Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!

Yesterday we celebrated a great woman's 90th birthday!! Mike's adorable Grandma turned 90 years young and we had a big party to celebrate with her! It's hard to believe she is 90! She is one of the sweetest ladies and always so loving, she's always so sweet every time I see her. I don't know what her trick is, maybe it's the scotch, but she's doing great. We're so lucky to have her with us. I can't wait for another couple more weeks when we can tell her she is going to be a great grandmother!!! Here's a couple pictures from last night's festivities to celebrate Grandma. May she have many more blessed birthdays like this one!!! 

A real surprise

Although we didn't have much time for it to sink it and even to talk about it, neither one of us really knows what to do in this situation. We were trying to figure out how and when to share our happy news. And let's face it I am terrible at keeping secrets. Mike's initial reaction was to wait till after our doctor's appointment which is scheduled for the 8th, which is understandable, can't say I disagree. The emotional part of me that wants to scream it from the rooftop decided we should go ahead and tell Mike's parents. 

My rationale was two fold; one we were going to be the six of us, we don't get to see Mike's brother in person very often and I would have rather told them all together than have to call them on the phone and tell them; and two if anything should god forbid happen, which I pray that it doesn't, I wouldn't want to be alone and we'd need the support of our family with us, I'd want them to know. So by default we decided Friday night would be the night since we'd all be at Mike's parents house for dinner. 

I wanted to do something cute but obviously didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare something creative. On the way to his parents house we ran into Kohl's quick. I was ideally hoping to find a great grandmother frame, my plan was to show his parents what we got his grandmother for her birthday gift (and this was just a ploy, we weren't really telling the rest of his family on Saturday at the party). The only frame they had that worked was a "sneak peak sonogram frame," so we picked that up. 

After we had eaten dinner and we were all sitting at the table, I decided it was time to tell everyone. I asked Mike to get the bag from my purse and then passed the kohl's shopping bag to Dad and said check out what we got for Grandma, so he's looking at the frame, and reading the inscription but absolutely not putting two and two together, so I tried to drop more hints like "our picture isn't ready yet" finally Dad gave the frame to Mom to look at but she wasn't getting it either. 

Stephanie was sitting there saying "I think I know what is going on here but I don't want to say anything." They really weren't getting it, so finally I said Stephanie please tell them, and Stephanie said "I think what Rachel is trying to tell you is she's having a baby!" Finally then they realized what was happening and were beyond excited to know they're going to be grandparents! It was pretty funny going through that whole thing. For the record though both of them missed the fact that the frame has an actual sonogram picture in it, LOL. Now I have to figure out how I will tell my parents this weekend! Also my in-laws have been sworn to secrecy in the meantime! This will be one tough secret to keep!!! 

Weekly Pregnancy Update - Week 4

Weekly Pregnancy Journal Update

How far along: 4 weeks today, I've officially missed my period (by a day)

Weight Gain: Loss. For some reason I seem to be down a few pounds from where I have normally been. I saw 116 on the scale yesterday morning, a number I haven't see in a long time!

Body & Changes: No symptoms yet other than missed period and insomnia every night for the past 5 days

Exercise: My first workouts since learning (I'll write a separate post on this experience) I'll hopefully won't be so nervous going forward

Clothes:  Regular

Sleep: I wish! It's still super early and truth be told I'm ok experiencing a symptom, I feel like it helps me know that something is going on. But I've had insomnia every day since finding out, been up for at least about an hour every night or just getting up ridiculously early. I haven't been overly tired though (yet)

What I’ve been eating: Trying to increase my spinach intake and other healthy things. Picked up some walnuts today, been researching healthy pregnancy diet foods

Emotions: Excited. Nervous. Afraid. Disbelief. Doesn't feel real. All of the above. Feeling excited, but afraid, I'm afraid in the back of my mind of something happening. I know that miscarriages are such a real thing, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. I want to be excited but I want to get past that hurdle first.

Purchases: A second pregnancy test! Also some type of prenatal granola bars (organic Happy Mama) I saw in target when I was getting the test, and supplies for the weekly photos

What I miss: Absolutely nothing (well maybe sleep a little but thats ok)

Stretch marks: It's only been a couple days....

Food cravings: None so far

Movement: Not even close

Anything making you queasy or sick: not yet....

