Orange you glad you wanted to know about my cravings?

Ok, so perhaps you weren't losing sleep over this, but you are visiting this page, so I have to assume you wouldn't mind knowing how the craving thing has been.

Backtracking just a bit, I want to touch on how momentous it was for Josh and I to break the news to the family that we're expecting. It was Christmas Eve, and we had just gotten our first ultrasound a few days prior. Our families were over at our house for dinner and holiday festivities, as this has become a tradition over time. After we all sat down to enjoy the dinner I made Costco made, Josh raised his glass to make a toast. A toast to the family for all being together, a toast to Arielle (Josh's sister) for graduating college, and finally, a toast to us for cooking a bun the the oven. The reaction of our loved ones was everything we had hoped for, and it was indeed a very Merry Christmas. Party favors included ultrasound photos for all who attended, 'cause we roll like that.

Arielle just found out she's going to be an aunt!

Zack, Arielle, and Andy with their first photos of Baby K

Anyhoo hoo, ever since then, the pregnancy has gone quite well. I had a little queasiness in the first trimester, but nothing close to what I would consider nausea. Cramping, swelling, and headaches have been few and far between, so it looks like I'm one of those pregnant ladies who's just been lucky (you may roll eyes now). To my friends who had/are having it much worse than me, I salute you. And I mean it.

Back to the cravings. I am proud to state that I have asked Josh to make a craving run only three times so far. The first was way in the beginning, and perhaps it was due to feeling that I SHOULD be craving something, or perhaps it was due to there being a cheeseburger superimposed over Josh's face every time we locked eyes. Whatever the case, I HAD to have one from Pinnacle Peak Grill. Why there, you ask? Easy, because Pinnacle Peak Grill is obscenely far from the house when negotiating the one monsoon to hit Arizona in the winter. As most of you reading this know, my hubby is fearless. Until it comes to me feeling neglected from food. True to form, he sweetly went out and braved the storm to retrieve my meat without objection.

Throw in  a few cooked sushi take-out runs, and that about sums up the first trimester cravings. The rest of the pregnancy has been dominated by an insatiable need for ORANGES and ORANGE JUICE. When Josh and I met up with some friends for dinner, I wasn't eyeing longingly at the martinis or cosmos at the bar, I was staring down the basket of oranges housed there to garnish the drinks. I've been eating/drinking oranges like they're becoming extinct. But it does the trick, and hey - I could be craving worse things.

Like the Hooters buffalo chicken sandwich - medium hot - that I had to consume within 10 minutes of realizing that I had to consume one.

Chicken is protein, so I'm good. Or I would have been good, had I not slurped up the buffalo sauce and treated the actual chicken breast like a parsley garnish.

At the end of the day, mommy's tummy is satisfied, and as Josh would say: "A happy wife is a happy life!" He actually doesn't say this. Honey, if you're reading this - can you start?

NOM NOM NOM NOM

 

Our journey: hittin' the open road...

The past 20 weeks have been somewhat a blur, and yet I remember certain days as though they are carved from marble. The days we have had ultrasounds tend to be the ones I'm talking about.

     Our first ultrasound was at about 7.5 weeks. Josh and I were anxious and excited, surges of energy and bliss meeting nerves and prayer that this pregnancy will proceed far better than the last, as I miscarried our first just a few months before. We had lost the baby at 5.5 weeks, so we knew how monumental this ultrasound appointment truly was.

     Josh and I sat in the small ultrasound room as the tech, Mary, prepared us for the first pictures of our little bundle.  After a few deep breaths from each of us, the monitor was powered up and the search for Baby K was on. Searching, searching . . . . . . And within a minute, I laid eyes on it. On what I had yet to discover was a him. On our baby.  Then, out of the pure silence, the room filled with a sound so beautiful to the human ear, I wanted to cuddle up to it and never let it go. 'Thump-tha-thump-tha-thump-tha-thump.' 

     "There's the heartbeat!" exclaimed Mary, and at that point, any ability to maintain composure was out the nursery window. Josh and I cried with joy at the sight and sound of our little bundle's heartbeats, a sense of calm washing over us. All was well with baby! As the ultrasound continued, they found that I had what is called a subchorionic bleed, which is fairly common and typically clears up on its own within a month or so. Small potatoes. I was going to be a mama, and the incredible man to my left, a daddy.

