Great Expectations

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Great Expectations

The second spread for my DS's baby book! Journaling describes my pregnancy and is underneath the picture printed on vellum on the left. The green envelope on the right opens up to reveal all of his sonogram pictures. tfl!!<p><small>Being pregnant was the greatest feeling I’ve ever had (until you were actually here that is). From the minute we found out we were going to be parents (on Christmas Day no less!), we talked endlessly about our hopes, dreams, and plans for you and our new family. My pregnancy was right out of a textbook as far as symptoms and milestones. I knew I was pregnant before the actual test took place. My body told me something was up and as it turned out, it was just as we had hoped. While I was pregnant, I experienced just about everything from the common to the weird. I had morning sickness for about two months. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just morning sickness, it was ALL DAY sickness. And even more unfortunate, none of the home remedies seemed to work for me. Crackers, nope…ginger, uh-uh…lemons, no way. Another symptom was my mouth watering all the time! This just made the nausea worse – what a terrible combination. The middle part of the pregnancy was not bad at all. Nothing terribly earth-shattering as far as symptoms go. Then the heartburn hit…this lasted from month five until DDay and then vanished. Once again, none of the home remedies seemed to ease the pain so, I ate bottles of Tums and looked forward to the day you would relieve me.I didn’t have too many cravings and nothing really strange. Mostly, I wanted meat, and by meat, I mean tri-tip. I also got quite a bit of ice cream (Baskin Robbins Jamocha Almond Fudge to be precise) mileage out of being pregnant so I thank you Jake for that! You got to take your first plane trip when you were just a little bitty embryo. We flew to Michigan for New Years so your daddy could meet your grandparents and we could break the wonderful news that they were going to become grandparents for the first time. Needless to say, they were overjoyed. You flew again in early April for Great-Grandma & Grandpa’s 50th wedding anniversary. We celebrated this milestone with Grandma & Grandpa Regentin. I was really starting to show a good bit and it brought a smile to my face every time someone said something about the pregnancy. You flew one more time in June when I went to Michigan for a baby shower for you. A lot of friends and relatives got to see me pregnant for the only time and we got a ton of great gifts for you.The first time I felt you move, your Daddy and I were driving from the San Francisco airport back home after flying back from Florida. I was starting to get concerned that I hadn’t felt you move yet. Your Grandma Regentin was right, I read too much and worried when things didn’t happen exactly when they were supposed to. But, finally you relieved my fears, I felt a little flutter and my heart just melted. Your Daddy put his hand on my stomach and we both just laughed as you squirmed around. From that point on, I was just amazed every time I felt you move. You were always very active but I never got tired of feeling you practice your karate kicks.I had to go to tons of doctor’s appointments and tests while I was pregnant with you. The greatest was when we saw you on the ultrasound for the first time though. That’s when it hit us that in just a few short months, we would have a little baby. You always managed to keep us on our toes with little scares here and there. For awhile you were breech but it ended up being a blessing in disguise since it afforded us the opportunity to see you a few extra times! We saw you sucking your thumb, blinking and “waving” to us. When we were about 5 months along, we went in for yet another ultrasound. The technician asked if we wanted to know your sex before she even turned on the monitor. We told her we wanted to know (we suspected you would be a little boy) and she warned us that babies had been shy that day and she hadn’t had much luck figuring out boy or girl. The second she turned on the monitor though she said “Oh, it’s a boy!” It was almost like you were showing off – from the very beginning you were an exhibitionist. From that point on, every time we went in for an ultrasound, you made it a priority to confirm your “boyness” to us!Being pregnant with you helped your Daddy and I get to know you before you were even born. We knew you’d be healthy, active and stubborn just by the way you acted inside of me. We had no idea how fantastic it would be to hold you in our arms though. We talked to you all the time. We read stories to you in bed at night so you would learn our voices and to love storybooks and reading. Your daddy would lean down close to my stomach and talk to you through my belly button like it was a microphone. I would talk and sing to you while I was driving to and from work. A lot of times you would start to move when we talked to you. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence or not but I like to believe it was because you loved to here us talk just for you.All in all, being pregnant was absolutely wonderful. I felt so close to you. I’m still amazed when I think about “growing” you inside of me. I am so grateful that you were healthy. I’ll always treasure the time I had you all to myself.