fridays letters

Ive always thought that Ashley's Fridays Letters posts were so cute, simple, and sweet. Yet I never joined. So this week Ive decided that I am going to commit to Fridays Letters ;)

dear hubby, would you please stop calling me and asking me if Ive received an email about our iphone 5 preorders, as Ive said multiple times, i will let you know when I know anything. dear matthew, i love in the mornings when you wake up and are in the best moods and smile and coo, do you think we could maybe switch it up one day and have you be in a good mood at night time? dear animals (yes all of you, Ruger, Belle, & MJ) can you please get along, stop shedding, and basically take care of yourselves? ok yeah. dear me, its time to stop procrastinating and get back to exercising, matthew is now almost 4 months old and there is no excuse, we want our prebaby (well technically prewedding) body back and SOON! dear best buy, why do you take so many preorders when you know youre not going to have nearly enough iphone 5s to give out on launch date, and then whats up with this crappy letter you send out to us saying it may take up to 28 days? :( dear fall, i know its officially fall in the rest of the country, but it would be nice if you could give us south floridians some cooler weather, maybe even some leaves changing.... dear epcot, I cant wait to see you in just a few short weeks, it will be matthews first time at disney, can you please be not so crowded so we can enjoy our first family vacation? and dear hubby & matthew, because you deserve two, i love when i catch random moments of you having daddy & baby time, it absolutely melts my heart, your daddy thinks that you understand football already, and I think he actually might be right, you watched both the FSU & Dolphins games together and you both seemed to enjoy it, even with Carpenter ruining the game for us and letting the jets win by a field goal. oh and dear bloggy friends, because i cant forget about you, I will of course leave you with a photo, because what would a post be without a cute photo, but will you please do me a favor? a girl could use a couple likes :)

throwback thursdays: gender reveal

This weeks Throwback Thursday is kinda short and sweet. Its about how we found out whether we were going to be playing with dirt and tonka trucks or makeup and barbies.

 

   <a href="http://southernwifey.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8171/7983096222_3d3cff74a4.jpg" border="0"></a>

As I've mentioned before, I am 1 of only 2 girls in the family. Growing up I loved having an older sister. She may not have liked have a tattle-tale younger sister who always told on followed her around, but eventually I realized that I would one day want 2 little girls to be able to share the same kind of bond my sister and I had. But for some reason, I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted a little boy. And I wanted a little boy first. (you know, the whole older protective brother thing). But then when I got pregnant, Matt and I were convinced that because we both wanted a boy first, then the baby growing in my belly had to be a girl. And we thought that since everyone else that we knew were having boys, then we would most likely be the one to end up with a girl.

Now please do not mistake my want for a little boy first, to mean that I wouldnt have absolutely adored having a little girl growin in there. I just had it in my mind that I wanted a lil boy first. And of course the hubby wanted a little boy too, for a multitude of reasons. But we were so convinced that we were going to have a lil girl that we even had a name picked out for a girl already (Emma Rose).

Now usually the earliest a doctor might, and that a big MIGHT, tell you the gender through an ultrasound is around 16 weeks. But my doctor said that I would just find out at the anatomy scan I had scheduled at 20weeks. Lucky for me, I have a close friend who I met at my first job at age 16, who now happens to be an ultrasound tech at a local hospital. She also happened to be pregnant, with her 2nd son, and was due only 3 weeks before me.

me 32 weeks  |  ciji 35 weeks

So when I first called and told her I was pregnant, she immediately said she would do a gender scan for me when I got to 16 weeks. So only 2 days after Christmas 2011, Matt took off work early and we went to the hospital she worked out to find out.

But, you see, during the previous 16 weeks (when I swore up and down it was going to be a girl) I had also been pinteresting away cute ideas for a gender reveal. Should I have her right it on a piece of paper and put it in an evelope? Have my sis take it to the bakery and get the inside of a cake dyed blue or pink? Have her fill up a box with pink or blue balloons? Oh so many choices! But see Im also very impatient. like.extremely. And hubby wasnt too fond of these gender reveal ideas (yes hes very impatient too). So after my friend did the initial scan and decided she wanted to take me to a different room to use one of the better ultrasound machines, just to make sure, I couldnt help but axiously wonder if it was a boy or girl.