We went to Chompies afterward for the best tasting grilled cheese of my life.

The Bump appears...

The first picture of our little bundle's bump

~2.24.2011~



Havin' My Baby

I am currently in my 20th week of pregnancy, each Tuesday becoming one week closer to the arrival of our little bundle. But where do I begin? Now, already half way through the journey? At the very beginning, when the little "+" greeted me in the digital window of my pregnancy test? I'm a first time blogger, here. I wanna do this right. But just as I'd like this entire pregnancy to go off without so much as a hangnail and to birth my child with a backdrop of gospel singers in my hospital room, not everything can be perfect, and I can only do the best that I can. So here goes...

While the story of how we discovered I was "with child" is not exactly Nicholas Sparks material, it was actually pretty cute. Josh had planned for a night out with his cousins. Sitting on the couch, I kissed him goodbye and blankly changed channels on the TV until I heard the garage door close, after which I promptly raced into the bathroom to take a pregnancy test. For a couple days, I had just felt something was different. No nausea, no hormonal outbursts - though Josh may object to that account - but just a feeling, a knowingness. After a few long minutes, I looked down at the test's window to see the word "PREGNANT", figuratively high-fiving me and infusing me with a rush of adrenaline. I scrambled to find another test in the cabinet, just for good measure. Ah! One more left in the box; let's do this.

To maximize the chances of success with my one remaining test, I chugged two bottles of water to get myself good and ready. Showtime followed soon after, and I was rudely awakened from my state of maternal nirvana when I looked down at the test. "NOT PREGNANT". My personal soundtrack of "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" record-scratched to a halt. How could this be? Confused, did what any mother-to-be but-not-totally-sure-of-it-yet would do: I Googled it. Sitting on the couch with one positive and one negative test beside me, I looked up what could have happened, because I was sure I was pregnant. Click, click, double-click . . . . .ohhhh. 'Water dilutes the hormone that detects pregnancy'. Ohhhhhh! Nirvana made its comeback, and I was just beany.

Since I didn't think ahead in my game plan of finding out I was pregnant, it didn't dawn on me that my husband wouldn't be home for, oh, about another six hours. What to do with this incredible information? Should I call him and yell into the phone that "I'M PREGNANT!", hoping he hears me above the crowd and pulse of Rihanna's latest single? Should I text him a picture of the positive test? I decided to wait and relish in the amazing news while imagining telling him in the middle of the night, as soon as he got home. A scene to inspire Rockwell, no doubt.
Not dawning on me either was the likelihood that upon returning home, my husband would be, let's say . . . ..impaired. Which he was.

Well scratch that.

In bed, "asleep" but with one ear open, I could hear that Josh was in no way ready to receive such news as that which I had to give, nor would it have been fair to either of us. So I asked my higher self to practice restraint and patience, and to wait until the perfect time when we would both be refreshed, composed, at our best. At 6:00am, I decided that time was now and shook him awake to spill the beans.

Telling your husband that you are expecting is something akin to surprising him with a set of golf clubs only available at NASA, only so much better because you get a baby out of it.

Tears streaming, Josh happily complied with my request that he run out and purchase another three boxes of pregnancy tests right away, as we were out of them and were still technically left not knowing for sure if I was indeed pregnant. Did I mention that this all happened on Thanksgiving. Josh was finally able to track down an open grocery store and supply me with the goods. Eleven positive tests later, it was official.

Parenthood, here come the Kaplans!

First entry

I can count blogging as a major first time endeavor for me, though it pales in comparison to what's to come in August! I wanted to create a place for family to check in, and so I promise to uphold my end of the blogosphere relationship by posting at least once per week during the pregnancy.

Josh and I could not be more EXCITED for our newest addition come summertime! Check back for updates on ultrasounds, baby kicks, decorating the nursery, and possible (probable) hormone-driven rants after which I will debate on deleting but won't, because I want to "keep it real".

Enjoy. :)

Baby Progress