6 Things to Keep a Newborn Entertained Visually

They say young babies can only see 8-12 inches away. I think they mean they can only focus 8-12 inches away, but they can see silhouettes farther away. 

1. Fans and Clocks

My baby loves to look at the overhead fans. He started looking at them when he was 4 weeks. Sometimes he’ll be fussy until he sees the fan and puts his attention on it. Clocks are also great entertainment for him. 

Babies' brains do best when looking at high contrasting colors, hence why he likes the dark brown fan and clocks against the white walls.

Here is Samson at 4 days old, his eyes are learning to work together.

2. Pictures

Below is a wall hanging near where I change his diaper that he enjoys looking at. 

3. Bouncy seats

I have a bouncy seat that he likes to sit in. When I first started putting him in the seat at 6 weeks, he avoided looking at the toys hanging in front of him, but at 8 weeks is when he started paying attention to them. 

4. Crib Mobiles

He loves this crib mobile that I attached to a dining chair. He looks at it for a good half an hour and does not get bored. It is not recommended to have a mobile above the crib because the crib is meant for sleeping, not playing. This is Samson at 8 weeks, his eyes can track so well now.

4. Hanging Toys

My mom purchased a toy to hang from his stroller using these wonderful links that entertains him on our morning walks. Having plenty of links is good to make sure the toys hang at an appropriate height and to have one for each toy for convenience. 

5. Mirrors

Mirrors are great to put in front of his face so he can see how adorable of a baby he is :). You can also use this in the car for when you are driving and want to see your baby. 

6. You

Lastly, babies love looking at your face. Especially the first month, that is all they need. 

This is Samson when he was 2 months old.

Every week he gets better and better with focusing and tracking items. 

What toys or things does your baby enjoy looking at? Tell me about it in the comment section below.

4 Reasons I Did Not Sleep at the Hospital After Birth

I had absolutely no expectations for the stay at the hospital after birth. I had read that epidurals make your legs numb, making you not able to walk. I was able to walk, it was just very slow. What I did not know was that you basically do not get any sleep when you're in the hospital.

We were in the hospital for 46 hours and I slept a total of 2 hours during that time. I took a few 5 or 10 minute cat naps and one long hour and a half nap.

1. One of the main causes of lack of sleep was that I had to breastfeed every two hours. The very first time breastfeeding him was great. Then I tried to do it without help, which was a big mistake. It hurt the entire time and because I was doing it wrong, my nipple became one big sore. They had me breastfeed him football style, where he is laying beside me. It forced me to lean forward nursing, which made it impossible for me to fall asleep, which is good. 

2. Another reason for lack of sleep was when we were in the delivery room, the blood pressure monitor went off every 15 minutes, and there was a machine that made a beeping noise when it didn’t get a blood pressure reading because I wasn’t wearing the cuff. We asked a couple times for them to turn it off, but we didn’t get any relief from it until we relocated to the mommy/baby unit 10 hours after Samson’s birth. 

3.  Nurses, the lactation specialist, cafeteria delivery people and random other people for tests or paperwork kept coming in the room what seemed like every hour. Anytime I started to get comfortable, someone came in the room.

4. The final reason I could barely sleep was that I was so attentive to my son that any time he made a noise, I was wondering why. He made tons of noises, still does. One of the things I love about him. I had a hard time letting him stay in the bassinet. You aren’t supposed to sleep with your baby next to you or on you. Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve done both. I made sure there were pillows to soften his fall if he had one and keep him tucked in to ensure that he wouldn't. But that was the only way I was able to sleep for that hour and a half, with my son sleeping right beside me on the bed.

Were you able to get any sleep in the hospital? What was your post birth hospital experience like? Let me know in the comments. 

4 Things that Make Postpartum Difficult

 I had heard postpartum was very challenging. A girl in a Bible study that I was attending in the spring gave birth and was staying home with her new baby. I heard some of the other women saying how she was having a very difficult time. They had suggested she come to the Bible study or go on a walk, basically recommend she get out of the house and see people. 

That kind of scared me. I didn’t know her very well, but she seemed like a strong, confident, smart, and hardworking person. How could postpartum take down a woman like her?