We went to the other room. Where another tech just so happen to be, who also confirmed with my friends guess at the gender, and now both Matt and I are chomping at the bit. Knowing these two people who stand in front of us know whether were going to have a son or daughter, and we dont? omg I couldnt handle it. But also didnt want my sis to be upset that we wouldnt be doing one of the gender reveal ideas we came up with. At one point my friend even said, "Just blame it on me, tell you sis I slipped at told you, not knowing you wanted it to be a secret." We all laughed. But in the end, I couldnt resist. So I had her tell me.

Yes, my son may end up killing me years from now, but this is the first picture of his "lil guy" as my niece calls it. Hubby couldnt control himself when he found out. He was excited beyond belief. I just couldnt comprehend that it was indeed a little boy. What its not a girl in there? is all I kept saying. And my friend and the other tech just kept saying "Oh trust us, its a boy in there!" They even said that normally they wont say for sure (like 100%) if its a certain gender, but both of them said that from what they saw it was most def a little boy.

And a couple weeks later at our anatomy scan, the tech there confirmed as well. Now, I couldnt not imagine not having a little boy. He is so precious, and I cant wait for one day when I can give him another sibling, whether it be brother or sister!

Oh and for those of you who have been following along for a while now, I guess Suzanne's fertility reading was somewhat wrong. We had a boy, not a girl, but we did find out in October, however, it was before my missed cycle not after.

How did you find our the gender of your baby? Dont forget to link up! Next week Ill be sharing how my baby shower went.

 

ww: being social

If you've been a long time follower (thank you!) then you might have noticed my blog gradually getting a face lift (if youre new here then welcome!). Ive updated my header (look up) and also my intros (look left <-----) and also my about me page. Ive decided that I want to build my blog into something more. I want to connect with new moms, new wives, and hell even veteran ones! (although I may not be able to relate to you as well lol) ;)

If you knew me (and my sis and mom) in real life, then you would know that we are definitely considered gossipers social butterflies.  So why not be a social butterfly in the blog world?!?

sis, mom & me (at my baby shower)

My first goal was to start updating all my social links and get connected with follow bloggers. So if you think we might get along in the bloggy world, then please leave a link to your blog so I can come be a creeper read about your lives! Then if you wouldnt mind visiting some of my social links I would totally love.adoreyou.appreciateit!

I promise I really do pin cool things! like hello how come I never thought of this?

                                                                      Source: formalfringe.com via Lisa on Pinterest

Just Use Cute Knee Socks to Wrap a Wine Bottle! So easy and so cute! But you can check out my other pins if you want to :)

Now go link up with Jenni for another wordless wednesday!

being a new mom

I am by no means an expert at being a new mom. No amount of reading up on the subject will ever prepare you for the raw mix of emotions you feel in those first couple of days even weeks (hell, Im sure months and years too). And then a couple of months later, just when you think everything is at its best, when you have the opportunity to witness a close friend going through the same thing, those emotions take control again. And it takes all but one tear to gather in the corner of her eye and you yourself are crying right along side her.

                                                      Source: motherletters.com via Lisa on Pinterest

You see, last night we visited our friends who got married last year and who just had a baby girl, Samantha, less than a week ago. She is so absolutely adorable! Unfortunately my camera ended up being dead and I wasnt able to take any of my own pics, so you will have to settle for one they snapped before leaving the hospital.

When they first told us the news that they were expecting, hubby and I were not only extremely happy for them, but also happy for us. This meant that we would have close friends with kids the same age as ours. Selfish I know, but at least we would have someone who would understand why we canceled at last minute or why we were a hour later somewhere, etc. ;)

Anyways, back to being a new mom. I was lucky enough to have my sis (and mom) right there beside me through the first couple of weeks with a new baby. And although my friends mother and sister flew down for the first week, I feel its a little different for her. Her sister is younger, mine older, and hasn't had any kids yet, mine has two and watches kids for a living. And her mother, although she did a great job raising three children, that was almost 30 years ago. So when I saw the exhaustion and how overwhelmed she was just by her eyes, I instantly felt I should share with her that this is all normal and only a few short weeks ago I was having the same kind of emotions.

