Officially 16 weeks!
Baby Flutters + Being Surprised!
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| 15 weeks + 5 Days |
Then on Sunday I felt the same little ripples. Each day it's only been 3-4 times, so even as I type this I'm not 100% certain what I'm feeling is our sweet one. However after describing it to more experienced mom's- it seems I may be right! How exciting! This brand new feeling came paired with a POP of my belly this week. Before I always looked a little heavy- not pregnant. Well now I have an adorable little round belly. Eek!
So tonight after an awesome prenatal workout with my new favorite YouTube Channel BodyFit by Amy- I decided to have a little min selfie photo shoot. My mom and I bought this shirt a few weeks ago to commemorate Matt's and my decision to NOT find out the gender of our baby. We'll both admit we had no plans to be surprised...I mean come on... if you know anything about me it's the fact that I LOVE being ready and organized. However Matt had amazing reasons to counter to wait that left my reasons in the dust. Truthfully it won't be easy as we start to build our nursery, but we both love the mint/grey/white color scheme (totally gender neutral) and he's promised to be open about hiring a birth photographer to capture those miraculous moments together during delivery as we meet our new baby boy or girl. Our decision has come with many mixed reviews from friends, family, and coworkers- all ranging from very supportive to skeptical we'll make it. But I keep replaying Matt's quote "We can always find out if we need to...but we'll never get to unknow that moment." So Baby DeFran PINK or BLUE- we absolutely stinkin' love you!
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| Just because Matt's super adorable. |
First Mother's Day.
I had been joking with friends and family that this Mother's Day would be a 1/2 Mother's day for me. Of course I realize I'm fully a mom...but until we're holding our sweet baby it didn't feel right to have the attention on me. Instead I wanted to spend time showering my mom last Sunday. Dad reserved us a table at the Pink House Cafe in Independence to enjoy a delicious brunch together. When we pulled up Matt slyly pulls a pink and black gift bag from the back seat, smiles, and hands it to me. Now remember when I said I'd been joking about 1/2 Mother's Day? Well Matt brought me to tears as I opened the most beautiful, thoughtful First Mother's Day gift. He specially designed the most gorgeous necklace from Grandma Terri's wedding ring diamonds and our little Baby DeFran's birthstone. Apparently he'd been designing this for awhile (I had NO idea!) and told me "You deserve a whole Mother's Day for everything you're sacrificing and doing for our baby." More tears! I feel so blessed to share this life with him!
After a wonderful brunch with my beautiful mom and Auntie Helen (Dad too!) Matt and I decided to embark on the baby registry adventure. We walked the aisles of Babys R Us talking about cribs, necessities, ridiculous products, and everything in between. Matt took apart 4 strollers to see how well they work and we think we may have found a jogger stroller we both like. Since we're NOT finding out the gender of the baby, skipping over clothing for this trip was easy. However there are SO many cute things out there, we may need to pace ourselves. :Smile: Loving every moment of this.
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| Beautiful Mothers! |
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| So it begins! |
1st Trimester comes to an end (already!)
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| Ahhhh- little legs! |
Sharing the News.
Probably the second most exciting thing about being pregnant is finally letting everyone know our "little secret". Matt and I didn't want to share that our family was expanding too soon. With all the scares of miscarriage and other things going wrong, we wanted to be certain we were "in the clear". That's what made it even more exciting for us! We'd been waiting 3 long months to squeal with delight, hug, shed tears, and get excited all over again about a new baby! Although it's taken almost 4 weeks to finally tell everyone- it's been so worth it!
Guth's + DeFrancisco Sibling Reveal
Matt and I took an adorable picture of Harper with our "not so newborn but oh so adorable" baby converse tennis shoes right before Easter. We knew we wanted to send Easter themed packages to our siblings/nieces/nephews to throw off the obvious reason for a gift. So we decided an adorable puzzle with the photo, stuffed Easter eggs with random puzzle pieces (and other delicious goodies), and taped a super secret 'Do Not Open' envelope within the box. These boxes worked out perfectly! GiAnna was the first to solve her puzzle (mind you that there was NO picture for them to reference as they built!) Followed closely by Maddox and Isabelle. Aria and Neven were lucky little ones who got to experience Uncle Nick and Aunt Lauren's "Eggscape Box". That's right! Matt and I designed our very own Baby-Reveal-BreakOut-Box. Originally Shaun and Heather were suppose to be home from Disney when they opened their box- but it was EVEN BETTER that everyone was together! The night was filled with hilarious photos, videos, and a celebratory phone call. Sigh- so fun.
The Best Parents Get Promoted to Grandparents Reveal
Mom and Dad deserved a different kind of creative reveal. Therefore Matt designed an awesome coffee mug with Harper's photo, the quote from above, and a "November 2017" photo for each mug. We surprised my parents by opening the gift with them (as a hoax we said it was for Dad's birthday- NOT!) and Matt's parents were taken off-guard with a special delivery to their door. Lots of squeals of excitement followed by happy tears! Again- we couldn't have planned it even better!
