I can't eat meat? But I live on a cattle ranch!!!

It’s been over a week since I blogged last, and so much has happened.

-          Me and Jim went to see Dr. Robbins for our first appointment. (LOVE her btw!) It was quite humorous to see this experience through Jim’s eyes as opposed to mine-which are semi-used to being in the office of a practicing gynecologist. Two parts stand out in my mind. The first was when he realized that I had to pee in a cup and hold onto the sample until my name was called. Even though it was a seal cup, inside of another cup, inside of a sealed brown paper bag, inside of my purse--- I think it still grossed him out a bit. The other funny part of the trip was when the nurse came in with the sonogram cart, and parked it next to me. There was a massive box of condoms that came with this cart, and we jokingly talked about how we could make money from selling them to teenagers. (This is possibly the first sign that we are going to make horrible parents…) I was surprised at how calm I was during this visit, and wondered what kind of thoughts were running through Jim’s head. I understand this isn’t real for him just yet, but still- he was about to see and hear his first unborn child, and I don’t care who you are, that it pretty amazing.

Dr. Robbins came in and got down to the nitty gritty right away. Jim was sitting in the chair across from me, and she nonchalantly said, “Come on over here behind me Daddy. You’ll be able to see better.” The words she uttered created butterflies in my stomach. I love the idea of our baby calling Jim Daddy. It literally makes me smile when I think about it.  

9 weeks

I was semi- relieved that Dr. Robbins wasn’t performing a vaginal sonogram mainly because I was hoping we could slowly submerge my husband into this dark world of funny instruments and uncomfortable small talk while the doctor is “down there”. She squirted a gel on me that I expected to be cold, but was surprisingly warm- almost hot actually. She explained that they warm it before putting it onto their patients, and I agreed that this was a great way to get on the patients good side. (Brownie points for Dr. Robbins!) She placed the sonogram wand on my belly and quickly reminded me that I already need to pee again. I can only imagine how much harder it will become in my future visits to refrain from urinating all over the table while she is prodding on my uterus giving me a glimpse into my body. Something else to look forward to I suppose? J

After what seemed like 5 minutes, there it was… For the first time in my life, not only was I seeing a live ultrasound, but I was watching the heartbeat of our little kidney bean. When we saw Baby M for the first time, it was absolutely heart stopping. Seriously. I was drawn back to the moment when I first shared the news with Jim that I was pregnant. Time stood still, and for those few moments, nothing- absolutely nothing else in this entire world mattered. Every emotion that came from my first kiss, to winning basketball games, to building our house, and even to getting married was surpassed in a single minute. I will never forget looking up at Jim and watching his stare at the screen. I don’t think I have ever seen such a proud look on his face. Yet another moment that no one will ever be able to erase from my memory. Click! Freeze Frame Time.

Another life changing event has occurred since I blogged last. Jim and I are fortunate enough for me to be able to quit my job and focus on my internship as well as school and Baby M. I sent my last email, packed up my office, and swiped my time card for the last time Wednesday. It was completely bittersweet. It’s always hard to leave a place of employment when you aren’t disgruntled. It almost would’ve been easier if I would’ve been mad about something someone had done, or frustrated with one of my co-workers. That just wasn’t the case here. I loved my job. I honesltly can’t think of a day that I woke up and dreaded going to work. My dad used to say that, “Going to work isn’t called going to work because it’s fun. If it was fun, it would be called going to fun.”

Tanya Davis, Chrissy Daniel, Todd Vineyard, Karen Brown, Laurie Washburn, Connie Shawn, Marc Dodd, Chad Davis, Janice Wood,  Phyllis Shaw, and Gary Clayton  truly made it “Going to Fun.” As for all of my 4-H’ers and their families- you are outstanding, and I am honored to have been a part of your lives for this brief period of time! Thank you for allowing me to watch you all grow, and for allowing me to grow because of you!!!

My empty office

My last bit of this blog is going to be short and sweet. When I was born, one of my best friends in the world was my cousin, Jared. Our moms were pregnant together, and we were born a mere 3 months apart. We were in the same grade and went to the same school all throughout growing up, and everyone knew that we were very close. (Actually at one point there were rumors that we had crushes on each other- but that still confuses me to this day…) Anyway, distance seperated us as Jared joined the Navy, but I got my regular phone calls at 8:00 most mornings while Jared was in Japan. He would call me at this time because I’m pretty sure it was party time there, and he was always out and about and would think to call me. I have to say that it is funny to hear a bunch a Navy men and women late at night in Japan while I am at work at 8:00 on a work day. Oh yeah, short and sweet... right. Anywho, so yadda yadda yadda- we’ve always made time for each other and been close. He calls me the other day and tries to create small talk. I knew something was up, but when he told me that he was going to be a Daddy, I went crazy! I was driving and couldn’t compile my thoughts because I just kept thinking about how fun it would be for our kids to be as close as we are! So funny how life happens, right? I love it.

Andrea's 2nd and 3rd tests. Not a false positive...

All in all, everything is great except for the fact that meat makes me want to hurl. Literally. The sheer thought of eating it churns my stomach. I sure hope that goes away soon.

 I have one quicker story to share, and then I will end this never ending blog. After going to dinner with many of my grad school friends Saturday evening, I left the restaurant hungry. I was dizzy, shaky, nauseous, and tired. Our food had been ordered for well over an hour and a half and only half of our table’s meals had arrived. Mine was of course included in the side that hadn’t gotten their plates yet. I had ordered pancakes and a side of bacon (trying to test the meat waters again) and 2 hours plus one angry husband telling the manager to cook his pregnant wife some dang pancakes or he would go back there and do it himself later- I had my food.

At this point, I was feeling too icky to eat. I had munched on some almonds and dried cranberries for occasions just as this from my purse, and figured I would go home and relax, then eat later. On the way home, we got an invite to go to a friend’s house and watch a UFC fight. If you are unaware this sport, then I say go ahead and keep living your life in ignorant bliss. If you are conscious of this gut wrenching sport, then you’re probably laughing right now. With an empty stomach and a light head, James and I arrived at our friend’s house. There were about a dozen people there, and they were just sitting down to eat some ribs or steak or something in the carnivore category that made me want so badly to rip into this protein that my body wanted, but I knew that I had to resist. Or else… I might throw up. I resisted, and made it through the first fight. It was somewhat entertaining. As entertaining as watching two men wrestle, cuddle, and beat the crap out of each other can be. Fight number two was the getter. These two men apparently were buddies, but since there was $100,000 on the line, they didn’t care if the other died or not due to one too many blows to the head. I watched for as long as I could, and then… it happened.

One, two, three, four, five, and then I lost count. What I was counting were the number of blows from one man’s elbow to the other man’s head. What was once a sealed piece of skin was now flesh and bone that was ejecteing a large enough amount of blood that there was literally a pool laying underneath these men. Now, I have never passed out from the sight of blood. I have never been affected by the sight of my blood being drawn, or anyone else’s blood when they’ve been injured. This time was different. I’m betting you can guess what happened next. I stood up, and tried to gather my composure. It didn’t work. I walked over to the side of the house, took a few deep breaths, and then let it all go. That’s right- I puked up the 5 bites of pancakes and one bite of bacon I had eaten at my 2 hour late dinner.

Lesson learned: I do not like UFC. Make fun if you wish, but if you could have felt what I did that night, you would understand.

Completely changing gears- Baby M is now the size of a grape!

Life is amazing, and I have never been happier.

Love you all. Keep praying.