Ill admit, when you're a strong independent women, its hard to feel like you just cant do this "being a new mom" thing. You kind of feel like "Ive wanted this for so long and now that the baby is here, how come Im not enjoying it more?" My husband even asked me, "Aren't you so excited he's home?" Now don't get me wrong, I was, especially since he had been in the NICU for 6 days, but I just couldn't pinpoint why I didn't feel happier. And when I was speaking to my friend I could see she was having the same feelings. Some people call it the baby blues, or even postpartum, but this is how I explained it to her:

As the mommies we get to connect with the baby for 9-almost 10 months before we get to meet them. We feel their kicks, their hiccups, every little movement. But for the daddies, they dont really get to experience any of that first hand (I know they can touch your belly but you know what I mean). Instead the first time they connect with the babies is when they get to hold them. So when youre exhausted from being up every two hours trying to breastfeed when your milk hasnt come in yet, you kind of resent the fact that your hubby gets to enjoy not only more sleep, but actually holding your baby. And guess what? THATS COMPLETELY NORMAL

Another hard thing to realize when your in this new baby new mommy world is to except help from others. Again, especially if you've always been an independent person. You might think to yourself "but I can do this. Its really not that hard. I dont need anyones help." And although you are most definitely right, you CAN do this, if someone offers to help you, dont be to proud to accept. In my friends case she was telling herself, "yeah, but when my mom goes back home next week, Im gonna have to do it by myself, so I might as well do it now, theres no reason why my mom, or sis, or husband should have to wake up in the middle of the night if I can do it." And I had to disagree with her and explain that there is a reason. The reason is for your sanity. Let them help. Let them do the laundry, cook dinner, run errands, even just hold the baby while you shower or sleep. These people are here because they want to help. They know they dont HAVE to do anything, but they wouldnt be offering if they didnt want to do it.

my sis & matthew    |    my mom & matthew

And you'll here people say, "Sleep when the baby sleeps," and I know it sounds so extremely cliche, but seriously do it! I know in the back of your mind, you think but while he sleeps I can get a quick load of laundry done, or finish the dishes, or catch up on my latest blogs ;) but at this point you need just as much sleep as the baby. Unfortunately, you may be one of those moms, like me, who felt like they were watching the clock all day. You think to yourself; well he just went down, so technically I could have a 2 hour nap, let me first go run to the bathroom and brush my hair and teeth (I know sad I havent brushed either and its already noon) now if I spend just 20 mins cleaning the house then Ill have 1hr nap, but its gonna take me 20 mins to fall asleep, so really is it even worth is to sleep? And the answer is YES.

I honestly will say, the first week my baby boy was home, I didnt take naps when he did. And I could tell I was getting overly exhausted. It finally came to a point that at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon everyday I was crying hysterically, for absolutely no reason. Well let me rephrase that, I didnt know why I was crying. But guess what, it was just hormones. Hormones that we cant control. And yes the majority of us first time moms (even second, third, and forth time moms) will go through this. Finally one day my sister came over with my niece around 3:30pm and said ok, both of you go take a nap, grabbed the baby out of my arms and pushed me into my room with my 5 year old niece. I was out before my head even hit the pillow. And let me tell you, from that day forward I made my sister promise she would come over everyday around that time so I could nap with my niece. I think it saved me and hubby's sanity.

Funny thing is, you don't realize how much all of us moms relate to each other until you become a mom yourself. Sometime in between Matthew coming home and my sister forcing me to nap, I had an appointment with my OB for Matthews circumcision. I had been talking to the Medical Assistant, to whom Ive become pretty close with, when my doctor walked in. She took one look at me and asked "So how are you doing?"  I answered with my normal "pretty good, can't complain." This wasnt a good answer to her. She turned around and looked at me and said "dont give me that, I can see in your eyes you could burst out into tears at any moment," in which case i did just that, burst into tears. I couldnt even answer her, i didnt know why I was even crying. She then continued by saying, "this is normal, its probably going to happen many more times, look Im a mom to an almost 2 year old, and Im going to start crying just because I see you crying and it brings me back to those nights that I not-so-fondly remember," in which case, she burst into tears. We immediately started laughing at how ridiculous we both probably looked to any outsider.

