My Pregnancy: How We Spent Valentine's Day

Ah, Valentine's Day.  A day many men and women plan to be perfect in every aspect: getting the perfect gift, reserving a spot at the best dining establishment, getting the perfect flowers or candy etc.  DH has always done something nice for me for Valentines Day, but he doesn't go overboard, as I don't let him.  I also do something nice for him as well.  usually I will make a really nice dinner for him as Valentine's Day falls on a weekday, and he gets out of work late, so by time he gets home, showers, gets ready, I'm ready for bed :)  So I usually make him a really nice meal, and he usually gets me flowers delivered to work and candy and a teddy bear are waiting for me at home (I leave the house before him).

This year, was a little different.  Everything was planned as we normally do it.  However, when I woke up on that morning, my leg hurt so bad.  I couldn't even really move my leg without my upper thigh/stomach area going into extreme pain.  I couldn't walk, I had to hunch over.  When I sat on the couch to move my feet like I was driving, I was almost in tears.  I had NO idea what was going on.  DH had watched me walk around and immediately got up to see what was wrong.  I was terrified, how could I drive, let alone walk if I got to work?  So we made the decision to go to the ER because of the baby. I hate the ER.  I dragged my feet like donkeys do....similar to a dog when the dog is going to the vet and knows.  But I knew I needed to go because something was wrong.

We both call our jobs to call out of work (great, calling out on Valentine's Day, that doesn't look suspicious!) and off to the ER we go. He had to help me get dressed because I was in so much pain.  We go to the ER and we're talking about how to get to the hospital when we have the baby.  There is usually a ton of traffic by this hospital, but I'm trying to tell him that we will just leave early to beat the traffic b/c most people say it will be awhile before I really NEED to go to the hospital.  We pull up to the ER parking lot and I'm grunting.  I hate the hospital. As we get out, the pain disappears...so walking into the ER I'm no longer in pain.  Really?  We go in anyway just in case it's mind over matter and my mind doesn't want to be in the hospital.  There is nobody waiting in the waiting room (complete opposite of months prior when I went in for pain and had to wait ALL day in the waiting area). I go to the traige nurse and I'm 20 weeks that day.  Something I learned, when you're pregnant, once you hit that 20 week mark, you go right to labor and delivery for observation, no matter what....even if I broke a hand, I go right in, no waiting...SWEET!  So I immediately get in a wheelchair and wheeled up to the 5th floor.  They get me into a room and the nurse hands me a gown (yuck) and says here, change into this, everything off but the gown.  I'm a germaphobe and DH knows this.  I look at him and he's smiling b/c he knows what I'm thinking.  I'm like....can I leave my panties on?  No, everything off but the gown and she points to my bathroom.  I also had to give a urine sample.  Lovely.  So I go in to the bathroom, change into the yucky gown that I hope and pray they washed, and give my urine sample.  Then I come out, DH is sitting next to the bed, and I look at my bed....a wee wee pad.  lovely.  I'm not sitting on that with no panties on.  So I stand next to the bed waiting for the nurse to come in.  She tells me to sit in the bed...I say, no I'm fine standing.  She looks at me, then at DH who starts laughing.   She must have thought we were nuts...so I tell her I'm totally skeeved out and a germaphobe...she said there's nothing to worry about and to hop into the bed so they can monitor me.  Hmph.  So I do.  And I'm praying that it's a new wee wee pad as well. DH says I'm crazy to think like that lol.  So I get hooked up to two monitors, one to monitor the baby's heart beat, the other to monitor contractions...which I'm having none.  Everytime the baby moved, you can hear swishing noises. It freaked DH out between hearing that and the heartbeat...I loved it. I could have spent the entire day in there.  I never thought to call my OB/GYN so the nurse called him and he came withing 10-15 minutes. I love my dr, he has such a good bedside manner.  I had just had my anatomy scan a few days earlier, so he needed to wait until they opened that dept to get the results to see if any abnormalities existed that could be causing the pain. While he waited, he sat with me and DH and we talked about everything, work, the hurricane, etc.  He's really nice.

