The day our lives changed forever was January 28th. It was a frigid Tuesday evening in southern Wisconsin. There was no anticipation when I took the test. I had just taken a hot bath (one of my favorite winter pastimes) and decided to randomly pee on a stick. I went about my bedtime routine thinking nothing of that little stick. I took it out of habit and curiosity - I hadn't even missed a period so really I thought I was just wasting money. I dressed I n my teal blue fleece snowflake PJ pants and a purple Crown Royal t-shirt, threw my hair up on top of my head in a messy bun, put on my nerdy glasses and started out of the bathroom. Then I remembered the test. I looked at it on the counter and almost peed my pants.
"Pregnant. 1+ weeks."
Holy. Crap. I remember feeling a heavy excitement in my chest.
I walked downstairs to where my husband, Bill, was sitting on the couch. He was watching some YouTube video on his phone and didn't even look up when I came down. I said "Umm, I have to tell you something." Without looking up he asked what. "We're pregnant." He looked up at me wide-eyed and said "This video is really sad." I am pretty sure he was in total shock and just spoke words. I told him again and that's when it the laughs, tears, "holy craps," and "OMGs" started. We were trying and we wanted this so bad. But were we ready?! Well ready or not we were pregnant!!!
That night we called our families to tell them the news. They were so excited. We swore them to ultimate secrecy. Not a soul was to know. I was so scared because my nurse self knew that 20% of pregnancies end In miscarriage. We didn't tell extended family until 6 weeks, close friends until 8 and the world until I was in the second trimester. Looking back now, I question that decision. I just didn't want to have to go back and untell people if the worst case scenario occurred. I've since thought about different perspectives on this and may tell people earlier next time (God-willing).
My first trimester went pretty well overall. I had some morning (all-day) sickness for a few weeks. The worst part about the nausea that I was working in an ICU at the time. If you know a nurse she will tell you that floor nursing and the smells that can accompany it are nauseating even when you aren't pregnant. Ha! I was also totally and completely exhausted. They are not kidding when they say making a human is tiring. I am fairly certain I slept through the month of March. I did manage to keep working out - I did modified versions of P90X3 and the 21 Day Fix.
I was so excited when it came time to announce the pregnancy to the world. We used our first son, Charlie, to deliver the news on Facebook.
 |
| Our Pregnancy Announcement |
The second trimester is when I hit my stride, physically. I kept working out and doing a lot of walking. This trimester was consumed by our decision to move home to Pittsburgh from our home at the time in southern Wisconsin. We put our home on the market in early May in anticipation of Bill's new position starting at the beginning of June. It did not sell in time so we ended up having to leave it empty until it sold (which eventually happened later in the summer, praise Jesus). We left a lot of amazing people there in Wisconsin but we were thrilled to move home and be able to raise our baby with the help of our parents and sisters and other amazing family members. My parents graciously opened their home to us and that is where we lived all summer! I switched my workout program to PiYo around 20 weeks or so.
 |
| 34 Weeks |
By the time I entered my third trimester we had accepted an offer on our Wisconsin home and began searching for the home we would bring our new little baby home to (we didn't find out the gender!). We found "the one" and were all set to close about a month before our due date. As for how I was feeling, the third trimester definitely proved to be the hardest. I had major issues trying to sleep for two reasons: one, I was uncomfortable and two, my body did this weird thing where it woke up at 3am and did not want to go back to sleep. I kept up with PiYo and did a lot of walking. By the middle of September I was ready for Baby P to arrive. I was due October 10th but I wanted baby early! If you followed my journey, you know that didn't happen!
 |
| Delivery day! |
I ended up being 9 days late. Our little boy, William Harvey Pierce, entered the world screaming via an emergency c-section at 12:12pm on Sunday, October 19th. It was the best scream I have ever heard. (I will share the full birth story in a later post).
 |
| Welcome to the world, Liam! |
Pregnancy was beautiful and ugly; wonderful and awful. I loved and hated being pregnant. I peed a lot. I slept tons and then hardly slept at all. I felt gorgeous and hideous. It was the fastest and longest 41 weeks and 2 days of my life at the time.
Now here's some ugly, honest truth: I gave in to too many cravings. Even though I remained active my entire pregnancy, I failed myself and gained about 60 pounds. Me, the health and fitness coach that had lost 46 pounds last year, undid all of it with soft pretzels and ice cream and pop tarts. I got really sad about it. I still am so disappointed in myself. I was lucky that Liam was completely healthy and unaffected by my weight gain. But the fact of the matter is, even though I gained too much, I also know how to get this weight off. And I have already started to do it. I cannot undo what was done. I can only move forward. I WILL lose 50 pounds again and I will share it all in the hopes that it will help other women.
 |
| One day after my due date - I was HUGE! |
Pregnancy agreed with me so well, overall. Feeling baby kicks, knowing that you are a vessel of growing human life... those are some of the best things I have ever felt. We are so blessed that I had such an overall amazing pregnancy.
I cannot wait to do it all again. (But I can wait a little).
No comments:
Post a Comment