Hormones

We've all seen it before on tv and movies -- the pregnant woman weeping over a Hallmark commercial.  Everyone laughs because haha, she's hormonal and everything makes her cry.

Back in January, I was watching an episode of "The Office" where Jim and Pam (whose love story was the central theme of the first few seasons and who are now happily married) are both really stressed out and have a really bad argument over the phone.  Pam starts crying and the camera crew (the show is a fake documentary) forget what they're supposed to be doing for a minute and come over and hug her while she cries on their shoulder.

I have to admit, I teared up a bit.  I bet I was not the only person watching who did.  What was weird was what happened next.  I wiped a tear, and Jason said, "Are you crying?"  Then, my one or two tears burst into an explosion of sobbing!  My face screwed up, I groaned "shut up!" and reached for the tissue box.  What was wrong with me?  A few tears for a heart-wrenching scene, sure.  But this?  What the what?!?  Oh yeah, I'm pregnant and terribly hormonal.  Riiiiiiiight.

The worst part was that Jason kept looking at me the rest of the night saying, "Are you crying?"  I should have thrown something at him.  I haven't really had a moment like this since then, but I had to laugh at myself later and the hormonal mess I've become.

The World's Best Card

In all the hoopla, I forgot to share about Valentine's Day.  Jason and I are not big V-Day people.  We usually just stay at home, cook something a little fancier than normal, and call it a night.  This year, we didn't go all out, but I did want to celebrate.  Maybe it was because this is our last V-Day as a two-person household.

I had a doctor's appointment that afternoon, so I decided to pick up dinner on the way home.  Jason and I chose a place we've never been before, Relish.  The hardest part of the night was reading over the menu and deciding on just one thing (shrimp and grits?  sounds great.  gourmet mac and cheese with extra add-ins?  yum).  We ended up with fancy grilled cheese sandwiches -- Jason's came with apple slices and bacon, mine with pulled pork and slaw.  Jason's came with a side of homemade chips, mine with fried green tomatoes.  Tasty time!

We haven't bought V-Day gifts for each other since 2008, but both of us ended up getting each other stuff this year.  I, ever the romantic, got Jason some socks.  Laugh all you want, but he's really been wanting some new socks.  Jason, who continues to surprise me every day, bought me 6 (yes, 6!) sing-along cds by a famous rock musician who also makes kid cds under the name "Caspar Babypants."  He said if we were going to have to listen to kid music, at least it could be cool music.

Here's an example:

He apologized that it wasn't a traditional Valentine's Day gift, but I couldn't have been happier.  I love that he's thinking about how to do this parent thing "our way."

Anyway, I know this post is getting long, but I have to share his card.  There's a side of Jason not a lot of people get to see.  This card is being shared with permission from its author.

Front of the card: "This is a card."

 The inside:

The Store of Valentine's Day (from a bear's perspective)

A long, long time ago, during what the humans refer to as the "nineteen sixties" there were only 27 days in February.  There was no 14th day.  Then, there came along this guy named Valentine... Roy, I think.  He needed another day in February... maybe he had a bill due or something, I don't know.  So, he added the 14th day.  It was a hit.

Meanwhile, at Hallmark, the company was facing bankruptcy because they had produced a ton of heart-themed cards to commemorate the first human heart transplant (though, the hearts on their cards did not look anything like delicious human hearts).  However, heart transplants were not as common as they had expected, so nobody bought these cards.  Once the new day was announced, Hallmark execs seized the opportunity and dubbed the day "Valentine's Day" after our friend Roy.  They were then able to offload their stockpile of heart-themed merchandise, and the business was saved.  The Pope (a major Hallmark stockholder at the time) was so pleased with the outcome, that he made Roy a saint.

The End.

Bears are not good at stories.  Happy Valentine's Day.

Is that not the most fantastic thing you have ever read?  I couldn't have asked for a better card, or a better Valentine to celebrate with!

Quotes

Some other fun quotes from telling friends and family:

Jason (in an email to me about how he was going to tell Joe and Amanda): "Did you ever notice how burritos look like little swaddled babies... by the way, we're having a baby."

How we actually told them:
Me: (talking about the State Fair) "One day we'll make it back there."
Jason: "Maybe we'll take our kid.  By the way, we're having a kid."

"Congrats and drats." -- My principal, Dr. Mutillo, who was both excited for me and worried because he's seen too many teachers not return after having a baby (don't worry, I am... really really)

Kristen B: "So what's up with Megan these days?"
Me: "Oh, you know... pregnant."

Jason's coworker (after seeing the "itself" picture): "You should have called it "Our Self"

My uncle Jim: "There was more in the oven at Thanksgiving than we realized."