Have you started to show yet: Nope

What I’m looking forward to: Our doctor's appointment, I just want to get to that hurdle and know it's really happening!

Best Moment of the Week: Finding out we are going to be parents!!

Weekly Photos Set Up

Well I'm officially all set up to take some weekly bump photo's! Although I know there won't be much to show for the next several weeks. I'm sure there really won't be anything to report till at least 12 weeks. But in the meantime I have everything ready to go. I was inspired when I had seen photos like these on pinterest and have always wanted to do the same thing. I thought it would be cool to have a collection of growing bump pictures from week to week to see the progress.

I had bought the picture frame months ago when I bought the same frame, in black, for a project for our entryway (which turned out awesome). It was cheaper to just pay the shipping once, so I bought an extra frame, hoping I'd be able to use it for this purpose one day, and then I can transition it to the nursery after. I found it on Etsy by Amber Lane Frames. It's such a cool frame, it looks great in our hallway and already looks good for this project!

The next piece was deciding on the graphic to use for the frame every week. While I have seen some people make their own signs every week, one I'm not that talented, two I don't have that kind of time, and three I like the ease and consistency of having something already printed up. I eventually settled on this package, also from Etsy (of course), by Marie's Digital Designs. I just went with the simple black and white theme.

Finally the last step was to print all the pictures and set up the tripod. I printed the first 3 weeks (technically weeks 4, 5, 6) from Target this afternoon. I wanted to start my pictures today since today is week 4! It was way too expensive to get them all printed in the store.  Since I have a few weeks buffer now, I just ordered the rest of the prints from york photo, they are awesome for printing large quantities of photos for cheap and I've never had a complaint about their service or quality.

The hardest part so far was setting up the tripod and camera, figuring out the perfect distance and figuring out how the timer on my camera works, but I got it! All in all it was a somewhat expensive little project, $52 for the frame with shipping, $19 for the digital signs, $9 for the target photo's and another $57 for the rest from york for a grand total of $137 but I'm sure it will be well worth it. I can't wait to see how they come out as we go along!

So this happened on Wednesday

Well it looks like I'll have a lot more inspiration for writing my blog these days and sticking to it! Because in 9 months we are going to be adding an addition to our family. Here's the story of how we found out....

I was working from home last Wednesday and I had gotten up really early, I think it was before 6. I'm still not really sure what prompted me to take the test, I only had one left and my period wasn't due till Saturday. I also had zero symptoms or indications that I was pregnant. I was just feeling anxious I guess and wanted an answer. I had actually been complaining the day before to Mike that I was feeling sad because I knew I'd be getting my period later that week and he was cheering my up. I had also (I think it was the night before) finally looked up online a fertility doctor in the city a friend from work had recommended to. I had checked out the office and was seriously thinking about making us an appointment.

Like I said for whatever reason when I got up I took the test and then went about my business, not even waiting for the results to come up, just figuring it was going to be negative. When I looked at the test and saw the positive I couldn't believe it. I was shaking a little and had a tear or two. I was def surprised that's for sure. I really didn't have a game plan on how I wanted to tell Mike at that point but I knew I couldn't wait. Mike was downstairs in the family room watching tv. I went downstairs and had straightened up for a few minutes in the kitchen trying to stay calm, but didn't say anything yet at this point.

I then took Rocky upstairs and our dry erase board up to the bedroom. I put Rocky on the chair and wrote the following message "Mom says to tell you I am going to be a big brother." I snapped the picture and texted it to Mike. I then came downstairs but he hadn't seen his phone yet at this point. I said to him "look at the really cute picture I just took of Rocky I just sent it to you." He was not interested in the picture. His first response was "I'll look at it later." I had to probe him at least two or three more times and was like will you please look at the picture now, I want you to see it. He finally gave in, although I think bc he knew I wasn't going to leave him alone and it was easier just to entertain me.

He looked at the picture and looked at me and must have said "wait, what?, seriously, and for real" at least 10 times. I don't think he could believe it although neither could I. He then got up and gave me the biggest and longest hug ever. I was shaking at that point. I think we were both in a state of shock. We really did it. Almost a year later, it worked! And here I am pregnant. It was the best story. I wish I had it on tape so I could relieve it again and again, it was a pretty cool surprise that's for sure! (The funniest part too is Rocky looks pissed in the picture, LOL, his days of being a spoiled only child are coming to an end)