Okelbaby

WARNING! THIS POST IS EXTREMELY LONG!

If you read this blog you probably already know the BIG news but I have had lots of people tell me that they want me to post it on the blog and I've been meaning to do it but it just got put off. Anyway, we are proud to announce that coming this February 2013 we will be adding a little baby to our family! Can you believe it? I still have a hard time comprehending it.

Here's a little story about how we got the good news. We had been trying for about 3 months and with each month ending we would get more and more anxious to get the result we wanted on the pregnancy test. We were having quite the year of adventures thus far and knew that this would be the best yet. We went on our third cruise together in March with Austin's family and it was a blast. We both graduated from Weber State and couldn't wait to begin our respective careers. Austin found a job within about 2 weeks working in medical lab. I searched for teaching jobs relentlessly. I applied for everything under the sun and was very aggressive about getting interviews. Here's a look at the week of good news and what led up to an awesome surprise!

MANIC MONDAY:
On May 21st I went to interview at the school I went to, my mom taught in, and I student taught at for a 1st grade position. I don't love first grade (not the kids but the material to teach is VERY difficult) but this is a wonderful school with a great staff---plus it is only 10 minutes away. They assured me that they would let me know by Friday. After a good interview, I went to my parents house to share the news and go through some of her old teaching things. After a few minutes I got a phone call from another school in Bountiful that I had interviewed for the week before. They stated that they would like to offer me the job. I expressed my sincere gratitude and excitement about the position and explained that I had just interviewed for another job and requested some time to consider my options if offered both jobs. The principal was very kind to oblige and I'm very grateful for that. I would have to wait for Friday.

TERRIFIC TUESDAY:
I started to get less stressed because I knew, that no matter what, I had a job somewhere...but WHERE? On the one hand I love third grade and I had some experience teaching it with student teaching, on the other hand I loved the school and it was much closer. Lots of thoughts and ideas were going through my head at this point. In the back of my head I kept wondering "and to top it off I might be getting a baby". This thought was quickly dismissed to avoid frustration and heartache for another month of possibly not getting pregnant again.

WOEFUL WEDNESDAY:
Austin's little brother, Tyler (AKA Fee Fee), left for the MTC on his mission to Bolivia. We went to breakfast as a family (minus older brother Eric, due to med school) at Jeremiah's. We all drove the 2 hours down to Provo with sad thoughts as we were leaving the lil' guy for two whole years. It was a very sad and happy time and I already can't wait to see this kid when he comes back in 2014. All day I couldn't stop thinking "I should've taken a pregnancy test so that we could tell Tyler in person." Again I pushed the thought out to avoid disappointment....

THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY:
Austin's birthday was coming up and I took the day to prepare for some fun things. I usually try and do something to surprise this guy and this year didn't disappoint. I got him 25 presents all with something to do with the number 25. On this day I planned out what to get him and how to set it all up. It was quite the project.

Austin came home from his new job (only been there 2 or 3 weeks) and told me a tale that was both entertaining and shocking. While he was at work he had the following conversation with a fellow employee who had found out that it was his birthday.
Woman: "I am really good at knowing what you will get for your birthday. Let me guess..."
Austin: "OK, we'll see."
Woman: "Give me a second to think about it."
The woman walked away and went back to work for a few hours and came back with a response.
Woman: "This is going to sound weird but I really feel like your going to get a positive pregnancy test."
Austin informed me that he didn't tell anyone about trying and he had no idea why she thought that. This little experience sparked our curiosity and we decided (me reluctantly) to take a test. Austin keep wanted to look at it before the 5 minutes was up but I kept him at bay. We walked back into the bathroom to look at the test and wouldn't you know it... 2 LINES! We were pregnant!!!! I couldn't believe it. Austin picked me up off the floor in a hug and spun me around. We were both ecstatic. Then it started to set in more and more and we happily planned who would call insurance, doctors, when to tell parents, etc. One of the best days of my life.

