We’re Having A Baby!

We are beyond excited to announce Baby Stanton is due February 2020!!

This was by far the hardest secret I’ve ever had to keep, especially because I was throwing up daily the entire time I was keeping this secret.

I want to share some moments and stories from my first trimester. And I feel like I need to start with some disclaimers. 1. I don’t want to come off as insensitive to anyone else’s situation and I am for sure not a doctor – just sharing my own personal pregnancy experience. 2. This post might be a little TMI for some, but I feel like I wouldn’t be doing it justice if I didn’t share it all – the insanely good and exciting + the very low moments with you all.

How we found out

We decided to start trying and see what happens in May and then like 2 days later I got my period (felt devastating in that moment). So I decided to learn how ovulation works and downloaded the app Flo (tracks your period, predicts when you’re ovulating and when you should expect to get your next period). So we actually started trying to get pregnant at the beginning of June.

A couple weeks later I started to notice that my boobs felt different/kinda hurt. I remembered a few years ago a doctor had told me I had cystic breasts but didn’t really explain what that meant. When I had mentioned it to a friend (a doctor), he told they would really hurt when I’m pregnant. And even though this conversation happened years before I even thought about having kids, it always stuck with me. When I noticed the pain, I started googling cystic breasts but everything just talked about feeling pain or discomfort before your period, which according to my app was coming in a few days. I didn’t want to get my hopes up but I knew this felt different than anything I’ve felt before – but couldn’t decide if I was just paying attention now or if it really was different.

How I told Jon – I think its funny how many times I’ve been asked this (or how many ‘reveals to dad’ I’ve seen on Pinterest.

…Jon bought the pregnancy test.

We’re in this together every step of the way. As soon as I started feeling like something was different, he went to the store and dealt with the overwhelming pregnancy test section. He waited while I peed in a cup and set a timer. And then we looked at the test and “happy cried” together.

Now that I’ve shared the best news, I should probably share some of my struggles as well.

How I felt

Not. Good.

I started throwing up – all. the. time. Yes, I know people talk about morning sickness but it was pretty constant and definitely worse at night. I pretty much had no appetite and couldn’t keep down the things I did eat. There was one night that I was up sick all night with the worst stomach pains and had to take off the next day from work and make a doctor’s appointment. I was so scared something was wrong with the baby. Thankfully, baby was perfectly healthy and I learned that babies are like little parasites and will still get all of their nutrients from you, even if you’re not getting any or eating anything. I considered going to the hospital that day for fluids for dehydration but was able to keep down gatorade.

My doctor prescribed me Bonjesta for the nausea and I pretty quickly noticed a difference. (I am very obviously not a doctor, just sharing what worked for me). I lost 13 pounds during the first few months of my pregnancy. But I am just so grateful I was still able to grow a healthy little person during all of that.

I was also tired – all. the. time. I napped in my car during my lunch break every day (I had a lot of extra time during my lunch break since I wasn’t really eating lunch). And I was happiest having a night in, snuggling on the couch.

Finding a doctor

Once we had a positive pregnancy test, I made an appointment with the doctor I had been to the year before for my annual. We waited about an hour and a half. I peed in a cup, they said congratulations a few times, said it was too early to really do anything. And then just kept asking ‘what questions do you have?’ We got ‘why are you here?’ vibes and I left feeling super overwhelmed. And to top it off, the doctor was only in that office one day a week, making scheduling appointments very difficult.

We decided to look for a new doctor. I did some google research, read reviews (one guy was known for being pushy about selling vitamins..). I thought about asking around but decided I wasn’t ready to share the news yet. At one point I had appointments scheduled at 4 different doctor’s offices. Eventually I went with the office that was the most helpful over the phone. I 100% know we made the right choice. I am obsessed with my doctor and have felt completely comfortable since day 1. And I know my baby is in the best hands. And turns out every mom I know in the area had their babies delivered by one of the doctors in that office. (PS any locals – I’m happy to share the name of the practices – good and bad).

Another low point for me was when my pregnancy was ‘outed’ at work. Keeping a pregnancy a secret is so hard for so many reasons. We were beyond excited. I was constantly getting sick. And I mostly disappeared from social media and kept canceling plans. But there are so many reasons that people wait to share pregnancy news. The biggest being the fear of something going wrong. Between my many trips to the bathroom and a few doctor’s appointments, one of my coworkers figured it out. Instead of quietly asking me about it, she loudly accused me and then announced it to the whole office. I had no idea how to react, so I just kept denying it over and over again. I hadn’t even shared the news with my parents yet. I’m sure she was excited for me, but I wasn’t ready to tell anyone yet. Yes, pregnancy news is exciting but it’s so important to let people share their news in their way and time.

Telling Our Parents

We waited a little while to share the news with our parents. We had a couple close calls where we almost spilled the beans. We went to a baseball game with Jon’s dad and I got sick from a pretzel and didn’t eat dinner. He was very concerned about why I wasn’t eating. Another day we went to dinner with my parents at my dad’s favorite restaurant. One of the guys at the restaurant that he’s known for years came over for hugs and kisses and looked at me and said ‘You look beautiful! You’re glowing! Are you pregnant?’ I quickly responded “oh no, not yet” and my mom joked that my dad must’ve paid him to say that. And as soon as we got in the car, Jon and I both were like ‘how did he know?!’

We knew we wanted to tell them all together, so we invited them over for a Sunday BBQ. Before they got to our house, we put a hamburger bun in the oven with one of our sonogram pictures inside. Our parents get along so well, we had a hard time getting them to stop chatting and go into the kitchen. And then an even harder time to get them to open the oven without explaining why. As soon as Jon opened the oven door, without saying a word my dad just walked right over to me and hugged me, crying. And then we all hugged and cried and celebrated. It was such a special moment with our parents that we will remember forever.

The Best Parts.

And of course we’re going to end this on a high note and share some of the best parts of my first trimester. Seeing out little baby on the sonogram machine for the first time. Sharing the news with our friends and family. Telling my parents they’re going to be grandparents! The fact that Jon is going to be the best dad ever!

We just cannot wait to meet this little human. We love it so much already.