HOOPER INCOMING...

The cat's FINALLY out the of bag and I'm ready to shout it from the rooftops.... WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

How It Happened//

Ugh, I've been waiting for this day for what feels like my entire life and I'm absolutely elated that it's finally here. I'm thirteen weeks pregnant today and I have been just d y i n g to tell you all about it. And GUYS, you'll NEVER guess when I found out. It was May 2nd....which was the LAST TIME I made a blog post, and in that post I said, "We would like to start a family, but have no idea when that might happen". Then LITERALLY directly after I made the post, I got up from the where I sat on the patio, walked inside to take Cooper out, decided to use the restroom first and took the test.

I didn't even realize at the time that I had just written something so uncanny. In fact, as soon as I saw the little plus sign on that test, I couldn't think of anything else at all.

I was beside myself. Total shock. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't know if it was actually true or if it was a false positive. Should I jump for joy? Cry? Do nothing?

I finally decided that I needed to quickly document my first reaction and then rush to the store to purchase a second test for further reassurance that I wasn't imagining things. So, that's exactly what I did.

I went to the store and bought a test that could not be mistaken. You know, the kind that actually SAYS the words "pregnant" or "not pregnant". I wanted to be absolutely sure.....the results were undeniable...

WOW. That moment was H E A V Y with emotion. Joy, fear, excitement, anxiety...I was going to be a mother. It's hard to describe what that feeling is like. I immediately thought about Jacob and how I was going to tell him. We had just decided to officially start trying right before we moved in to our new place in April, because we knew that we would actually have the space we would need if it would happen.

For some reason, we thought it might take awhile because we had heard so many stories from others about how difficult it was for them and I had been on birth control for so many years (13), so we were prepared to wait. But it happened on the FIRST TRY! We are so grateful that it did, but we weren't exactly prepared. haha

I thought about telling him in a cute way, like getting him some dad themed gifts and giving them to him on our anniversary, which was in five days, but how on EARTH was I going to keep this to myself for five days? And could I get something together that quickly? Thank goodness it didn't wind up happening that way because I don't think I would have made it, to be honest. I could barely wait until he got home!

It actually happened in such an organic way that I never could have planned it better.

Telling Jacob//

That picture makes me laugh every time I see it. It's actually a screen shot from the video that you're about to see, but here's a little back story first. Jacob actually KNEW that I was pregnant. He didn't literally know, but he sensed it. We both actually kind of sensed it, and he kept joking with me before we were moving, saying things like "oh, don't lift the heavy things, you'll hurt the baby". Just little comments like that here and there.

So, when he came home that night and laid his head down on my stomach and pretended to hear a baby in there, it wasn't all that strange. haha

How could I have ever planned something better than this? His reaction was perfect. The messy house, dinner buzzer going off in the background, Cooper squeaking on his toy, it's all perfect. Because THIS is real life. Everything about this moment, was perfect.

Doctor's Confirm//

So after the excitement, we scheduled our first doctors appointment to get the official confirmation. And instead of telling Jacob on our anniversary, we scheduled our first ultrasound. May 7th, 2020, 11 years together to the day. It was such a special way to commemorate the day and it was still a secret, so it was even more special.

Jacob wasn't allowed to come in to the appointment with me because of COVID restrictions, so he sat in the car and waited patiently. I sat, nervous and excited in the ultrasound room, unsure of what would happen next.

I was four weeks pregnant. They couldn't see anything more than my uterus beginning to open, but the signs were all there and the urine test concluded it. We were going to be parents.

They wanted me to come back in two weeks to check the progress in order to give me a due date and begin the prenatal care process, so I scheduled my second appointment for May 20th. This time, we saw the beginning of our sweet baby.

Can you believe that this happened in just TWO WEEKS?! It's truly incredible.

I had initially calculated my due date to be around January 5th and it turns out that I was pretty on point. They gave me an official due date of January 8th, 2021. They sent me on my way with a recommendation to take prenatal vitamins and a follow up visit for July 1st.

We started telling our closest friends and family now that we had a due date and we scheduled our announcement photos with Johanna Oakes Photography. It was starting to feel real!

For those first few weeks, I was incredibly emotional. I was terrified that I was going to have a miscarriage, and nobody except Jacob knew what was going on. I felt alone and scared to be excited for fear that something terrible would happen unexpectedly. It sounds so silly to me now when I write it out, but at the time, that's how I felt.

Once we began telling our friends and family, the fear slowly started to dissipate and sheer excitement kicked in!

Telling Our Loved Ones//

The first people we told were my parents. It was on May 12th. I will always remember it because it was my grandma's 79th birthday! Since we live in Florida and they live in Ohio, we had a FaceTime celebration together. They made her a cake and we sang her "Happy Birthday" and then after she blew out her candles, I showed my mom the positive pregnancy test. She started to tear up and my dad got so excited that he immediately started to call his parents to tell them! haha

We then told Jacobs parents and our best friends, one by one. We were able to really connect with each person that we told and make each announcement unique. They are all such special memories!

Our 13 Week Appointment//

Now, here we are! Just a couple of days ago, we had our 13 week appointment to measure baby's progress and baby is doing just fine!

I can hardly believe that this perfect, tiny human is growing inside of me right now. I am so overwhelmingly grateful to be on this journey and to have the privilege of being this baby's mommy! I can hardly wait for all of the upcoming milestones. The gender reveal, the baby shower, putting together the nursery, reading all of the pregnancy books, watching my body grow.

There are a great many wonderful days ahead. I'm sure there will be some tough ones too, but one thing I know for sure....I can't wait to meet baby Hooper.