From August 25th until now

I had to wait until Monday to call the doctor's office to schedule an appointment. And of course, there are no appointments until Wednesday of the FOLLOWING week! You mean I have to wait nearly 2 weeks from the time I found out until I see somebody about this? And it's not even a real doctor, just a nurse?!?! Well it doesn't sound like there's much I can do about it. Guess we'll just go about our business with this uncertainty looming over us...

That night we had tickets to an Indians/Yankees game with some close friends. Friends we drink with often. In fact, I had been out with them for my birthday the weekend prior. Brian and I discussed coming up with an "excuse" - Food poisoning? Drank too much last night? An important early morning meeting at work tomorrow? Ultimately I just knew I wouldn't be able to lie about it. My facial expressions always give me away! haha.

We parked in Hoboken and met our friend's girlfriend, Kathy, at their apartment. As we walked in she offered us drinks - Brian grabbed a beer while I ducked into the bathroom to pee. She changed and as we're going to walk out, she asked again if I wanted something - she was grabbing a spiked seltzer (a drink we had frequently together over the summer) for the walk to the Path. I declined... so far, so good... We make our way to the Bronx to meet her boyfriend, Justin, and another couple, Dave and Kristin, at a bar outside of the stadium. They, along with the owner of a bar we frequent, already have beers. Brian and our friend get a beer, while I say I'm thirsty and ask for a water to start. We go to take a group picture and Justin accidentally knocks my half-full water out of my hand. He jokes that at least it was water, and comments that it's time for me to "man up" and start drinking anyway... plus everyone is now ready for another round. My heart is racing a mile a minute. I don't know what to do. Order a beer and pretend to sip it? Our bar owning friend, Dan, asks what we want...I freeze... I answer with "I'll have another water." And now all eyes are on me. Everyone's confused... finally, Dan shouts out "Oh, so Lisa's pregnant!" And now everyone is shocked. Kathy shouted, "I knew it as soon as you said no to a seltzer!" Justin still doesn't seem to understand. Kristin has about a million questions. And I'm nearly in tears as I tell them the events of the last 72 hours.

(I don't remember if this was taken before or after they found out. Everything from that afternoon is a blur.)

Okay, so we're up to 8 people that know. There's a sense of relief that I can talk to some people about this. I'm not good with secrets. And they're all on Snapchat so I can openly share some of what I'm going through.

The following weekend was Labor Day. We actually had one party to go to, which was nice because it meant not having to hide this from too many people. We bought a small, cheap bottle of vodka, dumped it, and replaced it with water, and I made "moscow mules" with just water and non-alcoholic ginger beer - and let me tell you, those drinks were a lifesaver!! That whole "all day sickness" crap had just started at the end of that week, and I was miserable that weekend!

We survive the weekend, and now it's FINALLY time for that appointment. It was pretty uneventful. The basics - don't eat sushi, take a prenatal vitamin, etc. Based on the date of my last period I should be about 9 weeks, but after getting close and personal, she estimates I'm probably around 6-7 weeks. Blood tests confirm I'm pregnant. And she has me schedule my first ultrasound...the following Tuesday!!! Grrr...

Ultrasound time rolls around. I do as instructed and show up with a full bladder. Literally, thought I was going to explode. I lay down, unzip my pants, and they (the tech and an intern) start searching around. We see a blob. Okay, cool. They're still searching... I'm watching their faces... the intern looks a little concerned... They finally say that my bladder might be too full, and ask me to go pee. THANK YOU JESUS! I come back, and they search again. Their faces look relieved. They found a heartbeat. Clocking in around 165. They also estimate that I'm about 7 weeks and 4 days (and not the 10 weeks 1 day based on my last period).

(Seriously, that's a baby? If you say so...)

That puts my due date at April 27th and the date of conception as August 4th. Just two days before that first pregnancy test, which is why it came back negative. That also means I was definitely pregnant for the whole week of California and my Zum Schneider birthday party...oops!

The nurse calls the following day and explains what's next. Because of my age I get to see both my regular OBGYN and a high-risk practice. That's where I'll have all my future ultrasounds and they'll also do some genetic testing to rule out any possible birth defects. But we have to wait until I'm at least 10 weeks for all of that. Appointments are scheduled for Monday October 2nd. Great, more waiting...

In the meantime we had our trip to Ohio where I had planned multiple drinking events that I could no longer participate in. That sucked. We also told my parents since they were supposed to be part of said drinking plans. They were obviously excited. My sister was shocked (she was a recipient of the initial negative pregnancy test snapchat haha). The following week we invited Brian's parents, brother and sister in law over under the false pretense of a birthday dinner for him - we definitely surprised them!

So the three weeks finally pass, and up first was the genetic counselor. Very informative, yet horribly terrifying. I left convinced this thing was deformed and probably going to terminate itself by the end of the day. They draw some blood and put in the requests with my insurance - I eventually find out everything is 100% covered. Score! We'll know if it has the correct number of chromosomes and the gender in about 10 days! And about about a week after that, we'll find out if I'm a carrier for any of 175 different DNA mutations/genetic diseases.

(The high-risk practice has just about the most low-budget pee sample situation I've ever seen.)

Later that afternoon we were off to the OBGYN. It was my first time seeing this particular doctor. The nurse highly recommended her - and she was right, I really liked her. Again, more of the basics. She listened for a heartbeat. She said she could hear it, and asked if we also heard it... Brian and I both said "yeah" but later confessed to each other we couldn't! haha.

Next up was our 12 week ultrasound on October 16th. But first we got a call around the 12th from the genetic counselor - our initial results are back and they're good. Phew... Now do I want to know the gender? I mean, what kind of question is that - YES! (PS, I do not understand people that don't want to find out. I'm sorry, it's still a surprise whether you find out at 12 weeks or 40! haha. How do you go that entire time without knowing? You people are nuts). And if you're reading this, then you probably already know... but just in case.. It's a girl.

Next ultrasounds goes great - everything looks perfect. It actually looks like a baby now, which is a relief haha. Except I think I'm no longer "high risk" and my next ultrasound isn't until 20 weeks (I was originally told I'd have them every 4 weeks, but looks like we're skipping that). We're given the go-ahead to start telling people... And that's pretty much where we're at!