Now please, remember, I am no way a professional when it comes to this. Im still learning myself. But I do have to admit, it was nice being able to help a friend understand that this too shall pass. And it does get better. especially when you see this little smile

throwback thursdays: dont jynx anything

This weeks Throwback Thursday is all about how we told family and friends about our great news.

 

   <a href="http://southernwifey.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8171/7983096222_3d3cff74a4.jpg" border="0"></a>

When I was pregnant I was definitely one of those types that was scared to tell anyone just in case it might jynx something. You see, I have a very dear friend of mine who went through the excitement of finding out, telling everyone, and then suffering from a miscarriage. I saw how hard it was on her to have to tell people she was no longer pregnant. The sadness in her voice and her eyes was enough to scare the crap out of me if I were to ever get pregnant. So I promised myself that when I did get pregnant I would make sure to wait at least the 12 weeks before I went and told the universe.
However, my husband didnt quite understand this whole concept. He was excited beyond belief and didnt know why we wouldnt want to share this with our friends and family. I tried to explain to him that I was excited too, but god forbid anything happen to the baby I wouldnt want to have to talk about it with everyone. So we both agreed not to say anything. About a 3 days later, after an anxious husband pleaded with me, we agreed that he would be allowed to tell his mom and sister if I could do the same.

Now, for those of you who dont know me real well, my sister and I are extremely close. Like BFF's x1000 (ok a lil extreme but you get the point). So I knew I would have to tell her some way special. Since it was my neice's 5th birthday the following day and we were all getting together for dinner, I figured it would be a perfect time to give my sis a little present too. See when we were growing up our mom always made a joke on our birthdays that she was the one who deserved a present, because she was the one who had to go through 12+ hours of labor. My sis and I always used to make fun of her but I thought I could use it to my advantage.

So the next night at dinner I told me sis (and mom) to come out back with me because since she was the one who went through labor she deserved a present too! So my mom, sis, husband and I all went out back and I handed her a little bag. Inside was the pregnancy test with a little ribbon on it as the present. When my sis opened the bag and saw the stick she couldnt even control herself and burst out in tears. My mom didnt understand as she hadnt seen the stick inside and kept asking "What is it? What is it?" So I handed her the lil bag and told her to open it as well. Again here came the waterworks. Everyone was so excited. My sis was a lil upset that i didnt call her the minute I had peed on the stick, but we laughed about it. I let her know that I was planning on calling her the minute it was confirmed by a doctor at my appt the following week.

First ultrasound of our lil boy (we didnt know the gender at that time) at 6.5 weeks.

Then I let them know that this was to be kept a secret until Matt and I were ready to tell everyone else. Now you thought it was hard for me and Matt to try and keep this a secret? Well it was way harder for my overly excited mother and sister to do the same!

We then decided Thanksgiving would be a perfect time to tell everyone else. Since we were going on a family cruise we figured it would be a perfect time to tell my niece and nephew. And then everyone else we would tell once we were home from the cruise.

Family Thanksgiving Cruise 2011
(not picture is my mother-in-law and her boyfriend who also came but got on the ship later than us)

It was actually very interesting trying to keep the secret from my nephew. He knows Im the type to do adventurous things with him, so when I declined going on the tallest/longest over water zip line with him in Labadee, Haiti, he asked "But why Leah? I thought you wanted to go on it?" My brother-in-law actually came to the rescue in a split second, claiming  I had "lower lumbar back pain" and wasnt allowed to go on. I at first laughed, thinking is my 11yr old nephew even going to understand what his father just said? But then my BIL informed me they had just read the excursion descriptions back in their cabin and the 2 reasons it said people werent allowed to go on the zipline were being pregnant and lower lumbar back pain.

