Loving, Crafting, & Cooking in the Country: Baby Girl!

It has been over 2 months since I've blogged and the reason why is... I've been dying to share the news of our baby which has consumed our thoughts since early February, but it has been a really hard secret to keep while following the traditional standard of waiting to tell the world until you've finished the first trimester! This really has been the most amazing journey for Tom & I. We've always wanted to become parents together and now that we have been married for 3 years and settled in our new house for 1 year, we felt it was the right time. I have been keeping a baby journal since I was 4 weeks pregnant so I am hoping that will be a treasure for Tom, the baby, & I. I have a few pregnancy apps I use on my phone and I love seeing how our baby is growing. To think she started out the size of a poppy seed and is now the size of a pear is amazing to. From the tiniest sonogram photo to our 12 week one where she has arms and legs, we are so thrilled at our little miracle that is growing each day.

This Wednesday, I will be 16 weeks along. I have been very fortunate that I have been feeling really well so far. I was so nervous about morning sickness since I absolutely hate to throw up. I prayed about that so much because I couldn't imagine running out of a classroom with 28 kindergartners often. I have not thrown up even once and my understanding is that if I was going to be sick like that it probably would have happened already. Occasionally I feel nauseous at night, but I've noticed that as long as I eat and drink frequently, it seems to go away. I did have 2 fevers and a stomach bug over the course of the first few months, but that was mostly due to my lowered pregnancy immune system combined with the germy 5 and 6 year olds I spend my days with. I also have right now a tree mite bite on my stomach. I had a little black dot on my stomach for what seemed like a long time. I thought it was just a blackhead or something and was exfoliating it daily, assuming it would go away. Long story short, the doctor had to cut the black spot out, believes it was a tree mite (a little spider looking bug that I guess I picked up from my country lifestyle), and she has me on antibiotics for the infection it caused. Luckily all of that hasn't had any impact on the baby and I really am feeling great. My belly is starting to show a teeny tiny bit so for comfort I am wearing belly bands over my pants to give myself a little more breathing room.

Some of the best parts of reaching the end of the first trimester has been telling people our happy news. I am truly humbled how genuinely happy people have been for Tom & I. We told our closest families by sending Indy, our beagle into the room wearing a bandana that read "I am going to be a big brother, October 2015." At first our families didn't know if that meant we were getting a new puppy or having a baby, but once they realized it was so exciting! Everyone was thrilled! I know my dad and brother are so happy to have their first niece and grandchild and I know Tom's side of the family is happy to add a new little one to run around with our nephews who we adore. My younger nephew has been asking me such funny stuff such as "Will the baby be born out of your mouth or your feet?" and every time I eat something in front of him he likes to point out the baby is eating that too. He has also brought me some of his old diapers so I will be ready. Everyone that I work with at my school has been so happy for us too. I've worked there now for 7 years so the support of my fellow teachers and the parents of children I've taught have been so touching. Even just how they ask me how I am feeling or giving us early baby gifts has meant so much. I told my class the news at our Easter party. I had written on a piece of paper, hidden inside a giant Easter egg "Mrs. Stidd is having a baby." I told the kids that the Easter bunny had left them a surprise. As they tried to read the note they called out "Mrs. Stidd is having a party. Mrs. Stidd is having a daddy (backwards b/d is very common for kids this age!) Finally, they got it Mrs. Stidd is having a baby!" The kids also had a lot of cute questions, from asking if I was sure the baby was really inside my belly, to telling me they have to hug me carefully now, to one of them saying "Well, now that you told us about the baby are you going to go home and tell Mr. Stidd?" There was also the day I told Stevi and her family. I hid a picture of my sonogram in the back our Disney album at my birthday dinner. Stevi flipped through each page, painstakingly commenting on each and every page. But her reaction is one I will never forget as she saw sonogram, hit me with it for making her look at the whole book, and then cried and hugged me because she was so happy. Finally, when we revealed to the rest of the world on Facebook, I was so touched how close friends, acquaintances, new friends, old friends, and extended family were so happy for us. Sharing the news of our greatest blessing has been a blessing all on its own.

Waiting to find out if the baby was a boy or girl was so consuming! We were told at the doctor that they do an early 12 week blood test and as part of that we could find out the baby's gender as oppose to waiting for a 20 week ultrasound. We were thrilled and were thinking pink from the moment I became pregnant. We really wanted to add a girl to be a cousin to my two nephews. I also really wanted a girl to honor my mom by giving her the name Phyllis as her middle name. Tom and I both truly had our hearts set on a girl. We went for that blood test the Monday after Easter and thought we would hear in a day or two, but they said it would take seven to ten days! Seven days past and I called the office to see if the result was in. First, they said no, then she found it had come in the fax machine that day. I asked the nurse to leave me a voicemail with the result so Tom and I could listen together. He met me at the library where I was tutoring and he was headed to a Mets game for work. Well, the voicemail never came! The girl called the wrong number and the office randomly closed early that day! So we had to wait until the next day. They left me a voicemail the next morning and Tom met me at school so we could listen together. We played the voicemail and all it said was the nurse thought she called the wrong number the day before. So we called the office again and they couldn't find the paper because the original nurse who called had it. She finally got on the phone, after I spelled Stidd 5 times for them and she said, "Are you ready?" We said "yes" and she said "You are having a GIRL!" We were so happy and over the moon excited. That night we went out to the Modern Snack Bar to celebrate, a down home restaurant that we love out east and Tom bought me some cute baby girl clothes! We know health is what's most important when having a baby but hearing she was a girl just felt so meant to be for us.

So overall, I had a wonderful 29th birthday, Easter, and end of winter/early spring with all of this fabulous baby news going on in the background. Tom has also been working really hard to re-do our kitchen. He is tiling the floor right now and my new double oven stove comes in about 2 weeks! I can't wait for that. I have also been sewing a baby dress for my little girl, sewed a baby blanket, cross stitched one bib and am working on another. I am so eager for summer vacation this year because I can't wait to just be able to go into full baby preparation mode.

I ask one thing of you my blog readers, pray. Pray that the baby is healthy, pray for my health and that I can be strong during delivery, and pray that we can make our dreams come true to have me stay home with our baby, at least for the first year of her life. I am planning on taking a year off from school next year, but of course like most Long Island families, finances are always a concern. So please pray for the above and I will keep you all in my prayers too!