A Time to Nest

Now that school and the holidays are over, work is the only slight hindrance in my nesting preparations for Samuel. But since I've been so busy, I haven't made a SINGLE blog post throughout the whole pregnancy!
So, now with only 5 weeks to go, let me start at the beginning...

Michael and I decided to try for a baby around our two year anniversary. When I suspected I was pregnant, I kept it quiet until I was able to check and be sure.

Pregnant!!

At the beginning of the month when we decided to try, I custom-designed a onesie at CafePress and had it shipped so I could give it to Michael to tell him. So the morning I tested positive I pulled out the wrapped onesie and put it in a gift bag. I asked him to grab me something out of the car and when he came back I presented him with the gift. He sat down curiously and started to open it and pulled out the wrapped onesie.
He felt the small package and asked, "You got me socks?"
Then he opened it and unfolded the onesie and you could see it register on his face as his eyes darted over to me and his jaw dropped just like in the cartoons and he asked, "You're pregnant!? Whaaat?!"

And I got the whole thing on video since I turned on the hidden the camera when he went out to the car. ...But somehow that file seems to be missing. I probably had pregnant-brain and deleted it from the camera thinking I had saved it on the computer. Seriously a bummer because his reaction was pretty priceless.

We decided to wait until I was in my second trimester to announce my pregnancy. We went to Walla Walla to visit both families and tell them. We wrapped the picture above with us holding the onesie for Michael's mom and put it in a frame that said Baby. We told her it was a late birthday present. She opened it and said, "Aww" because at first glance she thought it was just a picture of us and then once it registered her casual "aww" turned into an excited "Ahhh!!" At that point Michael's dad became interested in the gift and they both knew they would be welcoming their 13th grandchild :)

My mom reacted pretty much the same way whereas my dad just casually smiled. Turns out he practically knew already: Since I'm still covered under his insurance, he could see I was going to the doctor more frequently. But, to his credit, he didn't mention anything to anyone or even badger us about it until we were ready to announce it.

We joke that this was our first family photo-shoot because I was 5 weeks pregnant during it:

  Oh yeah, check out the early-pregnancy bloat. The first time someone asked me if I was pregnant she said, "Are you pregnant? Because you're starting to show."
I was only 10 weeks.
And bloated.
And mortified.
That was the beginning of a string of comments that would come to pepper every day of my pregnancy, ranging from "If you're this big now, what are you going to look like when you're about to deliver?" "Are you sure you're not due til January because you look like you're about to pop."
I should seriously write a book titled "What NOT to Say to Pregnant Women." I would become rich and people would gain some common sense. Win-win? :)

18 weeks

22 weeks

26 weeks

30 weeks

Overall, the pregnancy has been far easier than I could have imagined. The first trimester, I experienced some nausea--mainly without actually throwing up--and some slight food aversions to most vegetables and tuna. By the second trimester, any and all nausea was gone and I only rarely experienced feelings of fatigue. At the start of my third trimester I found out through the glucose screen that I had developed gestational diabetes. Going in to the pregnancy, I knew I was at risk because doctors diagnosed me as pre-diabetic in my teens. I continued to exercise regularly and cut out refined sugar from my diet but sometimes, regardless of what you do, genetics win. It's easily managed through checking my blood glucose four times a day and since I was so strict with my diet from the beginning, adaptation has not been difficult and it wasn't necessary to start insulin injections. Theoretically, after the baby is born, I should no longer have GDM and even though doctors told me I would inevitably develop Type II diabetes at some point in my life, my healthy lifestyle choices should help to delay its onset.Through it all, I was able to keep working steadily and continue attending my classes each semester(finishing with a 4.0 GPA even) and Samuel has been healthy so I really couldn't ask for more!

When I found out I was pregnant, I was SO sure it was a girl. In my head I started picturing girlie little onesies and picked out a named (Jade♥) and I even painted a teapot coin bank for "her." So when we went to the ultrasound and found out it was a boy, I was like "Wait, what?" At the same time, I was so excited to have a baby boy and Michael of course was thrilled. He claims he wanted a boy first so he could be the protector of the other siblings, but I still think he just wanted a little buddy to take fishing and play sports :) However, we were drawing blanks in the name department. Week after week, we could not find names that we both agreed on.

18 weeks

For those who don't know, we are going to name our son Samuel Leonardo Johnson. Michael originally wanted Leo as a first name because he just finished a presentation on Leonardo da Vinci, saw the name on a baby naming site called Nymbler (yes Misty, Rachel, and April, I still blame you ;) ) and was instantly hooked. I tried to entertain the thought as Leo as a first name but after a few weeks, I just couldn't do it. Luckily, Michael really liked my first choice (Samuel) so we
compromised with

18 weeks

Leonardo as a middle name. Actually, at one point I really liked the idea of Adam as a middle name because it's Michael's middle name. I thought Michael Adam and Samuel Adam would be really cute, but little did I know that Samuel Adams was a brand of beer. Michael's dad will never let me live it down and I'm sure Samuel will be hearing that story at least once a year ;)

I'm now 35 weeks, he's coming soon and we're so excited to meet him!!