So that night at Thanksgiving dinner when we told the kids that I was pregnant, my BIL said to my nephew "now do you see why we had to say that about Leah and not being able to go on the zipline?" And my nephew goes, "so hold on, you dont have lower lumbar back pain?" All of us adults just burst out laughing. Between my nephews reaction and my neice getting so excited about having a baby cousin, Thanksgiving turned into one memorable night!

For the rest of our friends, they gradually found out I was pregnant. Mostly from finally realizing that I wasnt drinking anymore at any of our social gatherings.  It was great to see everyones surprising reactions. Everyone was so happy for us. Im glad I can look back and see that this was definitely a special time in our lives.

Dont forget to link up and tell us how you shared the news. Next week Ill be talking about when we found out the gender.

 

WW: time for some change

I guess since I dragged this thing all the way from our laundry room to our living room, that means I actually have to start using it

Ive actually always wanted an elliptical and when a close friend of mine had to get rid of hers this summer when they moved across country for her husbands job, I couldnt resist snatching it from her. Unfortunately I was also 8 months pregnant at the time and exercise just wasnt one of my to-dos (i know it should have been, but whatevs).
Needless to say, this thing has been collecting dust in our laundry room since then. Ive been  meaning to take it out but have also been using the excuse that we just dont have room for it in the house. Which technically still hasnt changed, but I need to stop making excuses for not exercising and start to try to get back to my pre-baby weight. Breastfeeding did help alot, I lost 44 of the 52lbs I gained during my pregnancy. But that still means I have 8lbs+ to go. I add the plus sign in there because I really wasnt happy with my prepregnancy weight in the first place.
So heres to you post-baby exercise! Lets see how long this lasts?

Dont forget to link up with Jenni

mommy & baby not feeling well

So we've been lucky enough that Matthew hasnt gotten sick at all in the first 3 months. Which means that except for the usual occurrence of getting into a routine, once he goes to sleep he normally only wakes up once during the middle of the night. Usually its just to pop his pacifier back into his mouth, but sometimes a diaper change is necessary. Well Sunday night was different. He woke up about 4 different times, but I seemed to be able to get him back to sleep fairly quickly. Still, I could tell something was up. Over the weekend my sis and I noticed he would occasionally pull on his left ear (sign of an earache?) But I swear, I know most kids arent completely in the teething stage this early, but my lil boy has been drooling like no-tomorrow for a couple of weeks now. So needless to say, I kinda just chalked it up to teething.
All day yesterday my sis (who takes care of him during the day) said she could tell he was out of whack. His morning nap was like 2.5-3 hours long. Normally she can only  get him to sleep for 45mins maybe 1hr. And on top of that, Ive started feeling sick. My eyes are itchy and I cant stop sneezing. Great. So I knew it was going to be an eventful evening last night.
We actually all went out to dinner for my parents anniversary, and surprisingly Matthew did pretty well throughout dinner, but I could tell he was extremely tired. So by time we got home he was crying way more than normal. He feel asleep on my chest for a little while and I decided even though it was earlier than his normal bedtime I should probably just put him to sleep anyway. So we put him in his pj's and off to bed he went.........only he woke up around 1am and decided he didnt want to go back to sleep. Plusalso, now mommy is dragging because I feel like crap.
baby + mommy + not feeling well = no beuno
After 1.5 hour and a bottle, some Tylenol, and lots of rocking I was able to get him to fall back asleep. When hubby got up for work this morning he asked if I wanted to bring him in the room with me and I figured I would just let him sleep. Which lasted only about 20mins and then I brought him into my room with me. Needless to say, all he needed was mommy & daddys bed ;)

Show & Tell: High School Memories

This weeks show & tell theme is: High School Memories
 
1. Tell us what kind of student you were in high school {popular, nerd, sport obsessed, choir, etc} So I actually think I fall into a lot of these categories. I would personally never call myself one of the popular kids, but if you ask people from my class they always tell me I was. I think it was more that I hung out with the popular kids, not that I was necessarily popular lol. I was also part of Volleyball, flag football, and softball, so I was in the athletic group too, but in sophmore year I decided I would rather get a job so I could save up money for a new car, so I quit sports. I also took alot of advanced classes, graduated early, and got good grades, so if you ask my hubby and friends they like to pick on me and say I was a nerd too.     2. Share with us some high school pictures. We know you have them somewhere.

