First trimester feels

First things first, thank you again for the outpouring of love, support, baby packages, cards, calls, encouragement and pure joy since our exciting announcement. It means the world to us that our little love bugs are already so loved. They say it takes a village and we’re lucky that ours crosses the ocean.

I’m still pinching myself that I have two little miracles fluttering around in my belly. Unreal, miraculous and just too exciting. The doctors continue to be stunned by what God has done. The support, the monitoring and all round care is intense and incredible but we both feel God’s hand in all of it, now more than ever. Even more unreal is that my first trimester is now behind us! What!?

I know this season will start to fly by and I wanted to be sure to document our journey for myself and for each of you. I’ve always been an open book and lets be honest, some of you have covered these babies in prayer long before the miracle even seemed possible. So here’s a little recap of what’s been happening over the last few months with more updates to come.

How did you find out? As many of you already know we did PGD through IVF. (You can catch up on our journey here, here, here, here, here, here and here.) So we found out through a blood test which just so happened to take place on our 5th wedding anniversary. We went as scheduled to our 8am appointment and then had to wait to call back for the results a long 5hrs later! This short little video was filmed right after we got off the phone call telling us the exciting news. It’s a raw picture of the excitement that we were overwhelmed with, just excuse the mascara smeared eyes and excited wavy hands ha! View here.

How did you share the news? My inlaws were already in Florida at the time so knowing that they would not be far from my mom and dad we planned for the two families to get together for a BBQ. We had to keep it a secret for a whole day and a half, hardest thing ever! We Facetimed when we knew that they were all together and I asked if they wanted to see what I got S for our anniversary. We then showed them a baby onesie and the emotions began to flow. I must admit that we were both a little nervous for some reason, but after so long it felt so good to share the excitement with the grandparents!

How far along are you? Today I’m officially 16 weeks! With each week that passes the excitement builds. I can’t believe that the first trimester is already behind us and we’re heading into the next phase of this exciting adventure. Whoa!

Size of the baby? According to my app, The Bump, our little nuggets are the size of an avocado. S has an app too (expectant mamas, have your better half download this stat, it gives him a suggested “daily tip” of different things to do for his pregnant wife hehe), Who’s Your Daddy, his says that our little ones are the weight of an apple and the size of a CD.

When is your due date? My due date is officially April 26th, but the doctors are prepping us for possibly sometime in March. The docs think that anything over 28 weeks is a bonus, but we’re believing and praying for more like 34 weeks. Towards the end of the pregnancy they will just continue to weigh up my health and the babies health week by week to judge when it’s best to safely deliver.

How have you been feeling? I’ve generally been feeling great. A little tired here and there, but that’s surely to be expected. I’ve not had any morning sickness (insert praise hands!), but I have had a loss of appetite. The trick has just been to eat little and often, something every 30minutes or so. The thought of sitting down to a big meal has been completely out of the picture. Oh, and the thought of chicken, makes me feel ill. Strange, because I used to love chicken.

Are you finding out the gender? You better believe it, we can hardly wait! We’ve booked a private gender scan for 17 weeks and we’re already counting down the days. We’ve been thinking girls mostly, but now we’re beginning to waver a little. One of each is highly unlikely, but some of our friends think we’ll fall under that unlikelyhood/miracle as well. Only time will tell!

Movements? Nothing just yet. I’ve read anytime from now you could start feeling butterflies and flutters, can’t wait for that day. I do think it’s neat that sometimes I can kind of feel where the baby might be laying, there are really firm/hard parts of my belly that move after a while, hello baby/babies!?

Cravings/aversions? The only thing I can equate to cravings would be olives, I love, LOVE them right now. The other craving happened last night when I desperately wanted a slice of cheesecake and I ate the entire slice. My appetite hasn’t been that good in forever.

Can’t wait for…? Neither of us can wait for the gender reveal and the baby belly kicks and movements. I also can’t wait for my belly to keep popping! There are so many moments and so many firsts that we just don’t want to miss a beat.

Highlights? Some of our highlights over the past few months, besides sharing our news, have been the 12 week scan. Seeing those tiny little humans and their pitter-pattering little heartbeats turned us into complete mush. It still feels so surreal that these two blessings are brewing up inside of me.  I’ve also started to scout out all things baby and nursery. Hello Pinterest, Hello Etsy, goodbye savings! No major purchases (besides a bigger vehicle) have been made, but I have a feeling it won’t be long.

Hubs? I love seeing how excited S is about all of the little details as well. We’ve dreamed and prayed for this for so long that we’re trying to savor every single moment. I also love how much he loves the little growing bump, he checks the progress almost everyday.

Maternity clothes?  Oh yes! My old skinny jeans are pretty much out of the question now. I’ve purchased two pairs of maternity jeans and a few blousy tops and jumpers. I must admit that the maternity clothes selection in England isn’t great. I’m tempted to send some things to my mom and dad to bring over at Christmas. Would love to hear your favorites!?

Nursery?  We’ve cleared out the room that we decided on for the nursery and have discovered that two cribs, a chair, a changing table and wardrobe – just won’t fit! So after a few hormonal tears (it’s got to be that), we’ve gone with plan B. We are going to make one room the “sitting/feeding” room and the room across the “sleeping/changing” room. I’m working on a mood board at the moment and can’t wait to share it with you.

Will you give continual updates on the progress? Of course! As long as you enjoy following our journey, I’ll continue to share.

In case you missed it you can read our announcement here.