 

I tried to prepare my husband that it would be hard, but I think I was really trying to prepare myself. 

1. Sleep

The first night home, my husband was nice enough to take care of Samson while I slept. I forgot to tell him that Samson needs to eat every two to three hours. I ended up sleeping 5 hours straight, which was totally fine. Samson was still surviving from the buffet in my uterus. 

The pediatrician told me going for a 4 hour stretch was fine at night. I did my best to make that happen. My goal was to get at least 6 hours of sleep for myself during the night. The first couple weeks, it was more like 4-5 hours of total sleep at night. I napped the best I could during the day to make up for lost sleep, but I was still tired.

2. Hormones Another postpartum symptom was I cried a lot. A lot a lot. As I mentioned in the delivery story, I am a crybaby. But this was a whole new level. Anything that made me a teensy bit emotional and I was balling my eyes out. I made sure not to watch any sad movies during that time, only comedies. The changing hormones combined with lack of sleep meant lots of tissue being used. 

 

3. Meals

My mom stayed with me the first week and a half after he was born, which was a life saver. I nursed him and she offered to burp him. One of the best things you can do for a new mom is offer to burp her baby. It gave me a chance to shower, sleep or eat. Those were the only things I did other than take care of my baby the first two weeks. Whenever he was sleeping, I had to decide which one took precedence. I skipped some meals because sleep was more important to me. 

 

If you don’t have someone to prepare meals for you, then you need to prepare some freezer meals before you give birth. There is just no time or energy the first couple weeks to make anything that takes longer than 5 minutes. My mom was such a blessing in that she had dinners for us every night and made some extra for after she left. 

 

4. Weakness I felt so weak that first week. My biceps were incredibly sore. You don’t realize how much you are using your biceps to pull your legs toward you when you’re pushing. Standing up and the first few steps I took were rather painful. I walked slow and not very far for about a week. I don’t know if the pain was because I had an epidural and I had a tear or if it’s normal for all kinds of births. Was it painful for you? 

Thank God babies are so light because carrying a 7 lbs baby was heavy enough. With my son’s first appointment with the pediatrician, I had to go by myself because of COVID. My husband drove me and carried Samson in his car seat to the front door before I had to grab him. I could hardly walk and carry the car seat. Thankfully the medical assistant noticed and offered to carry him for me.

Most of the difficulties with postpartum can be eliminated or lessened if you have someone to help take care of the baby, prepare meals, and be there for you emotionally. All in all, as long as you have someone there to help you, postpartum is likely to not be terrible.

How was your postpartum experience? Was it easier or harder than you thought? Tell me how your initial postpartum period was in the comment section.

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Good and Bad Nurses

I was blessed to have an awesome labor nurse and midwife. I prayed that I would have a midwife deliver my baby rather than a doctor. Midwives spend more time with their patients, they have different ways to provide pain relief, and in the case of a tear, take better care stitching it up. It is is more than a job to them; they truly love taking care of pregnant women. Everyone should have a midwife deliver their babies. 

Within the first hour, the labor nurse, Carmella, helped me breastfeed him for the first time and it was great. I really enjoyed her as my labor nurse. She was very professional and caring. 

Here is Carmella giving Samson his first bath and a little bit of me looking completely exhausted. Video taken 2 hours after birth. 

When her shift ended, Carmella told me, “The next nurse coming in, I like her, she is great to talk to.” I thought that was kind of a strange statement. 

After spending the first hour with her as my nurse, I realized why the other nurse said that. She did not say, “The next nurse is great, she’ll take good care of you and your son,” because she didn’t believe that to be true. 

Looking back, I should have asked for a different nurse. I should have sent my husband to go talk to the charge nurse and ask for a different nurse. If you ever think you have an incompetent nurse, ask for a different one. You are paying money for a service and there is no shame in wanting the best. This nurse was either forgetful or just did not care. 

Because I had an epidural, my legs were fairly numb and I needed help walking to the bathroom. I hit the call button for the nurse and she came and helped me walk there. We realized we needed more pads because I was bleeding quite heavily. 

She left to go grab some and after I was done, she wasn’t in the room anymore to help me walk back. My husband hit the call button, but it still took her 20 minutes to come. I was just sitting on the toilet waiting. 