When he got the results, he came back up to tell us everything is fine and normal and that I probably had round ligament pain.  Which can come and go because of my ever expanding belly.  Since I wasn't in pain anymore, he wasn't concerned too much, but still wanted me to come to the office in a few days to follow up.  he also gave me an internal exam. DH was so surprised he didn't have to leave the room, in fact, the doctor was pretty much right next to him as he did it.  At the office with the other doctor mostly, he doesn't allow anyone in the room during an internal, only after he will call the husband in, but this doctor doesn't care as he gave me one or two internal exams with DH in the room. DH was so not ready for the internal, the doctor put on his glove and up he went. I glanced at DH and his eyes were wide open, like hey doc, want me to move?  lol.  My cervix was closed, which was good, so he decided to release me. Said no sexual relations for a week, then looked at DH and said 'Sorry buddy...but take her to a nice Valentine's Day dinner' lol.  I was released shortly after and we had all of the day to be with each other.

We decided to stop at Dunkin for breakfast, then went and did a few little errands here and there, took a nap and since we're not big foodies or anything, we ordered take out for dinner...that way I can stay in my sweats and not worry about getting all dressed up to spend a ton of money on food. 

Since DH works for UPS and that was who happened to be delivering my flowers, we came up to where I worked to meet up with the driver that would have delivered my flowers. While I was in the bathroom at the hospital, DH had called him up to asked him not to deliver them, that we would come up to get them from him.  So after the hospital we came up to where I worked and we met up with the driver.  He was very concerned about me since I see him once in awhile at work when he delivers to my building.  He wanted to make sure I was okay. We also went to visit another one of the drivers that DH is really friendly with.  He has 3 kids...a set a twins and a baby girl.  he was also concerned when DH called him early in the AM to tell him he was calling out to take me to the ER.  His wife's first pregnancy was horrible, he was in the ER with her every week pretty much.  She kept bleeding and having a ton of pain, on bedrest, you name it. so he was concerned, he's soooo super nice and caring. 

So that was how we spent Valentine's Day this year :)

My Pregnancy: Announcement to Friends via Social Media and Holiday Cards

The time had come at Christmastime to make it official to all our extended family and friends that we were expecting, and the best part was that we got to do it around Christmas, making it a gift in and of itself :)

For our holiday cards, DH and I decided to have a onesie made (okay it was more or less my idea) with a saying on it " I Was Born to Be Your Baby" as a tribute to Bon Jovi (our favorite band - I'm from the town he grew up in, and DH is from the town right next door!).  DH and I had tank tops made for our wedding video (yes, we made a video to Born to Be My Baby) where his said Baby I was Made to be Your Man, and mine said 'I was Born to be your Baby' lol.  We made a pretty cool video of the song with our wedding videographer, and I'm glad we saved the shirts.  We got dressed up for one pic on the holiday card holding Lucky the cat, then the middle pic was the onsie we made with the EPT test picture in the middle, then on the picture on the card was DH and I wearing our tank tops.  We both thought it was cute, take a look!

The funny thing about this card, was that the night I gave it to my sister and parents, I was at a holiday play that my nephew was in at his school, where my sister is the secretary.  Jon Bon Jovi's niece goes to the school, so when I showed up, I just handed the cards to my mom and sister. Then she pointed out Jon's brother, Matt (also his manager) was sitting in front of us.  OMG!  She is friendly with him as anything at the school goes through her and she was like 'Should I show him the card??'  I was like 'OMG, NO!'  The next day, Jon's sister in law came in to pick up her daughter and my sister showed her and said she was going to show Matt the card, and she was like 'You should have, him and Jon love stuff like this!'  My sister called me, and I was like "i have extras, I can send Matt and Jon ones if they want!' hahahaha.

For social media, we decided to wait until Christmas Day and we both posted it a picture of my sonogram from Christmas Eve on Facebook and Twitter.  People were so shocked and surprised to know we were expecting! We have been married for almost 6 years, so many people just thought we'd be one of those couples that didn't have kids.  But meanwhile, we were terrified of being bad parents, raising our kids wrong, me with the pain of pregnancy and labor, those were the real reasons we did not get pregnant sooner :)  We had our family and now our friends all knew, it was a great Christmas!

