Tuesday, May 8/18
SHARING THE BIG NEWS
I'd never second-guessed myself so much as when my pregnancy was confirmed by a doctor and then it was time to let family members know. We had already discussed announcing the pregnancy publicly, and although I had originally thought 12 weeks I'm pretty sure we ended up making the announcement at 21 weeks (despite people I saw often already knowing much sooner). Our parents and close friends were a different story, however. As I had mentioned in a prior post, we had gotten engaged in March and here we were, 7 weeks pregnant in August. The wedding was planned in September (and went off without a hitch, I took plenty of shots of water and shivered when I took them, astonished there wasn't an Oscar nomination for Best Actress...) so we wanted to tell the bridesmaids, groomsmen etc before the big day so that they could back me up in not drinking and sneakily drink things that other guests had poured for me. Also, because they are our closest friends and we were really excited to share the news! And then of course, we had to tell our immediate family members.
TELLING THE PARENTS
I had texted my Mum asking her to come over, and she had guessed before I had even gotten to say anything. So parent #1 was relatively easy to tell, and of course she was over the moon. Later that week we had planned to tell the in-laws, and I had told my fiancee that he had to take the lead because to be honest, I was terrified, and also because it's only fair since I would be telling my parents. We went over to his house for a campfire at about 5 or 6pm, and I was pretty nervous. We sat down for dinner, chatted, talked about wedding plans, fiancee had said nothing. Then we had coffee, tea, dessert- fiancee said nothing. Finally we went out for the fire and at about 10:30pm I nudged the fiancee as if to remind him that I was horribly on edge and that he had promised to share the news so whyyyy had he still not said anything! He looked over at me and sort of shrugged, basically saying "we can wait and tell them later", so I looked back and gently but menacingly shook my head to say "no way, buddy, tell them now!" So he broke the ice by saying, "Megan and I have some news..." and I couldn't even look over at their reactions I was dreading it so much. Why on Earth would I be so nervous after 7 years of dating and being engaged to their son, but I was so scared. "... Megan is pregnant!" I slowly turned my head toward them, and before I could over-analyze their reactions my father in-law said "We can take the baby camping!" Clearly, I had nothing to worry about. Later, I told my Dad and he basically said "you're joking" and seemed to think I was messing with him for a bit, then he walked out of the door, back in, back out, and then said "oh, Megan, you idiot" and hugged me. Bit of a mixed bag that one. However I think it was a positive name-calling, and after the initial shock he was very much on board.
COUNTDOWN TO TRIMESTER TWO
After your nearest and dearest hear the news that a baby is on the way, it's pretty much the most boring waiting game on the planet. As I was labeled a 'high-risk' pregnancy I had many more appointments than most, but believe me those weeks really drag on, and for the most part I was worried that I still wasn't actually pregnant, and that I was making the entire thing up! I had a bloodwork appointment booked for around week 8, and I'm not sure if that's standard for Canadian healthcare or globally, but it essentially checked for things like HIV and your blood type etc. Then you have to wait for another appointment to hear the results, or they may even give them over the phone. Luckily, everything came back a-ok for me, and we were then asked if we wanted to do additional blood tests to screen for fetal chromosomal abnormalities. This is definitely a very personal thing, but my fiancee and I were thinking we would like to skip these tests as we were pretty low-risk and we had decided that no matter what the results were we would still progress with the pregnancy, however it's important to mention that theres a relatively small window for these tests to be completed, I believe between 11 and 13/14 weeks, so if you're unsure and then decide you would like the test, give your healthcare provider a call! We didn't realize this, and had actually changed our minds and decided we would have the tests done just to prepare us if there were any abnormalities, but when we saw our doctor he basically replied that we were too late, and had missed our chance. Thankfully, everything turned out just fine, and even if you don't get the tests done many things can be picked up in later ultrasounds anyway.
THE FIRST ULTRASOUND
At nine weeks I was told I could have a dating ultrasound. As far as I'm aware, this is only offered to women who don't know when they conceived, or if you're considered high-risk. As I am a pre-existing Type 1 Diabetic (not gestational) I was offered this ultrasound, and quite frankly I had never been so excited to be a high-risk patient. We had the ultrasound at our local medical centre, and something I was unaware of was the fact that women have to go in alone, and their partners or support can come in later! I was totally expecting my fiancee to be present for the entire thing, but alas, he was left in the waiting room alone. Something else that surprised me was that the screen was turned away from me for the entire procedure, and I was only allowed to look at it when my fiancee was in the room at the end of the appointment. It didn't take long at all, I was in the room alone for maybe 20 minutes or so, and then my fiancee was called in and we got to see our baby for the first time- it was incredible! Luckily the ultrasound technician could tell us which side was which- "this is baby's head... and this is baby's butt" (thank god because I didn't have a clue!) and we were able to see it's little heartbeat, although we couldn't hear it yet. It was an incredible experience, and honestly I feel quite privileged to get that very early glimpse because it put my mind at ease and reassured me that I really was pregnant, and there was a very tiny little person inside me. Even if I couldn't tell where it's head was. And even if we said to one another that it looked more like a potato than a baby.