FEARFUL FRIDAY:
This was the day I had been waiting for all week. With my stomach in knots I went to work with a forced smile on my face but my mind was full of thoughts of what could happen and what had happened. About 10 am, I received the highly anticipated phone call. The school of my dreams stated that they went with another candidate and they were very sorry they couldn't offer me the position. I didn't feel hurt. I didn't even feel sad. I quickly called the other school and accepted the 3rd grade position. Everyone at my lovely branch, asked how it went and I couldn't help but smile all day. I knew that it didn't have anything to do with getting or not getting a job. It was my little secret that I got to keep all to myself for a little while.

After about a month of waiting to tell everyone, we announced it to family and friends about a month ago and I seem to hear similar questions from everybody so I thought that I would just answer those questions for those that were wondering.....

1. "How have you been feeling?"
Well for the first few weeks I didn't feel bad at all. I wasn't nauseous or anything. I was a little more tired when I ran or played soccer but other than that I felt fine. I did Ragnar (should be on another post coming soon) and I felt alright then. Well, I should say I felt as good as I could having run 17 miles in a day over three intervals. After that, I've become a bit more sick especially from 11:00am to 2:00pm but after 5:00pm I feel fine. It is just a day to day thing I guess but I hope it ends after the first trimester. I have a "barf kit" in my car because I have had accidents there without much warning, at least I'm a bit more prepared now. I feel like now I know when it's coming and I can usually race to the nearest bathroom facility. I feel the best when I am laying down. Sitting up for long periods of time makes me sick and driving also does the trick. If I can just lay flat during the awful hours of the day then I am just dandy.

2. "How far along are you?"
I will be 13 weeks this Sunday. I'm almost done with this first part which I hear is the part where you are sick the most....I sure hope so.

Showing a little at 12 weeks.

3. "Do you want a boy or a girl?"
We both would be happy for either. We are just pumped to be parents and whatever the gender of this babe we will love it unconditionally. I would love buying bows and dresses for a little girl, doing her hair like a princess everyday (because that's how mine was done, thanks to my wonderful sister and mommy). I would also love to chase a little boy around and teach him to be tough like Spider-man. Now as far as what I think it is.... Well, I have always thought that I was going to have all girls. When I was little I wanted all baby girls (because I had all girl dolls, of course). Then, I guess I just felt like that is what was going to happen. Austin said, the other day, that he had a feeling it is a girl. So we shall see. Maybe there is a girl waiting for us in Heaven and this little thing in me is a boy. We shall possibly see at my next appointment.

4. "Are you scared to start teaching while your pregnant?"
Surprisingly, no. I have felt really calm about this. It might be because I felt like a lot of things about student teaching were a lot more work than if I had my own classroom. I'm sure I'll find things that are harder about being a real teacher versus student teaching. I just felt like while I was student teaching I had three big concerns 1. the kids and if they are learning 2. if I was doing a good job for college and graduating sake and 3. if I was doing a fantastic job so that I could get good recommendations to find a job after graduation. Well now when I teach it will be a lot more about number 1 than anything else, which is the way I like it.

5. "Have you had any weird cravings yet?"
Well, saying as I have Italian blood in me I think I've always been a good eater. So cravings have been happening for the last 22 years but as of late I've had a few strange requests. At first, all I wanted to eat (and the only thing that sounded good) was Ego Waffles. Strange? A little. Delicious? Absolutely. The latest request of Austin was to have a cheese sandwich. He was happy to oblige because we had cheese and bread already at our house. However, it was not so simple. I wanted a cube of cheese that could be sliced with the bread. We only had shredded cheese in the fridge. Being the wonderful and amazing husband that he is, he went to the store to purchase me a block of cheese. Needless to say I think Tina Fey would be proud of me in this moment (watch 30 Rock if you don't catch my drift).

6."Do you have any names picked out yet?"
If you ask me, the answer to this question is yes. If you ask Austin the answer is no. We have a few names that we both like but Austin is a lot more picky about names than I am. He goes off of his first impression of the name and if there is anything negatively associated with it, he says no. So, if you must know so far we have LeBron for a boy and DeBree for a girl. I came up with the girl name while we were following a garbage truck on a lovely afternoon drive. And the boys name for obvious reasons. (I wish there was a font for sarcasm). Seriously, I don't think we will reveal the real name until the baby comes. There are too many people that have to give their ridiculous opinion on the names that we love that I feel like the best way to combat their stupidity is to show them the beautiful living thing. Then, upon falling instantly in love, they will forget all of the dumb things they were going to tell me about the name they were not so fond of moments before. Sound like a good plan? If you have any names that you would be willing to share, please tell me.

