Bump Ahead

So...we've got a bump ahead. A BABY bump, that is! And boy, are we excited!

Let me tell you what - keeping a secret for over 3 months is HARD!! Especially for me. I am not a very good liar, or avoider of the truth, so it is very very relieving for me to actually be able to tell people now.

So here's the scoop.

We've been trying since the beginning of the school year, about September. Our little naive selves thought that if we started trying then, that we'd get pregnant right away, have a baby right around June, and that would be that. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. It was taking longer than we expected and because of that, I had a decision to make about teaching for another year. I am currently in my 2nd year of teaching and there are some major perks if you teach for 3 years before leaving. After 3 years you aren't provisional anymore, which means you get a bump in pay and it makes it so much easier to return to teaching if you ever want to after you take a break to raise your kids. My plan isn't to go back to teaching, but to be a full-time mommy. However, we are such planners that we are trying to be prepared for anything - so I am planning on keeping my teaching license active and renewing it every year so that I will be able to go back to teaching if the need arises. So - long story short - I had to decide if I would teach another year or not. And I kept waiting to find out if we were pregnant or not to have the decision be an easy one to make. Once I found out I was pregnant, I could make my decision. I'd be done teaching. BUT - that didn't happen that way either. There was a form I had to sign in February, indicating whether or not I would be returning to teach - and I didn't know if I was pregnant yet. So - we had to take a leap of faith. We said lots of prayers, I spent lots of time thinking on my way to and from work, and after a lot of pondering we decided what we thought was best. I would resign from teaching and HOPE that I would get pregnant quickly and we wouldn't have to go without a 2nd income for long. Talk about scary, especially for a planner like to me. It's hard for me to take those steps into the dark and hope for the best, but I definitely felt peace about it. We found out 7 days later that I was pregnant. I learned my lesson about being more trusting and having a little more faith. 

The scariest thing for me was that I thought I was going to be so sick. I have a weak stomach as it is, and I thought for sure I would have morning sickness pretty bad and was worried about how I was going to do that with teaching - especially teaching so far away from home. I had visions of me pulling over on the freeway, wretching, then getting back in the car. Also visions of me running out of my classroom, telling my kids to keep working quietly, while I ran to the bathroom. But guess what?? I haven't been sick at all. I feel so lucky and so blessed to have been feeling so well. I know that's the exception to the norm. I've been tired, I had a hive break-out, some heartburn, and a few other symptoms, but overall - I've really been fine. Seriously - it feels like such a tender mercy to me because morning sickness while teaching wouldn't have gone over so well.

At our first appointment we got to hear the heartbeat, and I don't think I've ever heard a sound that brought Dave and I so much joy. It was SOO exciting to hear some proof that there's a little person in there growing (and kinda freaky at the same time, if you really stop to think about it!). It was faster and sounded different than I thought it would, but I don't think you could have wiped the smile off my face for anything in the world. As we were driving home, we were talking about how crazy it is that our baby already has the heart that it is going to have for its whole life! And it was only 11 weeks old. CRAZY! 

We wanted to wait until at least we were through the first trimester before we told anybody, and it just so happened that Mother's Day was just a few weeks after our first trimester was over. Perfect timing, right? Our moms were SOO excited! Dave secretly recorded them, and their reactions were priceless.

Look at my sweet mom - she is the sweetest lady I know for sure. It was cute to see her so excited.

Dave's mom has 2 pugs that have pretty much equal status with her children. She loves them more than almost anything. It was so funny when she opened the onesie because most everybody thought it was clothes for her pug - and they just thought it was normal for her to be freaking out so much because she loves getting things for her dogs. Ha!

We knew that Brock would freak out too, and he was working when we told RaNae. So - we had to re-wrap it and have him open it again. His reaction is very similar to his mother's - like mother like son. :)

I've been asked by a lot of people if I'm happy or sad to leave teaching. It will be a hard transition into not teaching, because I love it so much, but I'm SO thrilled to be a mom and be able to use all of the knowledge that I have from teaching kids to be able to teach my own kids. I'm ready to make the transition to mommy. I've had SO much fun teaching, and I'm sure that there will be days I will miss it, but I'm totally ready to make the switch to being a mom. 

Baby Egbert is due to arrive on November 8th. I LOVE that due date, because it will allow me to have the whole summer free of work and stress, to just spend some quality time with Dave before the baby comes. Since we'll never have this time just the two of us together again, I'm really really excited about all the fun plans we have this summer. I'll substitute in Davis County until the baby comes, and then I'll just be a full time mommy. My dream come true! :)

If you made it this far in the post, CONGRATULATIONS! Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a June post. That's when we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl. We've got some fun plans for the reveal of that. :)