SHARING THE BIG NEWS
I'd never second-guessed myself so much as when my pregnancy was confirmed by a doctor and then it was time to let family members know. We had already discussed announcing the pregnancy publicly, and although I had originally thought 12 weeks I'm pretty sure we ended up making the announcement at 21 weeks (despite people I saw often already knowing much sooner). Our parents and close friends were a different story, however. As I had mentioned in a prior post, we had gotten engaged in March and here we were, 7 weeks pregnant in August. The wedding was planned in September (and went off without a hitch, I took plenty of shots of water and shivered when I took them, astonished there wasn't an Oscar nomination for Best Actress...) so we wanted to tell the bridesmaids, groomsmen etc before the big day so that they could back me up in not drinking and sneakily drink things that other guests had poured for me. Also, because they are our closest friends and we were really excited to share the news! And then of course, we had to tell our immediate family members.
TELLING THE PARENTS
I had texted my Mum asking her to come over, and she had guessed before I had even gotten to say anything. So parent #1 was relatively easy to tell, and of course she was over the moon. Later that week we had planned to tell the in-laws, and I had told my fiancee that he had to take the lead because to be honest, I was terrified, and also because it's only fair since I would be telling my parents. We went over to his house for a campfire at about 5 or 6pm, and I was pretty nervous. We sat down for dinner, chatted, talked about wedding plans, fiancee had said nothing. Then we had coffee, tea, dessert- fiancee said nothing. Finally we went out for the fire and at about 10:30pm I nudged the fiancee as if to remind him that I was horribly on edge and that he had promised to share the news so whyyyy had he still not said anything! He looked over at me and sort of shrugged, basically saying "we can wait and tell them later", so I looked back and gently but menacingly shook my head to say "no way, buddy, tell them now!" So he broke the ice by saying, "Megan and I have some news..." and I couldn't even look over at their reactions I was dreading it so much. Why on Earth would I be so nervous after 7 years of dating and being engaged to their son, but I was so scared. "... Megan is pregnant!" I slowly turned my head toward them, and before I could over-analyze their reactions my father in-law said "We can take the baby camping!" Clearly, I had nothing to worry about. Later, I told my Dad and he basically said "you're joking" and seemed to think I was messing with him for a bit, then he walked out of the door, back in, back out, and then said "oh, Megan, you idiot" and hugged me. Bit of a mixed bag that one. However I think it was a positive name-calling, and after the initial shock he was very much on board.
COUNTDOWN TO TRIMESTER TWO
After your nearest and dearest hear the news that a baby is on the way, it's pretty much the most boring waiting game on the planet. As I was labeled a 'high-risk' pregnancy I had many more appointments than most, but believe me those weeks really drag on, and for the most part I was worried that I still wasn't actually pregnant, and that I was making the entire thing up! I had a bloodwork appointment booked for around week 8, and I'm not sure if that's standard for Canadian healthcare or globally, but it essentially checked for things like HIV and your blood type etc. Then you have to wait for another appointment to hear the results, or they may even give them over the phone. Luckily, everything came back a-ok for me, and we were then asked if we wanted to do additional blood tests to screen for fetal chromosomal abnormalities. This is definitely a very personal thing, but my fiancee and I were thinking we would like to skip these tests as we were pretty low-risk and we had decided that no matter what the results were we would still progress with the pregnancy, however it's important to mention that theres a relatively small window for these tests to be completed, I believe between 11 and 13/14 weeks, so if you're unsure and then decide you would like the test, give your healthcare provider a call! We didn't realize this, and had actually changed our minds and decided we would have the tests done just to prepare us if there were any abnormalities, but when we saw our doctor he basically replied that we were too late, and had missed our chance. Thankfully, everything turned out just fine, and even if you don't get the tests done many things can be picked up in later ultrasounds anyway.
THE FIRST ULTRASOUND
At nine weeks I was told I could have a dating ultrasound. As far as I'm aware, this is only offered to women who don't know when they conceived, or if you're considered high-risk. As I am a pre-existing Type 1 Diabetic (not gestational) I was offered this ultrasound, and quite frankly I had never been so excited to be a high-risk patient. We had the ultrasound at our local medical centre, and something I was unaware of was the fact that women have to go in alone, and their partners or support can come in later! I was totally expecting my fiancee to be present for the entire thing, but alas, he was left in the waiting room alone. Something else that surprised me was that the screen was turned away from me for the entire procedure, and I was only allowed to look at it when my fiancee was in the room at the end of the appointment. It didn't take long at all, I was in the room alone for maybe 20 minutes or so, and then my fiancee was called in and we got to see our baby for the first time- it was incredible! Luckily the ultrasound technician could tell us which side was which- "this is baby's head... and this is baby's butt" (thank god because I didn't have a clue!) and we were able to see it's little heartbeat, although we couldn't hear it yet. It was an incredible experience, and honestly I feel quite privileged to get that very early glimpse because it put my mind at ease and reassured me that I really was pregnant, and there was a very tiny little person inside me. Even if I couldn't tell where it's head was. And even if we said to one another that it looked more like a potato than a baby.
 |
| The potato baby... don't ask me which side is the head or the butt. |
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