Telling the Selfs

On February 9th, we headed west to Hickory under the pretenses of "buying furniture."  Now, truth be told, we did go furniture shopping.  We've got a few odds and ends we're still looking for, and have had no success in Raleigh.  However, it was really a ruse to visit Jason's parents without conjuring up too much suspicion.

Jason and I shopped at this 4-story furniture mart for hours, and then met up with his parents for dinner in Hickory.  They needed to run some errands, so we headed towards their house and stopped and visited with MawMaw (Jason's grandmother).

We got through the whole day without telling the family the big news.  Why?  Well, Jason's parents' church is about 40 people, and we knew they wouldn't be able to contain their excitement if they found out the day before.  We hadn't told our closest friends yet, so we weren't quite ready for the news to spread to the masses.  On a sadder note, the preacher's daughter was in ICU that weekend, so a big, jubilant announcement at church seemed in poor taste.  So we waited...

We all had lunch together after church.  MawMaw came over and sat down for a bit after the meal.  When she started to get up to leave, Jason said, "You can't leave yet.  We haven't even told you we're pregnant yet."

The only one who seemed to catch on was MawMaw, who said, "You're what?!?"  Jason repeated himself: "You can't leave because we haven't told you we're pregnant."

The rest of the family was silent.  Jason's mom said, "But you're not, are you?"  I said, "Actually, we are."

Everyone was so excited and immediately started firing questions at us.  That afternoon, we called Sara on the way home, and she too erupted into high-pitched, indiscernible congratulations.  It must be a sister thing. :)

Making a Difference

I'm taking a short break from overwhelming y'all with pregnancy stories to give you some insight into my life. As a teacher, it's my goal that students will begin to see science in their daily lives, not just as facts and figures to study for the test.  Yesterday, I got my wish.  A student came in and said he came across a picture, and was so excited because he knew what it meant.

So glad to know I'm making a difference...

Telling the Davenports

I mentioned yesterday that we decided to wait a while before telling family.  I talk to my family nearly every day on the phone, so I was wondering how I was going to keep it from them.  Little did I know I would be tested just TWO HOURS after finding out the big news for myself.

I found out on my dad's birthday after being in Jamesville that morning.  Well, a few hours into knowing I was pregnant, I get a phone call from Jill:
"Hey... I noticed you didn't drink coffee this morning.  Anything you want to tell me?"
Panic panic panic, scramble to come up with something.... "No, just didn't feel like coffee today."
"Ok, you would tell me, right?"
"Of course.  Hey, I gotta go..."
"Ok, bye."
"Bye" *muffled scream into pillow

My love of coffee almost made me spill the beans... yes, I went there :)

Things didn't get better two weeks later when we found out a close family member was having a baby. Actually, things did get better because I could get my "talking about babies and pregnancy" fix without having to talk about me specifically.  So maybe that was a blessing in disguise.

Finally it was time to tell my parents (February 2nd).  We knew we were going to travel the next weekend to Nebo to see Jason's folks, so I convinced my parents to meet us halfway in Rocky Mount for some Cracker Barrel.  Now, other people may have been suspicious of this, but we've actually done this a couple of times before to give them something from Raleigh or they give me something from Jamesville, so they seemed pretty oblivious.

celebrating my grad school graduation at Cracker Barrel in 2011

We got through breakfast chatting about their anniversary trip to Savannah.  As the waiter took away our plates, Mom pulled out her camera to start showing me pictures from the trip.  I said, "Before you do that, I've got something to show you" and pulled out a picture of the baby.

Mom knew immediately what it was.  She covered her mouth in excitement, but no sound came out.  A few moments later, she quietly said, "Oh, you made me come to a place where I can't scream!"  Daddy just sat there beaming.

Can you tell they're excited?

I called both Jill and Kara on the way home.  They were both high-pitched and indiscernible, so I'm guessing they were excited :).  Kara was at work (boo, tax season), so I made her get off the phone with me to go work.  "But I don't want to get back to work, I want to talk about baby stuff!"  I couldn't get up with Jill at first, so I left a vague voicemail and ended up calling back an hour later because I couldn't wait any longer.  We ended up talking a long time because she was home alone and excited.

So by the end of the day, all my immediate family knew.  Now, we could look ahead to telling Jason's family the following weekend...

Telling Jason

It's been really fun telling our loved ones the good news.  Over the next couple of days, I'm going to share some of those stories.  PS, I don't intend to turn this into a pregnancy blog.  I've just been dying to share these stories for a while now, so they're going to spill out over the next week or so!

