be done with this stage soon. (& ed's looking forward to the "nesting" stage where i get things cleaned up!!) today, eddie & i went to the doctor's and heard the heartbeat. it was amazing (and a little creepy as it feels like we're listening to space/listening for aliens). we heard our little baby's heartbeat - strong and fast and moving all over the place! the doctor had a hard time keeping track so that we could hear him/her! FINALLY, it feels REAL. we'll go for a sonogram and see our baby in a few weeks. we are not going to find out if we get a boy or girl. we'll wait on that until december.

one extra fun thing is that 4 of my girlfriends that i grew up with are also expecting (3 of them for the first time, like me) and that's really fun!! so, we'll have arrivals in aug, oct, nov & 2 in dec! 2009 is a good year for babies among my friends!! how fun!

okay, and now that we're getting finishing touches done, i think ed will let me take more pictures of the house. we need to post them for family to see what's going on. that should be soon. :)