A couple fun facts to remember:
While our family was at the cabin over Labor Day weekend, our sister-in-law Sarah was asking Mark about when we were thinking about having our next one. Mark joked that "Kat would feel bad if she got pregnant before you guys did and she didn't want to offend you." To which Sarah replied, "Oh, well if you're waiting for us, you might be waiting a really long time! You don't have to worry about that!" Weeks later when I was able to tell her we were pregnant I was able to joke by saying, "Once I knew I had your permission, we went ahead and got pregnant!"
These words were paraphrased; I was not present for this conversation and don't know the actual words that were spoken.
I attended a baby shower at the end of September for someone in my ward who was having a baby girl. At the party it seemed like just about everyone who was there was pregnant, except for me, one who had a 4 month-old, and one other lady who was the mother of teenagers. I remember announcing there that I was "not pregnant", but in the back of my mind I was thinking, "but after tonight or tomorrow that may end up being a different story." I knew that if things were working how I expected, it wouldn't be much longer until I was pregnant. Of course I wasn't telling them that at the party. A few weeks later at a play date at the park, someone brought it up again. "You're not pregnant, right? That's what you said at the shower." To which I said, "That's what I said, yes." I actually wasn't sure yet if I was pregnant because it was too early to take a pregnancy test, but I wasn't going to tell ladies in the ward before I told family about it. Ha ha!
In the October General Conference Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke about children and the blessings they bring into our lives. The part that really touched me was a story about a man going through medical school and how he and his wife decided she would work while he was in school to minimize the amount of debt. The man found an opportunity to speak with Elder Spencer W. Kimball who advised him thus:
"Would the Lord want you to break one of his important commandments in order for you to become a doctor? With the help of the Lord, you can have a family and still become a doctor. Where is your faith?"
When the talk was over Mark's dad said, "Here comes the next baby boom in the Church!" I did feel like the talk spoke to me, but it was more a reassurance that we had made the right decision. It didn't inspire me to go ahead and get pregnant because we had already made that decision.
Mark told me he was more excited about this pregnancy than he was about Canon...not as a slight to Canon, but because then he knew that meant I would not be returning to work and we were going to pile on more student debt. This time, it's not really going to have many financial repercussions. At least one of us is excited about this pregnancy. So far, I've been feeling too much heartburn, fatigue and nausea to really be excited about much. I find that talking about it (and blogging) helps the fact that I'm going to have another baby sink in a little better. The more I get to talk about it, the more I'll get excited about it. I think that once I get to the second trimester and I start feeling better, I'll have nothing left to damper my spirits about this baby. So, unless you want to hear the dire truth, don't ask me how I'm feeling for another 8 weeks or so! :-S
Now for the timeline of events:
The last time I knew right away that I was pregnant because I was charting, and I had to wait almost 2 whole weeks before I could take a pregnancy test to be sure. This time I was going to let it be a surprise, no charting, no precise keeping track of my periods...but I started feeling some symptoms right away, and I suspected just as early and had to wait quite a while until I could take the pregnancy test. (Not that I really want to share the symptoms with the whole world, but I do want to record what the symptoms were: heartburn/maybe it's re-flux, poor sleep at night, tiredness, tenderness in breasts, very amorous in the mornings. I don't remember ANY of these within the first weeks of pregnancy with Canon...especially not to this extent!)
I filled my last Rx of the pill on August 22nd, and the first day of my LMP was September 17th. I took the pregnancy test on October 19th. Just as I suspected, it was positive.
I later realized that I had to inform Medicaid about my pregnancy. This was a much more involved process than I wanted it to be. I also had to inform them about Mark's newly started firm and self-employment and my part-time barter/work at the chiropractor's office. They gave me a deadline of Nov. 4th to get all those forms turned in, but they still closed our accounts on Nov. 1st because they were pending. That was really annoying because Canon had his 2-year check-up on Nov. 1st and I didn't know until the day of that our account was on hold. Grrrr! But I got it all turned in and everything got fixed. I was able to just reschedule Canon's appointment and it all worked out. I'm now fully covered as a pregnant woman, so I have no copays anymore- YESSSS!!!!
I also told Mark that if I got pregnant, then I would go on WIC to help out with the grocery bill. And I did. Mark's mom didn't seem the least bit suspicious about it, but she had suspected something before we made the official announcement at Canon's birthday party on Nov. 4th.
Tomorrow is my first appointment with the doctor, so more on this little Dahl-ling will have to wait until then!