Let me back up a bit before sharing how I told Jason.  I started having suspicions I was pregnant on December 14 at my science department Christmas party.  We were at a restaurant, I ordered food, and when it came, the thought of eating it grossed me out.  For those of you that know me well, I'm a big eater.  It wasn't that I was full or that the food tasted bad, it was just very unappealing to me.  This got me wondering...

As the days went by, I noticed other small things, and really started thinking I was pregnant.  Then came the logistics.  We had discussed not telling our families right away because they wouldn't be able to keep the secret from the whole neighborhood (sorry, but you know it's true).  That said, if I was pregnant, I knew there was no way I could get through the holidays without spilling the beans!  So that meant I'd have to wait until after we were done celebrating Christmas to take the test...

We got back from celebrating Christmas in Jamesville on December 28 (easy to remember because it's my dad's birthday).  Nearly immediately after we got home, I rushed off to "buy groceries."  If Jason was confused by this, he didn't show it.  Leaving the house, I was so distracted I ended up scraping my side mirror against the garage!  It's ok, no damage done, though I was really embarrassed when Jason came outside to make sure everything was ok.  Despite my distraction, I was able to go buy groceries... and a test.  I went upstairs, took the test, and it was positive.  *happy dance*

Back over the summer, I had decided how I would tell Jason if we ever got pregnant.  I wanted to give him something tangible.  A few weeks before Christmas I found the perfect thing...

So after finding out the good news, I came downstairs with a tiny gift bag and told Jason I had one more Christmas gift for him.  He accused me of buying something at the grocery store and wrapping it up like a gift.  When he unwrapped the gift -- a mustache onesie -- he was utterly confused.  I blurted out, "I'm pregnant!"  The next thing I said?  "Well, at least I think I'm pregnant.  Come double-check the test and make sure I didn't read it wrong."

still a little in shock

Once we had confirmed I actually was pregnant, we hugged, kissed, hugged again... but then what?

Jason looked at me and said, "What do we do now?"
I said, "I guess we have a baby."
Jason: "Should I go boil some water?"

Oh, that silly goose!

Common Questions

When I started telling people we were having a baby there were certain questions I expected to be asked.  What has amazed me is how consistent people are with their questions!  I get these three each time.  So in case you DIDN'T ask me these, here's a little mini interview with myself:

"Have you been sick/how are you feeling?"
Very surprisingly well.  At the beginning, I had some food aversions (the Christmas ham had.to.go.) and smells that made me a bit queasy (like our plug-in air fresheners), but I actually have not been sick. The closest I've been is having a very sensitive gag reflex, which means I have to be careful when brushing my teeth.

I've been tired, but no more than usual after teaching and being active all day.  I fall asleep on the couch every night by 8:30, but I've been doing that for about the past 8 years, so nothing new there!

"When are you due/how far along are you?"
I am due August 20th (yes, I know it's going to be an uncomfortable summer).  I went to the doctor last Thursday, and he told me I was 13 weeks.

"Are you going to find out if it's a boy or girl?"
You betcha!  Each family is allowed to make their own decisions about this, but seriously, I couldn't stand not to know.  Besides, I want to get lots of cute pink polka-dot clothes or blue dinosaur clothes at my shower, not all yellow and green unisex clothes.



Other questions:

"Are you going back to work?"
Yes.  August 20th is the beginning of the school year, so I'll have a substitute and then return some time in the fall.  I know it's going to be really tough not being a stay-at-home mom, but I absolutely love teaching and feel that it is my calling in life, so I want to continue to pour into 180 teenagers a year (while still being an awesome mom).

"Have you had any cravings yet?"
This is hard to tell, because I've always been a bit eater and my family has always eaten weird stuff.  Sure, I came home the other day and had some baked beans as an after-school snack... but I did that years ago, long before Baby Itself.  Sure, I had some rice-a-roni the other day before I left for school, but it just looked so yummy!  Cravings or just an excuse to snack all the time?  I can't tell.

"What are you doing about day care?"
That's a big unknown right now, except that we'll be doing daycare.  SAS provides on-site daycare, but it's really tough to get into.  If we don't get in, they will give us a stipend to help with the expense of going with another daycare (shout-out to SAS for being awesome!), so we'll need to start looking in the next few months.  We really want one with an early drop-off, since Jason and I currently go to work around 6am.

"Any names yet?"
We've thrown around a few names, but haven't really found ones we love.  We're having better luck with girl names than boys.  We have a few "rules" (more than one syllable, limit the number of S's in the name, plan on calling the baby by its first name), but no winners yet.  We probably won't share names we're considering beforehand.  When we finally have "the" name, we'll consider sharing.  We just have to be careful, because we have a lot of pregnant friends and family right now that may be name-stealers!


That's it for now.  Feel free to ask me other questions, but I just thought I'd answer these since these are the most common ones I get hit with.

