Ooooh Baby!

Baby is facing down - You can see both sides of the brain, a small left hand and a few facial features!

Well the word is out! Aaron and I are expecting our Mini-Meredith sometime around June 6, 2011! I'm about 10 1/2 weeks right now and had planned to wait to share the news until 12 weeks, but as many know it's nearly impossible to wait that long! We told our parents at 8 weeks and knew we absolutely couldn't ask them to keep it a secret, so it slowly started to leak out from there.

Amazingly, I was pregnant when we ran our recent half marathon but had no clue. And even better, I had my best running time. Awesome! So I wonder if we might have a future athlete on our hands. :)

I found out the morning after the pregnancy center banquet. I didn't sleep well that night and couldn't figure out why. It dawned on me that I should take a pregnancy test?? Not to mention that the morning before, my devotion reading for the day had me praying through Psalm 139. I cried through the entire thing and thought I was simply emtional because of the miraculousness of life! Actually, I thought I cried because it reminded me how well God knows me even when I'm confused about myself. But my heart knew something my mind didn't yet. Since I work at a pregnancy center, one might think that I just took a test at work. But since I have Friday's off, I had to run over to CVS to take a test. I peed on that little stick and set it down on the counter. I watched it for a second and didn't see anything (I've never been good at following directions!) so I left the room thinking, "I'm such a nerd...why would I be pregnant?!" But when I returned, I saw a faint little line. That's when I threw all of my work training out the window and thought, "It's too faint to be a positive." HA! Can we stay stupid?? So I went to ask the pharmacist and I showed her the test while I quietly and timidly asked, "Is this a positive?" She glanced slowly up at me and said, "Any line is a positive." DUH, again, I work at a PREGNANCY CENTER. I see this ALL THE TIME. But there's something about it happening to you. CRAZY! Let me tell ya. Although I can't say this pregnancy was planned, we weren't trying to keep it from happening either. But as a friend recently said, trying or not, a pregnancy is ALWAYS a surprise! I love that. It's so true. So of course I paced around the house the rest of the day taking in all that this means and it took all the patience I had to not call Aaron right away and tell him. But I was successful and waited until he got home from work that night. He was surprised too, but so excited. We had an early ultrasound at 6 weeks and saw our little one's precious beating heart. It was nothing short of incredible. But the picture I posted is actually of our 9 week ultrasound. The baby changed a lot in just 3 weeks! Everything is looking great. I'm measuring spot on now (was a bit small at 6 weeks) and the baby's heart rate is strong at 155. I wish I could see that everyday!

My doctors are wonderful. I go to a completely pro-life, faith-based OB/GYN practice. I love knowing that my doctors pray for me and celebrate the gift of life in all circumstances. I've opted out of the 1st trimester testing, so I won't have another ultrasound until we find out the gender at 20 weeks (sometime in January.) Aaron and I made this decision given that we are low-risk by all accounts for birth defects. We also know that there are way too many false positives. Pregnancy is scary enough, so I don't need anything else to worry about! Plus, the 20 week ultrasound would show more accurately if anything looks unusual. So we're very happy with our decision and are just taking each week as it comes!

I'll keep posting as I go to fill you all in on the progress!