Later that day, I told her that I was in pain and wanted some ibuprofen. She left to go get it, but didn’t come back for an hour. 

She also had no idea how to help me breastfeed my son. In her defense, she was a labor and delivery nurse and not a postpartum nurse.  Everyone decided to have babies that week and the mommy/baby unit was full. We had to stay in the delivery room for an extra 10 hours. 

When we finally got to the mommy/baby unit, the hospital stay was a lot more comfortable.

Anyone else have a bad experience in the hospital? Or who had an exceptional nurse? Tell me about in the comment section below. 

Birth Story: Delivering

The midwife sat directly in front of me, the nurse was on one side holding my leg and Josh on the other side holding my other leg. 

It took me a while to figure out how to push efficiently and correctly. Oftentimes it was me holding my breath and mainly pushing the veins in my head. The midwife told me I need to push down there or I’ll have bruises on my face the next day. I tried to imagine being constipated and pushing poop out. She told me to pull my chest up towards my legs and tighten my abdomen. It was not easy pushing in the correct way. 

 

Pushing in the beginning didn’t hurt, it just felt like a workout. They had me take a deep breath and hold it for 10 seconds while I pushed as hard as I could. Take a quick deep breath and hold again for 10 seconds and then repeat one more time. For a total of 3 times of pushing before I took a break.

 

The reason for the quick breath before pushing the second and third times is that the baby starts to move out during the push, but will rock back inside afterwards. So you want to avoid that by taking a quick breath to shorten the time of not pushing to get more momentum. 

 

Josh and I have done lots of athletic training and he coached me on how to breath while lifting weights. It felt a lot like that. Every time I pushed, my heart rate shot up to heart rate max. I was sweaty and in between pushing, I felt so exhausted that I could just close my eyes and fall asleep. 

 

At first, the midwife told me when to push. She monitored my contractions screen. “You push when you have contractions,” she said . Towards the end, I started to monitor the screen and pay attention to when the contractions were happening. I made the resting time shorter because I was sick of pushing and I wanted the baby out. 

 

Also, they told me there was another woman giving birth (we could hear her screaming, I did not scream like she did) and they wondered who was to finish first. I am very competitive so I pushed even harder.  She ended up giving birth before me, but I still used it as a way to motivate myself to push harder and longer. 

 

The midwife told me that he was crowning. I thought that meant just like one more big push and he was out. But it seemed like he was crowning for fifteen minutes before he was actually born. 

 

That period of pushing is what makes giving birth notoriously painful. The vaginal opening is stretching to its limit. It was so painful pushing in this last stage, I really had to motivate myself to do it. 

 

I used to train with my dad. Every weekend we biked and ran. These training sessions of biking and running lasted between an hour to an hour and a half. One time we biked 30 miles in 2 hours. There were a bunch of hills at the end and my dad kept telling me it was the last hill, until the next hill showed up. But every time helped me to pedal harder and faster. 

 

It was the same with pushing at the end, I think the midwife was insinuating that it was the last push...until the next one. The last few pushes I tried to push as hard and as long as I could. Then finally he came out. She immediately handed him to me and placed him on my chest. 

 

I thought he was going to cry right away or that she would spank his tushy so that he would cry. But it was actually maybe 30 seconds until he just started crying on his own. 

 

While he was on my chest, I still had the afterbirth. I don’t remember if I had to push or if she just put her hands inside and grabbed it out. I do remember that it was painful, but focusing on my son helped distract me from the pain. 

 

She asked Josh if he wanted to cut the umbilical cord, and he did. He said he thought it was going to feel tough, but it was actually soft and easy to cut. 

 

I had a second degree tear, so the midwife focused on stitching me up, which was also painful. 

 

I was in labor for 11 hours and pushed for an hour and 10 minutes. Through all that pain, I didn’t cry and I didn’t really scream. I made grunting sounds at the very end, but that was it. I was proud of myself for not crying because normally I’m a crybaby, but now that’s Samson’s job. 

Born at 3:55 am, he weighed 8 lbs and measured 19 inches.

Tell me about your children’s births in the comment section. I’m always curious about how it was for other people.