me, stephanie, bridget, and staci (first day of school, not sure if it was freshman or sophomore year)

me & heather (softball practice sophmore year)

me & ashley (junior year)

me & hubby (this was actually during the summer when we drove with my parents to new jersery)

& last but def not least, me & hubby at my senior prom

3. Tell us about your school. Private? Public? How many in graduating class? Mascots? School colors? Funny, I had the choice to go to a local catholic private school, which all my closest friends were planning on attending. I had taken the entrance exam and even had all my papers ready for admissions. Then at the last minute, when I found out that my parents would have to pay extra for me not being catholic (were presbyterian), joining sports teams we would have to pay extra, and realizing i had to wear a uniform everyday, I decided I would go to our local public school. I believe my exact words to my mother were "I would rather you buy me a car and cool clothes than have to pay all that in tuition!" lol.  I have absolutely no clue how many people were in my graduation class. It was large though. But I technically graduated early, so I didnt take any classes in the spring semester, but I did walk across stage with the rest of my classmates. Our mascot was "the flying L's" and yes anyone who has gone there will tell you they always get asked, what the hell is a flying L? short story, it was originally Lauderdale L's but one year there was a boy who ran track and the day after one of the meets he was in the newspaper for winning. The title of the article was "Look at that Flying L!" End of short story. Our colors were blue and white with the occasional gold added in.   4. Tell us about some of your favorite memories of high school. Or what stands out the most? Any teachers? Specific classes? One of the best memories I have from high school is of course meeting the love of my life. I meet my hubby in one of my art classes. You can read all about our love story if you want ;) But a few other favorite memories include:

• baseball games and being a diamond darling (we announced and kept score up in the box on home games)
• journalism class where I was in charge of selling ads in the back of the yearbook (aka-i got to leave school everyday during third period to "sell ads" lol yeah ok)
• fourth period weight lifting (yeah basically never went to that since i left during third period)
• Mr. Detloff - hot but totally perverted chemistry teacher
• pep rallies - where i wore waaaay to short of shorts (soffies)

5. Tell us a piece of advice you would pass on to your children or any child entering high school. I want my children to know that its important to have good grades and to go to school. However, I also want them to know that these will be the best years of their lives and to enjoy being young. You can be responsible and smart while also be part of sports and going to parties. As a parent I will hope we trust each other enough like my parents did with me to know not to get in trouble.    Now dont forget to go link up and share some of your high school memories!

I finally did it

Yep that's right, this mamas gonna get a shiny new iPhone 5! It's actually quite funny that I don't already have one ( an iphone that is, not specifically the 5). All my closest friends and family know I'm a apple fanatic. But you see it goes way farther back than just the iPhone. I have two Mac book pros (1 for work and 1 personal) an iPad, an iPod nano, and yet no iPhone. See I absolutely despise AT&T and Verizon, so I refused to get the iPhone when it wasn't on Sprint. I held off for what 5 years waiting on that and then I finally gave up and bought myself an Evo. Whad'ya know a month later sprint had the iPhone. Boy was I pissed. I just signed a 2 year contract. I called sprint and b*tched and b*tched and they wouldn't budge. So fine, I waited some more. But guess what? This afternoon after worked I walked my happy a** into best buy and preordered my white iPhone. And yes I will be waking up early on the 21st to be one of the first people at best buy to pick it up.

(apologies for all the profanity this is just a subject I am very passionate about lol)

Throwback Thursdays: Telling hubby we were pregnant

No Im not pregnant again. But since I completely missed documenting basically my entire pregnancy I think Im going to start my own weekly post called Throwback Thursdays. This way I can recap special moments in my life from the past year and be able to share it with ya'll.

Im gonna start with how I found out I was pregnant and how I told my hubby the good news. 

It all started on Monday October 3, 2011.

