13 week sonogram

Sorry I've been such a delinquent about blogging! Here is a picture of our 13 week sonogram and it's so cute, if I do say so myself.
I'm 16 weeks now and I'm feeling pretty great. The nausea has been gone for about 3 weeks now and I'm so glad. It wasn't so much in the morning but more at night. I haven't had any weird food cravings or diversions except grapefruit. I've been eating them like crazy. And fish. I want it every week. Nathan is appreciating Sea Island more and more as time goes by. I asked my doctor about the whole mercury thing and she said as long as I don't consume more than 12 ounces a week I'd be ok. She's never seen a baby with mercury poisoning but I still don't want to risk it.

It's amazing that even with all of my friends that have babies, I'm so clueless about baby products. Nathan and I went to Babies R Us last week to start a registry and we were so excited to begin. We walked up and down aisle after aisle and became more and more overwhelmed. Pumping systems, bathtubs, car seats, strollers, breast pads, carriers....GEEZ! We registered for a boppy and left.

Since then, we've spent time on the computer researching brands on various products and now we're feeling a little more confident. Just a little.

The car seat issue is the one that is most troubling for me. We're not sure what to do about my car. I love my MINI but it is small! There's room for a car seat, no problem but with 2 doors it's going to be a royal pain and I'm the one that will be dealing with it all the time when I go back to work since the baby will be at Concordia's day care. Safety was an issue that was concerning me but we've researched crash tests on MINI vs. so many other cars that would be possible trade ins for us and the MINI performs so well. I know many of you wouldn't believe it but it's a super safe little car! I just won't be able to lug around a travel system stroller, or at least I don't think I would. The system we like folds up pretty nicely but we didn't take it out to our car to test it out. Maybe we'll do that later today.

When God 'Runs Late'

This was the title of the sermon yesterday and it was awesome. Pastor talked about Jairus' 12 year old daughter who was very sick and was dying and he spoke of the the woman who was bleeding for 12 years and I couldn't help but recall Nicole C Mullen's performance at Women of Faith where she sang "One Touch". The video is posted below and I hope you find it as powerful as I did!

Telling Family and Friends

It feels sooooo good to share our news with our family and friends! Keep in mind that each and every time we shared our news we both were so nervous! I don't know why but we were!!!

Nicole's Side of the Family:
We went to dinner with my mom, Mamo, Aunt Patsy, Kelly, Clint and Lacey&Ashley to Maggiano's. We thought going at 5:30 would be a good time with a minimal wait. WRONG! We still had a 2 hour wait! Thank goodness for the apples they have around near the banquet hall. I could tell this was going to be tough to share our news. It was loud and noisy and the only place to sit was at the bar on bar stools. Mamo couldn't sit up that high so she parked herself over by the door in a big wing back chair with Aunt Patsy while Nathan and I sat at the bar with mom and the rest of the gang. I'm sure my sister thought it was odd that I didn't order a cocktail with her but instead, I ordered a ginger-ale for my nausea.

Our plan was to tell Lacey and Ashley first so that they could announce that they were getting a new cousin. So, our table was called and we all got up and started walking over to it. Thank goodness for the crowded foyer. It allowed me to hold the girls back to bring them in to our little secret. I told them that Uncle Nathan and I were going to have a baby and I thought they were going to come out of their skin. I still smile when I think about their little expressions! Lacey's line was "Attention Everyone! We have an announcement!" and Ashley's part was "We're gonna have a cousin!" Well, being little girls and being so excited and nervous about their role, it took a few times for everyone to grasp what they were saying but once everyone was on the same page we were all so happy and talked about the pregnancy for the rest of the evening. [Saturday night 01-31-09]

My dad and brother were together in Georgetown for Superbowl and due to extreme nausea in the evenings we weren't able to tell them in person but I really wanted to tell them the same weekend as the rest of the family so we called them and told them over the phone. I explained that we didn't come up for their Superbowl party because I was feeling sick due to a baby in my belly. Dad didn't speak for about 30 seconds. He couldn't believe it! He passed the phone to Tommy and he was so happy and excited for us. [Sunday night 02-01-09]

Nathan's Side of the Family:
After church we usually go over to Nathan's mom's for a visit before Daniel has to go to work. Sylvia picked up some BBQ for lunch and we sat down to eat. Well, most of us were eating. Nathan was just pushing his food around on his plate. He was so nervous! It was pretty cute! We got on the topic of health and Nathan was sharing his new daily regiment of waking up early and leaving for work 2 hours early so he can work out before going into the office. He said that it was time for him to focus on being as healthy as he could and his mom asked, "Why?"
Nathan simply replied, "Because, Nicole's gonna have a baby!" [Sunday afternoon 02-01-09]

Next, we went to Nathan's dad's to tell him and Joan. The Superbowl was on and we all sat down for dinner. Nathan had to get through just one more announcement and he did great. I guess this is just such a happy and emotional experience for the both of us. He told them that we had an announcement and then just said it, "We're going to have a baby"! They were both so happy and excited. [Sunday evening 02-01-09]

Here's how I told my work family...
I'll set it up for you- twice a year our staff gets together for a much needed calendar meeting! We all bring our ministry events and go week by week and share what we've got planned so that it can be entered in our Master Calendar. I told Greg and Pastor Tucker my plan which was to wait until we got to the month of August (our due date month) to make my announcement. Here's how it went down....
Thanks to Joy for sitting across from me and being so sneaky with my camera!



