We're pregnant!!!!! Our baby is due on Christmas day, and I cannot tell you how excited we are! We are also overjoyed to finally share the news! As of today, I am 16 weeks pregnant! Our most recent doctor's appointment was yesterday. We thought we would find out the gender then, but we did not. However, we will be finding out that exciting info in exactly one week!
Photography by: Mallory Cassady // Outfit Details- Dress | Sandals + Big Sister Signs
I'll share a little bit of our story today, and I will share bumpdates and baby-related posts from time to time. However, I have not turned into a total mommy blogger. I will most definitely still be sharing all the typical Art Fashion Fun content and of course all about the best sales (be sure to check back here for my HUGE Nordstrom Anniversary Sale post going live on Thursday)!
Onto our story. :) A while ago, Parker and I made a plan and decided we would wait until we moved back home before starting a family. We are both very close with our families and want them to be as involved as possible with our baby. However, Parker is very happy with his job right now, and he would have to leave his company and find a new job if we were to move home.
Although we have known that moving home was not something that would be happening immediately, baby talk (talk of a baby, not actual baby talk) became more and more common in our house. We discussed how we could come up with excuses to put off growing our family for a lifetime and end up with no babies (and that is absolutely not what we want). So on Parker's most recent birthday, we did what all responsible adults do when needing to make an important decision- we decided to flip a coin.
Heads- baby! Tails- we wait a little while longer. I flipped the coin, it rolled behind a wall, and I went to see what it landed on. Heads. Parker hadn't seen it. I said what do you think it landed on? He said probably tails. I got him to come look around the corner, and his grin lit up his face like I have never seen. The decision was made by the flip of a coin.
Fast forward a few months. I had been feeling a strange crampy feeling in my stomach (still not totally sure if this is normal?), and I decided to purchase a pregnancy test while on a Walmart grocery run. I only had a few things on my list, and the young guy checking me out appeared extremely uncomfortable as he threw the pregnancy test into a bag as quickly as he could.
I truly had ZERO expectation that the pregnancy test would be positive. I just wanted to be sure that drinking a glass or 2 of wine that weekend would be ok. Well, that plus sign showed up just about as soon as possible. I was truly in shock. I remember staring at it, staring at myself in the mirror, and not believing it was true.
I decided to hop in the shower really fast and come up with a cute way to tell Parker when he got home from work. When I was in the shower, I thought of the perfect pink and blue Lilly Pulitzer dress I could put on, and I was going to video Parker's reaction and do all these cute things. Well, Parker gets home from work early- before I had even finished drying off.
I threw the Lilly dress mentioned above on (to go with my wet hair and 0 makeup AKA not cute), and I sprinted into the kitchen with the positive pregnancy test and shoved it at Parker and said look! I had my iPhone video rolling, and it is the worst video footage known to man. It did however capture the shock and then pure joy on Parker's face. It hit me in that moment. It did not feel real to me at all until then. I started shaking and holding my belly before Parker gave me a huge hug and asked why I was shaking so badly.
I was like well, I wanted to surprise you in a cute way, but mostly- it didn't feel real at all until this moment. It still didn't feel real for quite some time. In fact, there are still moments where I cannot believe it. Parker said it felt like we were in the twilight zone for the first week or 2. So surreal and exciting! We thank God for blessing us with this special gift every day. And for those still waiting, you are in my daily prayers.
I was going home the following week, so I called my OBGYN, and they were so kind to squeeze me in at the one time that would work for me. They said that it might be too early to find a heartbeat, but they would try to search for one because it could be a while before I found a doctor in the Southaven/ Memphis area. Sure enough, they found a heartbeat. All I wanted was for Parker to be there with me, but it started to feel a little more real in that moment. And they gave me some pictures to show him.
They told me I was 6 weeks and 1 day pregnant, our baby's heartbeat was strong, and the due date was Christmas Day. I sent Parker pictures of the sonogram right away, and he called and wanted every single detail.
I think one of the reasons it did not feel real was because I did not feel any signs of pregnancy until the end of week 7. However, at that point, morning sickness hit and the EXHAUSTION was real. More details to come on all that and more in my first bumpdate!
This last photo is one of my very favorite photos of Parker ever. It is so rare that he shares his real smile/laugh in a picture. I am so thankful to my friend Mallory for capturing these photos that are so special to us! If you're ever looking for a photographer in the Memphis area, I highly suggest contacting her. You can click here to check out her blog where you will find her contact info.
But anyway, sorry for the 8000 paragraph essay! I am beyond excited to finally share all of this with you! Thanks so much for reading, and I can't wait to share more updates soon!
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