The first half of our February was nuts. Julie's hubby made it home from his deployment at the very end of January. They stayed with us in our guest room while he did the normal checking in stuff. JJ still had school, we still had cleaning and bills to pay. Hubs and I would run errands in the morning after getting JJ off to school, and then we would spend the afternoon playing the Wii with Julie or watching TLC or some movie on ABC Family. We had recorded three different Cinderella movies, and we sat and watched them during the day.
My belly was growing like crazy. I kept feeling like I was maybe further along than they had suspected, but since first trimester ultrasound measurements are pretty accurate, I knew they had been correct. The first Friday in February, I shared my first belly picture on Facebook. I had shared a few other pictures via text message with a friend, but I did not save them after I sent the text.
This was taken at 15 weeks and 2 days...February 3, 2012.
The next day, Saturday the 4th, JJ felt the baby move for the first time! Now JJ gave my belly hugs and kisses every morning when he left for school and every night before he went to bed. Sometimes he would just come up to me and hug and kiss my belly because he wanted to be sure that the baby knew how much JJ love him or her. JJ would ask on a regular basis how much longer until he could see the baby out of my belly and hold the baby in his arms. He wanted to know what the baby would look like, sound like...everything. We told him that the baby would be super small when first born but would grow like Sheldon and be able to play with him before he knew it. Whenever JJ would give a long hug, I would tell him "before too long, the baby will be kicking harder, and you will have to watch out because you might get kicked in the forehead!!" It would make JJ giggle, and he would ask "when will I feel the baby?"
On the day that he felt the baby move, I was reclining on the couch. Everyone had been awesome about making sure that I relaxed and that I stayed as stree-free as possible because of my high blood pressure. I didn't have pre-eclampsia, but they were still going to keep my appointment with the Maternal Fetal Medicine to keep an eye on me and baby. JJ had crawled up on the couch next to me and put his head on my belly. I felt the baby moving, so I turned JJ's head so that his cheek was flat against me, and I pressed his head into my belly. We sat like that only a few moments before I felt the tiny bump at the front of my belly. JJ sat up, wide-eyed, and asked "Momma, did you feel that???" I grinned at him and asked "Did YOU feel that?" He said "YES! The baby really did kick me in my face like you said!!!" He was so excited. He kept touching my belly, rubbing my belly, grinning at everyone. We had been waiting for him to experience the miracle. We knew that once he was able to feel the baby, it would become more real for him.
As a side note that I forgot to mention...after JJ found out that we had a baby on the way, his imaginary brothers disappeared. At this point in February, it had been at least since November that he had even mentioned his brothers in passing. We figured that he had decided that since he had a "real" sibling on the way, it was time for his imaginary brothers to disappear.
One morning before JJ had felt movement, Hubs and I were in the bed. I was awake, waiting for my alarm to go off, and he was in that groggy place between sleep and waking up, mostly on the sleep side. I was lying on my right side, with my back to Hubs, and his hand was resting on the left side of my belly. It was quite comfortable. Suddenly the baby kicked HARD. I felt Hubs hand jump and my whole body jumped. Excited I asked "Did you feel that???" Hubs was like "no..." I was all bummed because it would have been the first time that he felt the baby move. I told him that the baby had just kicked hard. He sat there a few minutes then said "I felt something, but I was mostly asleep, so I didn't realize what it was." Of course, the baby didn't kick again before my alarm went off and our day got started.
About a week later (February 9th), Hubs and I were in the living room, after dinner, and the baby must have had a sugar rush. There was bouncing all over the place!!! Then it felt like Baby was playing paddleball inside of me, a constant kicking against my right side. I was able to walk over to Hubs, place his hand on my belly, and watch the amazement in his eyes. He asked "Is the baby doing a constant kick?" I said "yes! It's almost like paddleball!" I was so happy that he could feel the movement and be wide awake to remember it and register what he was feeling!
As it got closer to our "big" ultrasound, we started talking more about names. We had decided on a girl name already; it would have been JJ's name, had he been a girl: Skyler Marie. We just couldn't decide upon a boy's name. Friends gave off the wall suggestions. In the beginning, before we knew it was definitely one baby, I kept teasing we were having twins, a boy and a girl...and they would be Skyler and Tyler. I'm not sure Hubs was pumped about the name Tyler, but we never discussed more boy names. He really wanted a girl. My family told me it was time for a girl; our siblings were ready for another niece. I had a dream about having a girl, then closer to the ultrasound, I had a dream about having a boy. My dreams weren't swaying me one way or the other. I will admit, and I told Julie, that after the first ultrasound, I thought we were having a boy. Something I saw in the ultrasound just kept that feeling alive.
The week of the ultrasound was super duper busy. Julie and her hubby were preparing for a trip back to GA with all of their stuff. They reserved a u-haul and spent Valentine's day packing the stuff from their two storage units into the truck. On the 15th, her hubby got off of work early, and they were able to get the last minute stuff packed and head out early. They had a long drive back to GA. On Thursday the 16th, Momma and Grandmutter were coming in that afternoon/early evening. Our appointment on the 17th was early in Wilmington (just over an hour away), and we had to leave early. We were so excited all day long. JJ knew that Grammie and Grandmutter were spending the night and taking him to school the next day, and that we would find out if he was having a brother or a sister. He kept saying he hoped it was a brother, but he would love a sister just as much. I took a couple of pictures with my phone to send Momma because it had been since early January that she had seen me. I had lost 12 pounds during the first trimester. I was drinking tons of water. My appetite was coming back, although I still felt nausea with a lot of cooked foods. I could eat salads and fruit, and I ate quite a bit of that. I could also eat cheese and yogurt, so I snacked on that. Meats were hit and miss. One time Hubs made meatloaf, and it was so yummy. A week later, he made meatloaf, and I couldn't eat it. I couldn't do anything fishy smelling. I still loved everything spicy.
Momma and Grandmutter arrived close to 5pm. Momma had brought her puppy Annabel. JJ was so pumped :) We played with the puppy for a bit and took her in the backyard to potty, then we loaded up in Grammie's car and headed to Golden Corral. Momma and Grandmutter just couldn't get over my belly and how big it was. I kept laughing and saying "I know, and I've lost weight! I can't imagine what it will look like when the baby starts to really gain weight!!" At Golden Corral, I had a salad, some barbeque with tons of Texas Pete and a roll, and some fruit. I told Momma that it was the most I had eaten at one time in a month.
We stayed up until about 10pm visiting, and finally I just had to go to bed. I had eaten too much, and I couldn't get comfortable. I was bummed that with as active as the baby had been, I hadn't felt any movement for Momma or Grandmutter to feel, but I just assumed the baby was being shy. I was up and down most of the night, using the bathroom, battling gas because of my dinner. It was one of the most uncomfortable nights of my pregnancy thus far. I knew I kept talking to my belly and asking Baby Aleman to please not be shy tomorrow, that we wanted to know if there was a boy or a girl growing in there. I asked on Facebook for everyone to pray that Baby was NOT modest so that we could view on the ultrasound the sex. Even through the uncomfortable night, excitement was ringing through the entire Aleman household...
We are thinking of you. I'm amazed, though don't know why, you have always been an incredible writer. I hope this is helping you. I hope JJ and Jon are both doing ok too.
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