7. "How did you tell your parents?"
This was one of my favorite parts about the pregnancy so far. For Austin's parents, we created a "forward" email with typical funny pictures from online and the last picture was of them with text that said "Grandparents!". We video taped their reaction and it was priceless!!! Thank goodness Eric and Zach were there to get in on the fun too. This is the first grand baby on their side and they are way excited to start doing grandparent things.

This will be the eighth grand baby on my side and so we had to be a bit more creative on how to tell my family. I wanted everyone to be there when we told them. So, I took the 5 grand kids that could talk down stairs and told them that I had some special news that I wanted them to tell their parents. I told them to run upstairs and start yelling "Okelbaby! Okelbaby!" If there is one thing that these awesome kids know how to do it's yell. We took video of this too. Here's a pic of us after revealing the big news.

After much confusion about what these crazy kids were saying, everyone started to catch on and my cute mother got it last. HAHA. I wish we could've gotten the reaction but Austin thought that it wasn't working and we were going to have to try something else so he stopped filming. He felt terrible about stopping but I'll remember that moment for a long time because of all the love and happiness that was shared.

We were able to capture both with the help of our Ipads. Everyone just thought that we were just playing around with them so they paid no attention and we enjoyed having a little candid camera to capture these moments.

We both have brothers on missions and that was a rather fun email to send to them as well. My lil bro gave us heartfelt congrats and expressed relief that because my Mom and Dad have four kids and there will be eight grand kids the pressure is now off him to get married and have kids quickly because most will assume that each kid has two kids of their own. I can see his logic but I still want him to get married and have kids. Austin's little brother didn't believe us. He demanded proof with an ultrasound picture. I blame this on years of torture and mind-games from three older brothers. He was excited upon confirmation that we were indeed telling the truth.

8."What do you think it will look like?"
Well I have black hair, brown eyes,  and olive skin. Austin  has blonde hair, dreamy green eyes, and olive skin. So your guess is as good as mine. Here's some baby pics of us.

9. "Have you seen the baby on an ultrasound?"
YES! This was also another wonderful part of the pregnancy so far. While at my first doctors appointment (8 weeks) we were able to catch a glimpse of the little gummy bear. He/She even gave us a little wave while we were watching, it was amazing. There is just one in there too. My mom is a twin and her dad is a twin so I thought we had more than a chance of having two at a time. Not this time. Here are some of the pics of my gorgeous little baby.

The second ultrasound (12 weeks) was a lot more...emotional. I couldn't stop looking at my little baby for a second. The little guy/gal stretched real big and was movin' like crazy for the first 1-2 seconds, then he/she just put that tiny thumb in it's mouth and took a lil' nap. It cracked me up. I loved watching it sleep so peacefully as we just got to watch this little miracle inside of me. He/She is absolutely perfect and I have never felt so happy. We saw it's brain, heart, spine, hands, arms, torso, face, and femurs...but no feet. Austin started to get a little worried. Trying to break the tension I joked with the doctor "We're soccer players, we need feet!" She moved the gadget around and around my belly but to no avail. This little cutie wasn't going to be disturbed from a nice nap. The doctor said that she would like us to make an appointment with the specialist to get a better picture (on a fancier machine) and possibly see the feet. She said that we could do it today but that it would be better if we came back next week to give it one more week to grow. This seemed perfectly fine to me. Austin, however, was much more stressed. Being in the medical field he tends to read more into things. Why was she sending us to a specialist if it wasn't a big deal? Why didn't she spend more time looking? Is there something else wrong that she wanted a second opinion on? I felt like this wasn't a big deal but Austin is just being a good, worried daddy. So a week of agony it will be as we search for some toes for this little one. Here are the most recent pictures of this wonderful babe:

If you couldn't tell, I already love it to death. I can't wait til tomorrow when we possibly find out what the gender is and hopefully see some feet!