The wait to tell our family

We found out on Easter Sunday when we were going to see all of family, but we weren't ready to share the news yet, it was still our little secret.  We wanted to wait until tax season was over to prevent my father-in-law from having a heart attack and we needed time to process the fact that our lives would never be the same.  So we went through the entire day stealing secret smiles with one another and smirking when no one was around because we knew something they didn't.  It was actually very romantic.  After a couple of weeks we had fun telling our families and seeing how excited they were.  This baby will be the first grandchild for Dave's parents, my mom, my dad & stepmom, and my stepdad & his wife.  Not to mention that our child will have 4 uncles and 4 aunts when they are born (and that's before all our siblings get married).  We are truly blessed to be surrounded by a loving family.

During the time before we told our families I was still student teaching and had told my cooperating teacher so she didn't think I was crazy when I ran out of the room every five seconds.  To most people I didn't look pregnant, but to me and Dave I looked different.  I took a photo then to remember how I looked at the beginning of this pregnancy.  Even looking at that picture now, I think, wow I've changed a lot already.

The day we found out

It was Easter Sunday morning (April 8, 2012) when I took the pregnancy test.  I was so nervous I couldn't even look at the test, so I left it on the windowsill in the bathroom and made Dave check it.  He came out of the bathroom, kissed me, and said, "Congratulations, Mommy."  I can't even describe how I felt, but I'll try: overjoyed, nervous, anxious, shocked.  I still had 4 more weeks of student teaching to survive including my 2 weeks of intensive (aka teaching everything in the 3rd grade).  I knew it was going to be crazy, but somehow I would survive.

The next four weeks I survived thanks to an AWESOME cooperating teacher.  I was nauseous all day, every day.  I was bloated so my clothes didn't fit right.  But I was going to be a parent, so it was all worth it.