Birth Story: Epidural

Once I got into the labor and delivery room, I told the nurse I wanted an epidural right away. They had to do some labs on me to make sure I was good to go. The labs game came back fine, and we were just waiting on the anesthesia people. 

 

Josh finally got to come inside the hospital at 9:40 pm. They checked my cervix again and I was 7 cm this time, moving along quite quickly. 

 

20 minutes later, the anesthesia team came at 10 pm. They had me stand up, lean my front side over a table and they started poking me. I had contractions during this time, making it even less fun. They asked me what side I felt pain to try to get it in the center as much as possible and it felt like painful bubbles popping in my back. Getting the epidural was way more painful than I thought, but it was still worth it. It didn’t take long for it to kick in.

 

They told me to lay on my left side to get the anesthesia on that side and then my right to get it on that side too. The left side went well and my legs, abdomen and privates were getting numb. I switched to my right side, but baby boy didn’t like it, so I had to switch back to my left. His heart rate slowed down and my blood pressure dropped. Eventually I just laid on my back and it helped to get it to my right side more, but it was never fully there, so I had more feeling on that side. 

 

After I got the epidural, I couldn’t feel the contractions hardly at all. They weren’t as close together as before, which extended the labor. Josh and I were able to relax for a few hours. Josh finished watching Spider-Man on his phone, while I rested my eyes. 

        Photo taken at 1 am

 

Around 2:45 am, I started to feel like I had to poop. I called the nurse in and told her that. She said that was just what she needed to hear. She checked my cervix one more time and said I was complete. I was at 10 cm and she couldn’t feel my cervix at all, meaning it was fully effaced. 

 

She brought in the midwife and off we went to give birth to the baby. 

 
Who else chose to get an epidural? Who chose not to or was unable to get one? What was your reasoning? Tell me about it in the comment section.

Birth Story: Triage

We got to the St Joe’s complex and didn’t see any signs for OB or Labor and Delivery, so Josh dropped me off at the ER. Nearly as soon as I walked in, they got me a wheelchair to sit in. They filled out all the paperwork for me, knowing I wasn’t in any position to do that, except for the pages I signed. 

A nurse pushed me in the wheelchair all around the hospital to the Labor and Delivery Triage. I arrived there at 8:10 pm. I sat in the waiting room for just a minute, signed a few more things, then they got me into triage. They took my vitals and gave me a gown to change into. They hooked me up with monitors for the baby’s heart rate and contractions. 

 

Because of COVID-19, Josh was not able to go inside until I was admitted. He texted me asking what was going on. I was in the middle of texting him back when I had a contraction. He figured it out and texted me to breath.

 

It’s important that your husband, or mom or whoever is with you has learned some breathing techniques. Josh watched a YouTube video right before we left for the hospital and it helped a ton. Not only does the breathing give you something to focus on, it helps you to not tense up which causes more pain. 

 

Side note, I paid for an online birthing class and I did not find it useful whatsoever. It was so boring, my husband didn’t pay attention at all. She also gave bad advice. It ended up being a big waste of money. Birthing classes in person are the only recommendation I give for them. 

 

I was in that triage room by myself for about an hour. The contractions were absolutely terrible. I was squirming around in so much pain. The nurse said that I was where a lot of women envied: 2 minutes between contractions. To me, they were starting to feel like by the time one ended, another started. And I wanted to have a break. My back hurt so much, I couldn’t sit back, but my belly hurt as well, I couldn’t lean forward. There was not any semi-comfortable position, hence all the squirming.

 

She checked my cervix, which was more painful than expected. I was 4 cm dilated, the cervix was thin and the baby was low, stage 1 or 2. She guessed I was going to be admitted, but had to get confirmation from the physician. 

 

I waited just 5 minutes to find out for sure I was being admitted. Then it was another 20 minutes before someone came with a wheelchair to pick me up, at 9:10 pm to take me to the labor and delivery room. All during this time, I had contractions every 2 minutes. But really it just felt like an ongoing contraction. 

 

Here I am when I finally got to the L&D room.

 

Who else gave birth at a big hospital and was in triage for longer than desired? Or whose birth was so quick they skipped triage? Tell me your experiences in the comments below. 