My last way to share my news with some great friends that I was able to tell in person was pretty cool too. I recorded the heart beat on my digital recorder and played it back for them and asked them what they heard. I'll never forget their reactions...

Joy-I totally set her up. She was expecting to hear a frantic nurse discover she forgot about us (me and Nathan) in the sonogram room-TRUE STORY- we sat back there for about 30 minutes before she came sprinting down the hall and starting yelling profanities (no joke!). She kept yelling, "I'm so sorry! I totally forgot about you! I'm so sorry!" Well, being forgotten doesn't make you feel too good but hey, we're all human. Not a big deal.
So when I hit play for Joy to listen to this nurse "cussing" she was leaning in to me with a big smile on her face....the heartbeat starts....she's listening intently. I asked her, "What do you hear?" She replied with this look of wonderment on her face, "Footsteps?"- She thought it was the nurse running. "No", I said. "You KNOW this sound!" Right then her face went blank and she literally fell to her knees, put her face in her hands and started crying. Really loud! Sobbing, she said, "I'm just so happy for you!"

Robyn and Darlene were together when I told them. Robyn was having a rough morning so I told her that I had something I wanted her to hear that might make her feel better....
I pushed play and they listened with blank stares. Finally, Robyn gasped and then started to cry. Darlene still was looking confused. (Darlene-you're so cute!!)
Darlene's reason for being confused longer than Robyn is a good one! She reminded us that when she had her daughter they didn't have these fancy sonograms with sound. That's okay, D! It's a great memory for me.

Let'cha in on a little secret.....

To let you all in on this little secret, I have to rewind back to Dec. 12th. I was sitting at home on this particular Friday night feeling horrible! My allergies were completely taking over. My throat was hurting, Nathan was at work and there was nothing on TV! I began thinking of all that I was about to miss over this exciting weekend....it was Concordia's Drive Thru Nativity weekend and I usually sing at it every year. I was so bummed and was feeling sorry for myself. That all changed in the short time span of about 5 minutes. Out of the blue I thought, "When was my last period?" I got my calendar out and saw that it was the 9th of November!!! "I'M LATE!", I thought. I took a test and immediately it showed a positive. Nathan and I had been open to having a baby for several months now and agreed to let God show us His timing. Well, the time has come! I quickly cleaned off my wonderful pee stick and wrapped it in a paper towel and started looking for a box. Hmmmmm- Kashi crackers....perfect! I put the wrapped test in an empty Kashi box and wrapped it in Christmas wrap. I put it in his stocking and impatiently waited for him to come home from work.

Well, he finally came home and I tried to remain calm even though my heart was almost jumping out of my chest. He came in and sat down and I told him that I had an early Christmas gift for him. He looked around and saw his stocking over the fireplace and said, "I'll wait. You know I like to wait until Christmas to open my gifts."

Oh boy! Now what? Still, remaining calm, I gently encouraged him that he really should open this one now. So, he did. He sat down and began to unwrap his present and as soon as he saw the box- HE KNEW. He looked up and said in a kind of sing song-y voice...."What- is- this?" I told him to just open it and this is what happened next.....
We laughed, hugged and then looked at each other like Holyyyyyyyyyy Cow! Now what? What did we get ourselves into? Even though we've always planned for a family and knew we wanted kids we were a little frazzled. So much to think about! We're so used to being just the two of us. We love to travel. We love to go out to nice dinners whenever we want. We love sleeping in on the weekends. Even though some of this might take the back burner for a little while, it's sooooo worth it! We are so pumped about having a sweet baby. Our due date is August 16th which should make for an interesting VBS for this pregnant momma.

Please keep us in your prayers. We're praying for an uneventful pregnancy and so far, so good. I've only gotten sick-sick once. I've been fighting all other kinds of illness that are totally unrelated to the pregnancy (allergies, bronchitis)but now I'm feeling pretty good except for the continuous nausea. I'm about 13 weeks now so that should subside pretty soon.

Still to post....our sonogram (totally amazing!) and how we told our families.

Better Late Than Never....

Here are more pics from our trip to New York.....

This is where we ate before we saw "Wicked". Don't worry...it wasn't this day. We did dress up, of course!

This pizza place used to be a church.

They had 4 huge brick ovens. You can see 2 of the 4 in this picture. One upstairs and one downstairs. The other two are directly across the room.













The picture above is of skating in Central Park and the pic to the right is a beautiful view of a snowy Central Park. We went on a tour of the park and I was really impressed. I can only imagine how beautiful it is in the spring. There's so much detail in everything from walls and benches to the trails and landscaping.







This is the Dairy Gift Shop...where our tour met. We thought we missed it but we were able to catch up to the group. Nathan would have been really bummed if we missed it.

We had a great time in NYC but is sooooo nice to be back in 60 degree temps.