Close Friends
Now that our immediate family knew, the next week we decided to start telling our closest friends. This was completely random and just fun to do on a whim. Matt being the ever sly one had great one liners he'd slid into conversation like, "Oh you know she's with child" or "Yeah going to be busy in November, having a kid." Ha! I sent the official announcement picture to most or a silly BitEmoji with a line like "I think I need to do some updating." (Totally NOT as clever as Matt!) We made personal phone calls to our grandparents as well. No matter how we shared, it was so thrilling all over again to answer the outpouring of texts and calls from our closest friends!
Guth's + DeFrancisco Sibling Reveal
Matt and I took an adorable picture of Harper with our "not so newborn but oh so adorable" baby converse tennis shoes right before Easter. We knew we wanted to send Easter themed packages to our siblings/nieces/nephews to throw off the obvious reason for a gift. So we decided an adorable puzzle with the photo, stuffed Easter eggs with random puzzle pieces (and other delicious goodies), and taped a super secret 'Do Not Open' envelope within the box. These boxes worked out perfectly! GiAnna was the first to solve her puzzle (mind you that there was NO picture for them to reference as they built!) Followed closely by Maddox and Isabelle. Aria and Neven were lucky little ones who got to experience Uncle Nick and Aunt Lauren's "Eggscape Box". That's right! Matt and I designed our very own Baby-Reveal-BreakOut-Box. Originally Shaun and Heather were suppose to be home from Disney when they opened their box- but it was EVEN BETTER that everyone was together! The night was filled with hilarious photos, videos, and a celebratory phone call. Sigh- so fun.
Mom and Dad deserved a different kind of creative reveal. Therefore Matt designed an awesome coffee mug with Harper's photo, the quote from above, and a "November 2017" photo for each mug. We surprised my parents by opening the gift with them (as a hoax we said it was for Dad's birthday- NOT!) and Matt's parents were taken off-guard with a special delivery to their door. Lots of squeals of excitement followed by happy tears! Again- we couldn't have planned it even better!
Now that our immediate family knew, the next week we decided to start telling our closest friends. This was completely random and just fun to do on a whim. Matt being the ever sly one had great one liners he'd slid into conversation like, "Oh you know she's with child" or "Yeah going to be busy in November, having a kid." Ha! I sent the official announcement picture to most or a silly BitEmoji with a line like "I think I need to do some updating." (Totally NOT as clever as Matt!) We made personal phone calls to our grandparents as well. No matter how we shared, it was so thrilling all over again to answer the outpouring of texts and calls from our closest friends!
The WORLD
With all those closest to our hearts know "in" on our exciting secret, we posted to the world on social media on Friday April 28th. We used the converse picture and just let the love roll in! On May 5th, Kristi and Wendi did an amazing song/chant for our staff as part of my announcement- I was literally in tears! It was the best! They even surprised me with an adorable black onesie for the Baby saying "#5thGradeLittle" Those girls! Now the only ones left to find out were my students. So today (May 10th) my mom helped me put together a surprise announcement for them. We played a game of hangman at the end of the day and celebrated together with hugs and cupcakes! I wasn't sure how they'd react (I mean they ARE 10 and I am just their teacher)- but it was so amazing. They were SO excited, asking all kinds of questions, giving hugs, holding my hand, and grinning ear-to-ear with me. It was incredibly special to also have my mom be there during this time. 
So there you have it- no more hiding my little bump that's slowly appearing (Matt just smiles at me randomly and sweetly says "you're showing a little babe". Melts my heart every time) or pretending BIG things are happening. Phew- WE DID IT! Now comes the next fun part- 2nd Trimester! I can't wait to document more exciting adventures of Baby DeFran along the way. But for now....here's some memorable photos from the past few weeks.
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| Of course some random Bump Selfie Humor! |
Seeing our Little Raspberry for the 1st time.
3.26.17 (7 weeks and 2 days with Baby DeFran)
We left feeling MUCH better with this goods news- although my hCg levels are low no one seemed concerned after confirming Baby DeFran is in fact alive and well. Sigh. It suddenly became so real to us at that moment- we couldn’t stop holding hands, hugging, and kissing the entire day. I have to laugh that it was at this time Matt tells me “Well since it’s good news I can tell you I am working another day this weekend.” So we made the most of our day together and we decided on how we'd announce to our families. Matt even indulged me and we went together and purchased our first baby item together: an adorable little pair of black and white Converse shoes! :)
Today I ordered the puzzles of our announcement photo with Harper to send to our siblings and the magic mugs for our parents. Everything won’t arrive for a few weeks, but we we felt confident sharing the news mid-April to family since I’ll be almost 11 weeks. We won’t share with the public until early May. I did share with Emily that we had started trying since it felt like the right time- and I will let Cara know tomorrow. I know Matt won’t be happy about this (Since he’s already telling me over and over “There still is no sharing this great news yet, okay? Like with anyone!”) and trust me I won’t share our Baby DeFran news until we’re both ready.