Birth Story: Labor Contractions

 It was a hot summer day in Phoenix, and Josh and I spent the day relaxing at home. I was so restless the whole day I took Sawyer to the park that afternoon when it was 105 degrees.

 

At 4:45 pm, I was watching the news with my parents and I had my first contraction. I knew it was real because I could feel the tightness in my lower abdomen, as opposed to higher up on my stomach, mentioned in Third Trimester Part 1. Immediately I started timing how far apart they were. For the first hour or so, they were 10-12 minutes apart.  Every time one started, I stood up and walked around the house because it seemed to make it feel better. 

 

I started drinking more water during that time. What followed, of course, were frequent bathroom trips. I barely released any urine however and immediately felt like I needed to go again. Later I found out that it was the way my son was positioned. 

 

After the first hour, I did not sit down after the contraction was over because it felt like it caused a new one. My contractions went to 7 minutes apart for half an hour, then to 5 minutes. They were getting more painful and more difficult to walk through. My back was beginning to hurt. I thought it was from walking, but it was actually back labor because he was sideways. 

 

The contractions quickly jumped to only 2-3 minutes apart. From everything I had read and watched online, I knew if they were between 3 and 5 minutes apart, that was when you went to the hospital. I was still able to walk and talk through most of them, so I wasn’t sure if I could trust the timing. I didn’t want to leave too early, or they would send me away, but I also didn’t want to be so late I couldn’t get an epidural.

 

My parents had sat down to eat burritos. They set out a plate for me, but I didn’t feel hungry. My dad knew that I should eat something, so he offered to make me a smoothie. I was only able to get 3 sips down before it made me feel nauseous. 

 

My mom suggested I try to sit down slouching so as to not put pressure on the abdomen. It felt nice to sit and relax a little after walking around the house for 2 hours. 

 

After probably 45 minutes of 2-3 minutes apart contractions, I decided it was time to go. We packed our bag and left for the hospital around 7:30pm. 

 

Let me know in the comments the story about your labor contractions.

 

 

Third Trimester Part 2

Even though I was uncomfortable, I did really enjoy the last trimester because I got to feel him move more intensely and felt more connected to him. 

He’s my first baby, so I don’t know if it was normal, but it seemed like he moved a lot. 

He was always kicking and punching, and sometimes harder than usual. My husband was praying for him right when he gave me a swift kick in the ribs. God’s way of telling us he is strong and healthy. 

Sometimes he pressed against my stomach and I pressed back. Then he pressed elsewhere and I pressed again and we repeated this a couple times. 

He also had the hiccups a lot, which he has a lot outside the womb as well.

During the last couple weeks, his movements were not as strong because he didn’t have as much room to get a running start. I could still feel him move around and feel connected to him. 

Here is a video of him moving when I was 20 weeks pregnant. You can see him kicking his legs already.

On a side note, I got lots of compliments and lots of people talking to me. It seemed like it was more men than women sometimes. The men would make comments like, "Tough being pregnant in the heat" or "Man, you are pregnant." It was their way of saying congratulations.  

What were your exciting third trimester experiences? Let me know in the comments below.

Third Trimester Part 1

The last trimester is when your body and mind are really preparing you to give birth. There comes a time when you are so uncomfortable you get over the fear of the pain of birth. 

Around six or seven months I stopped sleeping on my stomach, which is my main sleeping position. I slept on my sides and back and it wasn’t too uncomfortable until the eighth and ninth months. My belly was so huge that it seemed I couldn’t get comfortable to sleep in any position. Maybe in the recliner in the living room. Didn’t matter how many pillows I used, it still was uncomfortable. 

 

Rarely was I able to sleep through the night, my big belly made it uncomfortable and I also had muscle spasms. Most nights in the last few weeks, a painful Charley horse woke me up. Half the time I could just point my toes towards the ceiling and they went away. The other half, I had to jump out of bed and try to stand on that leg to make it stop. 

 

Assuming dehydration was the culprit, I tried my best to drink a gallon of water a day and it definitely seemed to help. Drinking lots of water is important throughout pregnancy and breast-feeding. Here is a water bottle to help you track how much you’ve drank.  Here I am at 29 weeks. Showing but not humongous yet.

