3 months in a quick recap

So, much like Temerity Jane, I have been keeping secrets from you. It happens. Also, like TJ, I'm going to recap things.
Here's what you missed:

Wk 1- I went to my folks place to celebrate the 4th of July and floated around in their saltwater pool drinking Rahr beer and feeling totally indulgent. I wasn't really pregnant. Pregnancy math is crazy & starts 2 weeks before anything actually happens. Anyway, I didn't have sunscreen on my legs. I got sunburnt.

Wk 2- I found out that a good friend was pregnant! Hooray! I was happy & excited. I still wasn't pregnant. I really wanted to join that club. The "internal baby" club. It leads to membership in the "produced offspring" club, which I was also interested in becoming a member someday. So there was happy, but also some sad. I also filled out my questionnaire for The Blathering

Wk 3- I found out that 2 more friends were having babies. I had no idea that technically I was a member of the club too. I was still very happy and excited for them. I did spend some time reflecting on that--my desire to be a mom, to have a baby, to have kids, to raise children... those are all different things by the way. Anyway, I was a little sad, but just for me. Does that make sense? I was happy for them, and wouldn't change anything about their situation. I just wanted to join them.

Wk 4- I peed on some sticks. I was pretty convinced I already knew the answer was no, because I'd been hearing my girlfriends talk about all their early symptoms and warnings and I had none of those. But I had some sticks ready to pee on, because I'm the hopeful type.  I peed on a stick. I giggled. I couldn't stop smiling. I prayed prayers of "thank you, thank you, thank you" and "help me, help me, help me." I made a little card for my husband and manufactured a reason to stop by his office on my way out to my folks place since I had the day off. He proposed to me in my car, so it was sort of fitting that I'd tell him the good news in his car (which I was driving, but not when I was doing the telling. I was parked at that time, just to be clear). I spent the rest of the week and part of the next peeing on sticks every 2 days just to be sure. I think I stopped after 6 sticks. They all came back positive.

Wk 5- When I wasn't peeing on sticks, I realized that it was going to be really hard not to tell everyone everywhere, and at the same time I was trying to keep anyone else from saying anything about it. I wanted J & I to be the ones to get to tell people. People should hear it from us first, you know? It's our news. Word got out anyway. Families aren't the best at keeping secrets. We still kept it a secret from the Internet, so I count that as a win. Well, I signed up for some stuff on the Internet, but in a private type way...

Wk 6- There was a doctor's appointment in here. Everything checked out fine. I thought it would start feeling... "realer" once my doctor said it was really happening. It didn't. It still felt really weird. Not real. Bizarre. Anyway, they came up with April 3rd as an estimated due date. Sure, sounds good so far.

Wk 7- I think I napped at every available opportunity and was incredibly cranky and could smell everything ever. I started turning my nose up at certain foods and keeping crackers by my bed. My niece turned 5 and we had a sleepover with make-up and hair-braiding.

Wk 8- I sort of got "promoted" at work, if by "promoted" you mean "assume the duties and responsibilities of the person who used to share some of your job roles but just left for another company and we're not hiring anyone to replace him, so you can do all the things." It is actually really not bad. I miss Joel, but the work load isn't killer and I still talk to myself, so not too much has changed other than I moved 2 cubes down.

Wk 9- I ate a lot of good food. Also, I went back out to my folks place for more floating in the pool, without a beer this time. The temperature dropped 20 degrees (putting it at a lovely 87!) and I got a cold! There was lots of Kleenex--facial tissue actually, since it was Puffs.

Wk 10- I went to my folks house again for a barbecue and pool party with lots of people I like. I read some books, but not the books I was supposed to be reading for my book club, because I never made it to the library/store, so I read the books that people gave me. You remember that part, right?

Wk 11- J & I celebrated our 5th anniversary. 5 years seems both like a really long time, and also no time at all. I'm pretty sure that's really cheesy and very cliche, but I also don't care. It's true. Every year has sort of felt that way. I look forward to many more years. I read the book for book club. Another friend announced her pregnancy. They've been trying for almost 3 years, and everyone they know knows they've been trying so they get asked a lot how things are going, so I totally don't blame them for announcing 24 hours after finding out, except that I sat there a little frustrated that we were waiting, only because I WANT TO SAY THINGS ON THE INTERNET, but I wasn't ready to tell the Internet yet. Look, it's not rational, it's just the way it is.

Wk 12- Lots of bloggers that I like post about babies, and having them and ask people for stories about how people decided it was time to have them, and how many to have and I found the blog of my roommate for the Blathering & wanted to say like a million "Me too!"s all over her blog, but didn't and the waiting was getting SO HARD... but I was also feeling kind of nervous about telling the whole Internet and what if something was wrong, and I was being a nelly so I decided to wait until after the appointment so I would have pictures and one more time my doctor could tell me that everything was alright and to calm down and be a relaxed human. I also read the entire book for October book club too. Before the September book club meeting, which I missed because I was all queasy & headachy & moody as hell.

Wk 13-  Ok I got confused about the weeks somewhere. I guess technically there's a week 0 that I'm missing, and technically today is Day one of Week 13, so... we'll go with that. There was another doctor appointment, and this time, we got pictures of something other than a spot or a blob. We got this:

I'm totally biased, but I think that's one cute looking fetus right there. For the record, we call it The Freckle, because a) when we found out, that's about how big it was, and 2) with the mix of genes between us, pretty much the only thing we're pretty sure this kid will get is freckles. Kinda hard to escape it with us two pasty, spotted parents.

So there you have it. 13 weeks. Some nausea & fatigue. A cold. Lots of visits to my parents' place... And a baby!