So although I’m officially now 7 weeks and 2 days pregnant- I’ve been lucky enough to have minimal symptoms- which is pretty normal I guess. However I am ALWAYS tired. Like I sleep 8-9 hours a night and still have to take a nap in the middle of the day tired. Which is not like me at all! I also have noticed I do much better when I eat small meals throughout the day instead of large meals 3 times. The few days I ate large meals, I felt nauseous at night. So healthy snacking it is- this is better for me anyway since that was what I was doing before being pregnant. The biggest thing I am wanted to watch is weight. It’s typical to gain 1-4 pounds the first trimester and although I was wavering between 152 to 154 pre-pregnancy, I already weighed in at 157. Exercise and water will be important for me- even though I can already tell exercising eventually will have to look different for me.
We are Pregnant!
3.16.17 (The Very Long and Not so Short Story)
So I decided it’s important for me to keep a journal/diary of our adventures of Baby DeFran to help remember all these crazy thoughts, emotions, questions, and stories that happen along the way. But first we must begin at the beginning- well that makes sense!
Matt and I had been seriously talking about wanting a baby for the last two years. And truth be told- Matt was ready an entire year before I finally said “Okay I’m in!” We both knew eventually we wanted to start a family, but I always wanted to be completely emotionally ready for the changes it meant for me. I know that sounds selfish, but that is exactly WHY I waited another whole year. I wanted to be committed to this decision and know that the changes to our lifestyle were for a greater purpose. Fast forward to October 2016. Matt came home from shift one Saturday and I had just had a fantastic workout along with a lot of mental conversations the night before (I do a lot of my craziest and best thinking when he’s on shift). I finally looked him the eye and told him, “Okay. I’m ready. Let’s try having a baby.” I can remember his smile and feel his hug as he wrapped me up and said, “Well alright!” Man I love this guy.
Having NO idea what it felt like to be pregnant and the fact we both agreed to not tell anyone we were trying, the first month we tried I was like “Oh yeah, we made a baby. This was easy.” But honestly...it wasn’t. The first month wasn’t bad when George made his appearance. I mean come on- I wanted to be a rockstar couple that nailed it the first time- but this isn’t exactly fool proof people. But did that stop George being the WORST ever for 2 months in a row? Oh heavens no! Luckily for me BOTH those terrible months ended up being snow days, so this crampy girl got to sit in a ball in yoga pants watching Friends. Win!
However as the months passed, I started to feel defeated. I knew I shouldn’t be, but I couldn’t help but crawl into Matt’s arms and we’d cry a little about another unsuccessful month. He’s such an amazing supporter- not just with this, but with everything in my life. He would call me beautiful and tell me how much he loved me all while holding me or kissing me until I smiled. He’s my rock for sure. Well the whole “not telling anyone” has lasted this long, with the exception of a few select people. The first people who found out we were trying were Kristi and Jessica early in October. Seeing as they are my ‘drinking gals’, they immediately noticed I wasn’t drinking beer at our outings anymore. I can’t lie- like at all. So I fessed up to them and excitedly shared with them our plans. They are so supportive and it felt so good to let someone in. :) Early December (after another disheartening unsuccessful month) I told Tara through text message. She was thrilled to hear too! Having her as a sounding board has been great for me. She gives very real advice and totally understands how much it sucks to have George every month. With the exception of Tommy and Jason asking lots of questions (pretty sure they’re on to us as well), the only other person I told was my amazing coworker Wendi. With our personal professional lives potentially changing in the next year, I felt it was important to keep her informed. I trust her wholeheartedly and (Again) it was this great relief to tell her. It’s funny to reflect on all this because life just goes on around us even though we are trying to make this huge life change!
March 12th- we took our 2nd home pregnancy test. At 1:43 pm it confirmed (what we both already knew) WE WERE PREGNANT! Lots of hugs, smiles, kisses, tears of joy followed as I tried to absorb every moment of this news together. I couldn’t stop hugging Matt we got ready to enjoy dinner out for Jessica’s birthday. It was a beautiful secret we had together the entire night. After our festivities, Matt agreed to take a few “We are pregnant pictures” together. After countless blurry, overly zoomed in, and just outright terrible photos- we finally came away with 3 great ones to tell our story. Man, what an exciting day and to make it more special we found out at 1:43pm- which in old school pager language that we use to use- means “I Love You” (one letter, four letters, three letters). Awwwwwww…….
Jenny McMarthy explained this 4-5 week pregnant feeling “It’s like having a gaping hole in your stomach waiting to be filled”. Ha- poetic isn’t it? But this is how I feel right now. This little weird feeling inside my stomach that nobody knows about and ordinarily would be gas or bloating, but instead is a bunch of cells working together to help build Matt and I the miracle of life.
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| Must have been too excited to notice my grammar error! :) |
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