We had been trying to get pregnant for about 3 months and for some reason Id been having this feeling that that month was different. So before I logged into work I did the unthinkable and peed on a stick. For those of you who have tried to get pregnant or are currently trying to get pregnant you know about the whole 2 week waiting period. Well if you thought 2 weeks was a long time to wait, think again. Those 3 mins of waiting for the results are even longer. I knew I could be setting myself up for disappointment, but as mentioned before every little thing during the 2ww felt like a definite sign. And technically I wasnt due for my period for another few days. Unfortunately once those 3 mins were up, I looked down at the test and only saw 1 line. That meant negative for those of you who aren’t familiar with the tests.

My heart ached for the rest of the day, but I kept telling myself there still was a chance that I could be pregnant. It may just be too early for the pregnancy test to recognize it. I didn’t want to bring it up to Matt either, as I didn’t want him to think I was crazy crush his hopes either. So I went on with my day at work and put it out of my mind. I promised myself I would not POAS until after I had missed my period (another 5 days away).

Guess how long that promise lasted? A whole 24 hours. The next morning I just couldn’t resist. I truly felt like it was different this time. Just little things I noticed. I had felt bloated the past couple of days. My breasts were soar.  Overly tired. All symptoms that could just mean AF was coming. I tried to hold out. I even made it to my lunch break without doing it. But I figured, why not try one more time, just to see. This time I wanted to try to use the digital test (I literally had a whole box of tests from doing the whole TLC: A Conception Story). So I POAS and brought it into my office and waited for what seemed like forever. Glancing over about every 10 seconds to see if the little clock had stopped flashing. Much to my surprise, the result I read off the test stated “YES+”

Wait. Hold on. Im pregnant? I looked at it again. No, my eyes weren’t tricking me. It clearly stated I was. OMG! IM PREGNANT! I just sat there for a couple of minutes. Maybe it was wrong. I should pee on another stick. Maybe the one with the lines. I heard even the faintest of lines still means pregnant. I have to see those two lines. (those who have been there are probably laughing right now, how many sticks did you pee on? lol)

So I did it again. POAS again. Waited again. Glanced a few times again. And then it appeared. Yes it was a very faint line, but indeed a line. Same result. Different test. That must mean its true right? OMG! IM PREGNANT! WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!!!

Immediately the next thing I thought of was how am I gonna tell Matt? I knew it had to be somewhat clever, but I didnt want it to be too completely corny either. I researched all day trying to come up with something cute. I actually found a maternity shirt that was a Dolphins shirt that said "future kicker" with little footprints over the tummy area. I thought perfect, were huge Miami Dolphins fans (yes, dont laugh, I know our team sucks, but we cant give up on them now lol). So I ordered it immediately and choose the fastest shipping possible. Which meant I had to wait another 2 days. How would I ever keep this secret from Matt? 

It was so hard the next couple of days, but somehow I managed to keep it a secret. And I also came up with the great idea that I would put a hamburger bun in our oven and ask Matt to go check why the over wasnt getting hot. The plan was for him to open the oven and say "Why is there a bun in the oven?" Then turn and look at me with my shirt that says future kicker. Clever, I know, however has anyone ever told you men arent as clever as women, yeah. We'll get Matts side of the story in a sec.

So the night that I decided to tell him while we were working on the kitchen during the remodel. I even tried to get in on video when I told him but for some reason the camera cut out right when it would have captured his reaction. Obviously things didnt go as planned, and hubby didnt realize what was going on and I had to explain it to him. It actually took him a few minutes to hug me because he didnt really know what was going on. lol. But once he did we were both so happy.

When I asked Matt to recap the story in his version this is what I got:

"We had been working on the kitchen and you had freaked me out but saying the oven wasn’t working. So I turned it on and opened the door to feel for heat. It was working perfectly fine. I did happen to notice there was a hamburger bun in there so i took it out and placed in on top of the stove and went back to what I was doing. You responded with “Think about what you just saw!” I didnt understand "What? A bun in the oven?" Stupid me, I still didnt get it. You then said something about look at my shirt. I read it and thought about it for a second, "What are you pregnant?" You shook your head. "Really?" I was so excited, I didnt really know what to do with myself. I was kinda quiet and you had to actually ask if I was going to hug you or not. I was so happy I wasnt even thinking."