Introducing...

Crappy Pictures

Ok, if you have never heard of http://crappypictures.com/, you don't know what you've been missing.  They're written by a mother of two in Los Angeles, and they're hilarious!  If you're a mother, you'll nod your head knowingly about her anecdotes and laugh your head right off.  If you're not a mother, you'll still laugh your head off.

Anyway, just a plug for her because she's awesome.

Talking to Mom yesterday (who also reads Crappy Pictures), she asked me if I had seen yesterday's post about Valentine's Day.  I hadn't, but it had a link to 2012's post that turned out to be oddly similar to mine.  So if you enjoyed yesterday's trip down memory lane, here's a double dose from Crappy Mom (what she calls herself on the blog):

Crappy Pictures Valentine's Day 2012

Happy Valeen!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  I'm shocked to announce that Jason and I are semi-celebrating this year (we usually never do), so I will post later a bit about it.  For now, I want to talk about Valentine's Day as a kid.

Valentine's Day as a kid was awesome.  A few days before, my elementary classmates and I would fashion some sort of valentines' holder.  Ours were usually stapled construction paper pouches fastened to the bottom of the chalkboard.  Teachers would give everyone a list of the people in the class (so you could attempt to spell their name correctly, not just phonetically) to encourage students to give everyone a valentine, not just their friends.

I would go to the store and pick out the perfect theme for my valentines.  Maybe this year I'll do TMNT, no, Garfield... At home, I'd look through the whole box and pick out the very best ones for my closest friends, plus the most romantic one possible for my crush (not that elementary ones were terribly romantic... I remember one I got that had two people sharing a t-shirt and said "we're a great fit").

That afternoon, I'd get home and dump out my haul.

The best valentines?  The ones with candy (duh), followed shortly by ones featuring my favorite characters or fun puns.  Ok, there's the one from my best friend.  And that creepy kid nobody likes (eww).  Where's the one from my crush?

"Have a great day"?  Not even a mention of Valentine's Day?  No confession of his secret love for me?  Aww, man!  The heartache of a crushed 8-year-old.

Only now do I realize that the 8-year-old boy probably had nothing to do with the valentine selection or probably even writing the names on the valentines.  I'm pretty sure that was his mom's job.  Hmm, so maybe he DID secretly love me and just didn't tell his mom...


The other great thing about Valentine's Day as a kid was when my dad got home from work.  Every year, he'd come in the house, say "Happy Valeen" and give his four valentines boxes of Whitman's Samplers.

What an awesome gift.  First of all, it was chocolate.  Secondly, Daddy got us each one so we didn't have to share and no one noticed how much was gone from my box at any one time.  Thirdly, it came with a map telling you what each chocolate was.  I could go for my favorites and not be surprised by any gross ones.  As I put that first Jordan almond in my mouth, it finally felt like Valentine's Day.

What are your favorite Valentine's Day memories from your childhood?

And the Birthday Continues...

Ok, I know most of you have given up on me.  I blame the chaos of the beginning of the semester.  I blame the cold weather.  I blame the Harry Potter series, which I'm currently rereading.  I'm busy at work... it's cold at home... so all I do is snuggle up with a book under a blanket.  Hardly award-winning blog material there.

This past weekend, I actually DID something, so I thought I'd share.  I met up with my good friend Kristen for our bi-monthly chat fest at Caribou Coffee.  Kristen's not even a big coffee drinker, but after some trial and error, we discovered that the people at the 'Bou are least likely to shoot evil glances at you if you take up prime seats for a few hours.  The people at Dairy Queen?  Not so much.  We learned that one the hard way.

Anyway, I caught up with Kristen over a Caramel High Rise (yum!).  Afterwards, she took me over to Versona Accessories and gave me some spending money as a belated birthday gift.  She first introduced me to Versona a few months ago when it came to Brier Creek.  It's like a candy store for jewelry-lovers.  Everything is color-coordinated.  Need coral jewelry?  It's all grouped together.  Found the perfect red necklace and wonder if there are matching earrings?  They're right there beside the necklace.  It's fun just to explore!

I never have luck in stores when I a) want to go shopping and b) have cash to spend, but I managed to find a few pairs of earrings.  I also chipped in a bit of leftover birthday money (thanks, Mom and Dad!) and bought something very different for me -- a coral maxi skirt.  I think I'll get some really good wear out of it this spring and even into summer (especially when I don't feel like shaving my legs!).

My haul:

I know the skirt comes off orange here, but I blame my freakishly dark house for skewing the colors (I took this photo this morning at 5:30am, so no sunlight to help).  As for the cat birthday card?  Well, that's a bit of an inside joke between me and KHB.