We have a secret to share with you!

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I'm PREGNANT!!!

We had our second OB appointment today where we were able to hear the heartbeat, and I will be 12 weeks along tomorrow.

Our due date is April 23rd, 2009. We have decided to wait to find out the gender of the baby until he/she arrives., much to the chagrin of my side of the family. Who knows maybe he/she will be a prevert and show us its goods first thing at one of the ultra sounds.

We are very excited, although it is taking some time to get used to the idea of being pregnant and eminently becoming parents very soon. I haven't really had "morning sickness" just more of a general yucky feeling. I've only thrown up a handful of times (not literally, hehe), and the worst part of the day is really when I brush my teeth. I've been pretty tired, taking a lot more naps than normal and just not up to doing a whole heck of a lot. The last couple of days have seemed to be better, and I have started feeling like my old spunky self again.

I'm reading lots of books trying to follow along with the progression of my fetus and body. If you have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them! Tom gets interested too, just the other night he had his head on my belly and asked how big the baby was. I was able to tell him that it's about the size of a plum, about 2 inches long, and weighs about 1/3 of an ounce.

But enough of the talk, on to the fun stuff. Here are some pictures and a little video...

August 20th, 2008

(The picture loaded portrait even though it was taken and saved as landscape, sorry)

This is the first test I took. I wanted to take the test before Tom left for work, so he was in the back yard watering the plants, and I walked out with the test and the instructions and showed it to him. He said, "what does that mean?" I said, all of the sudden with tears in my eyes, "I'm pregnant!" then walked back into the house. He came in a minute later with tears in his eyes, hugged me and told me he loves me. It was very sweet. I think we were both a little overwhelmed at that point. You see, even though we were technically trying to get pregnant, we only had to try once. We are very blessed, and fertile too! LOL!

Second test... about 5 hours later, yup still pregnant.

Third test... about 2 hours after the second test, and drinking lots of water!

I went to the store to pick up a digital, just to make sure. While I was there I picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner along with a few other groceries and all the way home I could smell the chicken (from the trunk of my car) and it was grossing me out! Tom thought it was silly to take 3 tests, I have more, but he told me to save them.

I called my OB to schedule an appointment the next day and 2 weeks later the doctor confirmed and we told our parents and siblings and a few close friends.

Today was my second appointment and I actually got to meet my doctor who was extremely nice and was referred to me by Krista. My doctor asked how I had been feeling and went over all of my labs values with me and said everything looks great. She also said she'd like to try to find the heartbeat. Woo Hoo, these are the words I was waiting for! It took a few minutes and both the doctor and I heard the heartbeat for about a second and then it went away. She persisted and finally found it under, or very close to, one of my arteries/heartbeat. The doctor said it was about 164 beats per minute which is a very healthy heartbeat. I think Tom was a little overwhelmed, as he'd never heard of a doppler before, let alone knew what it sounded like. He was able to recognize it while he was taking this video. I'm so glad we were able to capture it and share the video with all of you.

Enjoy our babies heartbeat!

Disclaimer: Please don't mind my belly and humongous boobs!