If you want to see the footage I did catch play the video below.

Yeah sorry for the cursing and i wish it had caught the rest. But i guess Ill learn better for next time.


<a href="http://southernwifey.blogspot.com"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8171/7983096222_3d3cff74a4.jpg" border="0"></a> So how did you or are you going to tell your spouse that youre pregnant? Link up and tell us. Maybe one of your ideas will inspire me on how to tell hubby whenever baby #2 is on the way! Next week Ill share how and when we told our family and friends we were pregnant.

WW: Monkey Man

 

i know I posted a pic yesterday with my little man and his monkey hat, but Ive been playing with some photoshop actions and I just though that this one turned out sooo cute. 

now go link up with Jenni (you'll love her WW today)

Show & Tell: Baby Talk

So I figured to get back in the swing of things I would start by linking up with a couple fellow bloggers.So technically Becky has it as a Monday linkup, but we all know how I like to procrastinate......

1. Tell us your favorite baby names? Aside from your own babies, if you have some :)

Of course the hubby wanted a junior so we went with Matthew. Funny thing is, I remember in like 5th grade wanting a son named Matthew and I didnt even know my husband yet. If we didnt go with Matthew I was dead set on Luke (maybe baby boy #2?) And as far as girls go I already know exactly what were going with if when the day comes, Emma Rose. Emma after my grandmother, and Rose after his grandma. I absolutely love it, and hubby agreed to it before we even found out what the sex was during my pregnancy.

2. Show me your "dream" nursery {can be your baby's nursery or one that you love}

{boys}{girls}

We actually went with a nautical theme for Matthew's nursery and i do really love how it turned out (more on that later), but maybe for baby #2 we could choose one of these themes. I think they are both absolutely precious. Totally coincidental that they both have white furniture and use grey as the accent color.

3. How many children would you like to have? How far apart?
So Ive always imagined having a full house and I do still wish for that, however I know we probably wont be able to afford a bunch a kids. My dream would be 5 (dont laugh), however realistically I can see us probably having 3. I know we both want a boy and a girl, but for some reason both hubby and I think we will end up with 3 boys. And if thats the case, I secretly think I would try to persuade hubby to try again a 4th time so I can have my lil girl ;)
As far as age gaps goes. I always said I would never have children as far apart as me and my sister. She is 6 years older than I am, and I feel like we didnt really like each other until she went away for college. However, I dont want to have children too close either, because I feel like I wouldnt be able to enjoy each one if we did it that way. Hubby and I were thinking we would ideally like them about 18months apart. We shall see.....

4. Tell us what you think the importance of parenting is?
There really is no short answer to the question. And I think many bloggers agree with me on this if you go through the linky list. But personally I really think its all about teaching your kids right and wrong, while also making memories they can look back at and know that family is something you truly cherish. Thats how my parents raised my sister and I and I think we turned out pretty good (ha, for the most part lol)

5. Show us your favorite newborn photo {can be your children or random}
I wish I could show you one of Matthew as a brand new baby, unfortunately due to him being in the NICU there are only lots of pics with wires on him :(  the really cute ones came a couple weeks lately when he was at home.
Instead I show you one I pinned on Pinterest back when I first found out I was pregnant 

 {source}

And yes, I did have a family friend crochet this adorable moneky outfit for me. And it may not be a newborn pic, but Matthew is only 3 months in this pic :)

6.  Tell us some things you promise to never do as a parent {and if you are a parent, did you stick to it}

Ill completely admit, I kept telling myself during my pregnancy that as babies I would not put my children in front of a TV.  Yep. Fail. Matthew loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Little Einsteins. Its basically the only way I got to take a shower in month 2.

But seeing that he is still only 3 months, we will have to revisit this questions in a couple more months.....

Now, dont forget to go link up and see what everyone else had to share. Trust me there are many of us in the same position and lots of cool nursery inspiration