My Pregnancy: Big Announcement to the Family

We decided to keep the pregnancy mum for awhile, especially after what had transpired when we told my best friend.  I wanted to do something special, and I figured we would tell our families on Thanksgiving.  It was still a little early, as I was less then 2 months pregnant, but I knew our families would be so happy to hear, since we've been married for over 5 years at that point :)

We figured Thanksgiving would be the best day since we spend Turkey Day Dinner at my in laws, then usually go to my mom's or sister's (whoever is hosting) for dessert.  Since Mike's parents and brother knew, we would be telling his uncle, cousin and grandma at his mom's house during appetizer time.  Yes, we do it Italian style.  Mom (DH's mom) puts out a huge appetizer spread, like antipasta and all that jazz, then we have about 5 courses for dinner!  I got all dressed up for the occasion, as I figured this would be the last time I can really dress nice and tight before the baby belly comes into play hahaha.  I had bought a nice dress months earlier and I was like well, it will still fit so I'm wearing it! 

I always make some kind of dessert for both families (to be fair) so I made a cake for each family, but for my family, since there would be a ton more people at my sister's this year to tell, I figured I'd make the cake and decorate it with a nice saying that we are pregnant.  In my mind, I'm Betty Crocker when it comes to baking...and usually I'm spot on...but decorating, not so much :)  DH decided on me doing a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting for his family, and to do a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting for my family, and do the red writing on the white cake for my family. In my head it looked fabulous, but writing on the cake, not so fun, esp when I smeared it when we went to put foil on it to cover it. Then transporting it again, smeared...oh well.

So we went to his family's house first and I was so nervous and excited to tell everyone.  We hadn't really planned on what/how/when to say anything.  I figured when there was a lull in conversation at the kitchen table, DH would say something.  But he wasn't to quick to catch on.  I kept kicking him under the table, but he was oblivious.  I'm actually surprised his grandmother or uncle didn't say anything when I wasn't drinking alcohol and had water instead.  So finally, DH's mom blurts out, Okay, everyone, shut up, Mike has an announcement to make!'  So everyone pretty much caught on at that point, and all we hear is Grandma say, 'Beth's PREGNANT!!!!????'  DH was like 'Yes, Grandma, that's our announcment lol.  It was so cute! And she was sooooo happy that I was finally pregnant.  She always wanted us to have a baby.  As I write this, I'm in tears. Grandma passed away last Thursday :(  She had a stroke in March, and never really recovered. She kept getting infections, dehydrated, etc. in the hospital. She was a very strong woman, very very strong indeed.  She survived 2 cancers late in life (within the past few years) and she was very healthy, even though she was a big smoker.  Everyone in DH's family thought she would outlive all of us.  We had her wake and funeral this weekend, and she was buried in the dress she wore to our wedding, how nice is that? She loved that dress. At the wedding, she told DH's mom she wanted to be buried in that dress. She looked so beautiful.  She is definately up in heaven looking stylish and good for her husband Poppy. I never met him, he passed right before DH and I met, so now I know they are reunited in heaven :)

So everyone was happy at his parents house. So after dinner, we went to my sister's house for dessert and she had a houseful of people!  We kept the cake outside so people wouldn't peek or anything.  So when I went outside to get the cake, my sister gathered everyone up into the kitchen area, and I came in with the cake. She was giving a speech and then turned it over to me.  We have NEVER done anything like this. So I said that in my normal Better Crocker way, that I made a cake, but this was a special cake, and that Mike actually helped me make it (laughter from the crowd).  I then took off the foil and showed everyone what the cake said 'Baby Russo due July 3rd!'  My one aunt, who adores babies and has wanted us to have one forever was in the back of the crowd, but she must have awesome vision b/c right after I unveiled the cake, she screamed.  I think the neighbors even heard her!  She was sooooo ecstatic, everyone really was, but she was just over the top. She was the same aunt i saw at Shop Rite the day we found out we were pregnant but couldn't tell everyone.  My cousins were so excited that the next day was Black Friday so they can start shopping for the baby!  Granted, they didn't know if the baby was a boy or girl at the time, but they were just sooooo excited! 

So all in all it was a great Thanksgiving for both families!

My Thanksgiving Outfit.....can't fit into that dress anymore!!!  (not for awhile at least :) )