 

By the time I gave birth I gained 35 pounds, so I weighed quite a bit more than my body was used to. Towards the end of the pregnancy, I couldn’t be on my feet for very long. It was uncomfortable, painful and tiring. 

 

Also, my feet and legs became rather swollen. My shoes did not fit anymore. I bought a pair of shoes I never thought I would: Birkenstocks. They are very comfortable for all the extra weight. Putting my tennis shoes on was a chore in the last trimester. Birkenstocks are easy to slip on, which helps when baby comes too. Here are the ones I bought.

 

I started having contractions in the last few weeks, but I could barely feel them, thankfully. I noticed that my stomach would feel hard in the middle of my stomach. My inexperienced self thought it was maybe where his head or back was. 

 

During one of my appointments, the doctor was checking his heartbeat and she said I was having a contraction. She told me when it gets hard like that, it’s a contraction.  Here I am at 37 weeks.  Sticking way out and my smile isn't quite as big. Notice my cankles.

About a week before I gave birth, I lost my mucus plug. I googled if that is a sign of birth coming soon. It said it was, but that it could still be a while. And it was. I ended up losing it a couple times. No matter how much you want to know when exactly you’re going to give birth, you don’t get to know until you’re in real labor. Dogs can sense it though. My mom said she noticed my dog acting especially restless the day before I went into labor. She googled “can dogs sense when their owner is going into labor?” Sure enough, there were other reports of it happening.

Comment below how your third trimester was. What symptoms did you experience in your last trimester? This blog has affiliate links. If you click and buy, you don't pay more, but I get a commission.

Second Trimester

Around four months was when I started to show, although it was winter, so it was mostly just me that noticed. I started feeling him move. That was also when we found out he was a he, which is what my husband, Josh, and I both hoped for. Second trimester was bliss until the last month.

At six months, I decided to go golfing with Josh. My lower back hurt a little, but it didn’t stop me from playing. It was a cheap golf course so we had to walk to each hole. It hurt a little to swing and walk, but wasn’t excruciating.
We decided to go get some food afterwards and as I was walking to the restaurant, I felt an unbelievably intense sharp pain. I couldn’t twist my body at all or it would hurt and run down my leg. It hurt like that for about a week. The doctor (after looking at me like I was an idiot golfing six months pregnant) suggested walking to fix it, but walking hurt like crazy. He also suggested a heating pad, but it just took time to recover.  Now I know: don’t golf when you’re pregnant.

How was your second trimester? Also does anyone else love to golf, but is as terrible at it as we are? Let me know in the comments.

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First Trimester

Everyone knows that pregnancy looks different for everyone, but you never know what it’ll look like for you. Here is how my pregnancy looked like for me. 

As I said in the Finding Out I Was Pregnant post, my first sign of pregnancy was nausea. I never threw up, thankfully. 

Well, one time I did, but not because I was nauseous. My gag reflex was in hyper mode during most of the pregnancy. I was eating a hamburger and a piece of bread got caught in the back of my throat. My gag reflex kicked in and I barely made it to the sink before I threw up a little. 

Anyways back to the nausea. It caused me to lose a couple pounds because I wasn’t eating very much the first few weeks. I still went to work, where I was a cashier at a ski resort. My nausea did cost the ski resort some money. 

I was selling tickets to a couple and they asked to pay $80 in cash and the rest on a card. I seriously believed I was going to throw up. I finished the transaction as soon as I could so I could step aside and lean over a trash can. 

I finished it too soon though because I forgot to grab the $80 off the counter. I am assuming they took it back because when I counted my drawer before leaving work, I was $80 short. Thankfully my managers were graceful to me.

My husband and I went to Phoenix for thanksgiving and we stayed in my in-law’s camper. There was a tornado that had touched down just a few miles away from us, which never happens in Arizona. 

As you know tornadoes cause a lot of wind, so much wind it was swaying the camper. I felt like I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean. It was the middle of the night and so I didn’t want to leave the camper. 

So I stuck it out and felt like I was going to throw up for a good few hours. I considered throwing up knowing I would feel better. But my husband told me it was in my head and that I didn’t need to throw up. So I decided against it and I’m glad I did because it might have made me throw up whenever I felt nauseous. 

