Bump arrives

So last December I finished up my last semester of college. 

December 10th: final exams began 

December 10th at approximately 11am I had finished all of my exams (yeah, last semester!)

December 11th: we flew out to New Zealand to begin our holiday.

Little did I know that it was not just Phil and I who would be taking a holiday on the other side of the world...

We arrived in New Zealand and all was peachy. We enjoyed Cadbury's chocolate once again and indulged in creamy NZ ice cream. I started feeling bloated and just "off" about a week into our trip. I've always been sensitive to lactose so I just brushed it off as new foods in New Zealand aka much more creamy dairy products and resolved not to eat quite as much. We even went on a day trip with Phil's parents before the other siblings arrived and I was so exhausted and sick to my stomach by the time we decided to eat that I thought I just wasn't hungry.  Needless to say, 20 minutes later I was begging Phil for anything substantial. I thought I was "jet lagged" and "school lagged", nothing else.

You see, we'd been ready to add to our family for a while and and been working with a nurse practitioner as well. Ovulation tracking, monthly hormone pills etc...but still nada. And after finishing school and our vacation we figured we'd get more serious about figuring this business out! About a week and a half into our trip I took my hormone pill (as we'd been seeing a nurse practitioner for help with the whole baby thing) and expected menstruation within 7 days of taking it, as was the norm. 7 days passed, 10 days passed, etc and and nothing. I just figured everything had been thrown off by our time travelling (as my nurse said it might) and thought nothing more.

Christmas came and went and we left NZ and headed for Sydney. I became even less interested in doing much in Sydney (looking back I'm like "duh!"). Even when Phil's family planned to go see Les Miserables, which I had been openly vocal about being super excited to see, I opted out saying I just didn't feel like going. I cried when our vacation plans didn't work out perfectly-well to be honest, I cried anytime and I just thought I was having a hard time not having my own space and being away from my own home for so long. My poor in-laws. They must have thought that Phil married a dud American. Oh jeez.

We left Sydney and headed to the last leg of out trip in Brisbane. We rented our own car in Brisbane (first time in 3 weeks we were able to go where we wanted, when we wanted) and I was excited for independence! That car turned into an even greater blessing than I ever imagined. After a day in Brissy, Phil suggested I take a pregnancy test. He put together my symptoms and thought it was a plausible explanation for everything. He probably hoped it was the explanation or he just had a crazy wife! I didn't want to take another test as I'd taken one in NZ and plenty prior to that back home and was always disappointed with a negative result. Still he convinced me and we made a little family trip to the shops, just Phil and I.

I took the test the following morning. I jaunted to the restroom at Jade & Matt's home and tried to be discreet with what I was taking with me. :) I took the test and watched as one line formed and then another. I hadn't even bothered reading the box before to see what the results meant...now I know, 2 lines = baby, always.

I peeked out of the bathroom to make sure the coast was clear and motioned for Phil to come with me. We scurried down the hallway back to our little room and I asked him what it meant. We checked the box, did a couple silent squeals and tried to compose ourselves. We didn't know how far along I was therefore we decided to keep this to ourselves for our last week of vay-cay. That way we could come home, see the doctor and sort it all out before announcing anything. Our car was our saving grace as we could escape as just the two of us and talk about our news! That was all we had.  Ha-it was difficult to keep quiet but we just had lots of looks and winks and we both knew what it meant.

Well as fate would have it, the next day we were scheduled to start our theme park week. Rides, rides and more rides. But now I had a visitor who we didn't know the age of and weren't sure what I should/shouldn't go on. Needless to say our week was full of "white lies" about me getting motion sickness or just "not enjoying" thrill rides when really it was killing me to just sit and watch everyone have so much fun. I did go on a few rides so don't worry, but I was careful-we'd been waiting for a baby for a long time and I didn't want to ruin it!

A week of white lies was fine...bearable I guess but hard. But as fate would have it again, we weren't allowed to board our flight to come home as Phil had left his green card in the states. We ended up being in Brissy for another week. And that was probably the beginning of my sickness. Poor Andrew and Alex (who we were staying with) probably thought I was a picky and ungrateful eater, lazy, and boring person. Every time they'd ask us if we wanted to visit the theme parks again we'd just "avoid" it by saying we'd rather the beach or the lines were too long because of school holiday. Oh guys, I'm sorry for all the lies! :)

After a rough, rough trip home we finally arrived back in the US of A. Note to self when pregnant: "morning sickness" + 5 hour flight + 16 hour layover + 11 hour flight + 1.5 hour flight and + no eating schedule + airplane food = misery and death. No really, there were times when I felt so awful I thought I might die haha. So finally back, we had a doctor appointment the next day that confirmed the pregnancy and we found out Bump was 7 weeks along. We then told immediate family and waited a while longer before making our announcement.

So there you have it. I found out I was pregnant like any other typical woman has, with a lovely trip to the bathroom with a pregnancy test. I just happened to be in another country, thinking I couldn't get pregnant and then attempted to keep it a secret while staying with and spending all our time with family. Jeez...what a way to start hey?

Well that was the start, and now here's the half way point pic.

20 weeks baby! Bump is growing...making me grow too!

Don't let my shirt illusion fool you. Here it is exposed!