Maybe I am having mom brain, but nausea is the only thing that sticks out about the first trimester, other than the short snowboarding season.

I was able to go snowboarding a few times in the first trimester. I fell on my stomach one time and I called it quits after that. 

Write in the comments what your (or someone you know's) first trimester looked like.

Here is Josh and me at Copper Mountain in Colorado.

Need a snowboard jacket? Look no further, here is the one for you.

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Finding Out I Was Pregnant Part 2

After taking the two at-home, pee-on-a-stick, pregnancy tests, I read online the next step was to get a blood test to confirm.  

It recommended waiting until a full week after your period was supposed to start. I couldn’t wait that long, I was too excited. I scheduled one for a few days after I took the home tests.  I got the results two days later, which felt like eternity. The results did not have a clear yes or no for pregnancy. Not even a positive or negative. It had my level of hCG hormone. It told me it was “out of range.” 
I had no idea what level it was supposed to be or what out of range meant. I googled it and from what I read on Google, the level was within range for a positive pregnancy. 

As soon as my husband and I got the full confirmation that I was, without a doubt, pregnant. We took a trip that weekend back to Phoenix to tell our parents. 

The month prior we had taken a spontaneous trip to Phoenix because we had spent the day in Breckenridge and it was tapped out for us. We asked ourselves what we wanted to do the rest of the weekend. Clearly the answer was to drive all through the night to a location 800 miles away. 

Josh and I rarely plan for things. We have taken many last minute trips, so we assumed our parents wouldn’t think anything of this one, which was right. I believe we texted them when we were on our way there. 

It was around the time of Josh’s and his father, Mike’s birthdays. Friday night, we had dinner with Josh’s family as a birthday celebration for them. We bought Mike a card saying, ”Happy Birthday Grandpa.” He had a confused look on his face until he read the inside that said, “From Josh, Kamee + 1.” His face went from confused to joyful, while everyone else’s face changed to confused. Then we told everyone we were pregnant and they were all overjoyed. 

We couldn’t come up with any fun ideas to tell my parents, so I just spurted it out in the middle of dinner. They were also overjoyed.

Comment below how you told your family and friends you were pregnant.

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Finding Out I Was Pregnant Part 1

My husband and I decided we wanted to have a baby and so we tried for one. Two weeks later, I was driving to work at 5 AM down Coal Creek Canyon in Colorado and I felt nauseous. I never get nauseous, so my first thought was that I was pregnant. 

I was working at a medical device plant where my days lasted 12 hours. Every one of those hours that day was spent wondering if I was pregnant, getting excited about the thought of it, but trying not to get my hopes up at the same time. Before heading home, I stopped by a Walgreens to pick up a pregnancy test. Here is the one I used https://amzn.to/2PyIymn. Always good to have one just in case :)

As I was driving home, I tried to convince myself I wasn’t pregnant but I just could not shake the feeling that I was. I made sure that I was drinking plenty of water so that I could take the test as soon as I got home, which I did. Even though I had already made up in my mind that I was pregnant, it still came as a wonderful surprise that the test confirmed it. 

I ran over to my husband sitting on the couch and told him the great news. He replied in a tired monotone voice, “No that can’t be” and he continued on watching his show. I chugged a bunch more water, waited as long as I could, which was only about 15 minutes so that I could use the other test. This was a clear yes or no test and it clearly said yes. I told my husband again and he replied something not enthusiastic like, “Ok.” 

It wasn’t until the next day after a long day of work that it hit him and he realized he was going to be a father. It’s been something we have talked about even before we got married, wanting to have kids. Most men do not instinctively want to have kids from the time they are still children like many women do. 

Throughout these past nine months, his enthusiasm has increased about having a child. Throughout the months, he talked more and more about his hopes and dreams for our soon-to-be child. Once we found out it was a boy, Josh had dreams of playing baseball, dirt biking and snowboarding with our son.

I’ve always heard that men take longer to process things, just didn’t know it took this long. I guess that’s part of why pregnancy lasts nine months; not only does it prepare the mother and grow the child, but also gives time for the father to process it.

Let me know in the comments how your pregnancy adventure began.

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