I bought a journal when I found out I was pregnant. I thought I would be one of those moms who wrote down everything she was experiencing, you know, for posterity. Maybe even put pen to paper in a letter to my son letting him know how excited (and terrified and nervous) I was about his entrance into our lives. Turns out I am not one of those moms. It’s currently sitting on my bedside table, practically untouched.

But there are certain things I do want to remember about that 9-month phase of my life. To put it lightly, Rory was a complete surprise. A shock really. One morning I was feeling queasy and the next thing I knew I was peeing on a Dollar General pregnancy test in the bathroom at work. At this point Brad didn’t even know I had a suspicion. But there it was, that faint pink line that changed everything. And my coworkers were the only ones who knew! I went to Planned Parenthood and peed in a cup just to be sure, then I met Brad in the parking lot outside his work. I was standing outside of my car with my hands behind my back. I told him I had a surprise and asked him to pick a hand. He picked the one with the pregnancy test, which he refused to believe, so I showed him the paper from Planned Parenthood which basically said yep, super pregnant. I think around 5 weeks to be exact. He still didn’t believe me and wanted me to get a blood test but I told him he better get used to it! We were both a ball of nerves as we lead the parent meeting that started the 2014 Ulster Project that night. How’s that for timing, huh??

We told our parents by getting them cards that said “Congratulations grandparents!” or something along those lines. There were tears and hugs and high fives, because I’m pretty sure my mom was convinced we were never having kids. We wanted to wait to tell other people until we were sure it would stick, but I could hardly contain myself and people gradually started to figure it out. I spent my first trimester falling asleep in strange places with the Ulster group (bus rides, church services, the Children’s Museum), at my desk in the office, and in restaurants while hanging out with friends after a long day. I would get sick when my stomach was empty (especially in the morning) so I carried around snacks and ate about 5 breakfasts a day. We had our first ultrasound in July and our hearts skipped a beat when we saw the little sprout do a somersault on the screen. I remember being amazed that it was moving around so much but I couldn’t feel it yet.

Before we knew it, July was over and we entered the magical stage of the second trimester. It was time to tell the world. We got together on a sunny afternoon with my coworker, Lindsay, who took these beautiful pictures for us to share. My bump was officially on display for the world to see.

And then came the gender reveal. I think I knew all along it was a boy. Boy things were coming easy to us. We had a boy name picked out and a boy nursery theme. We went in for our big ultrasound and Brad was convinced we were going to wait until the following weekend when his family was in town to tell anyone. But when we walked out the doors, he was beaming and couldn’t wait to call his family to let them know! We had another fun photoshoot to share with our friends on social media. Here are a few of our favorites 🙂

The rest of the pregnancy was fairly uneventful. We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with the little sprout growing inside me. And baby showers. So many baby showers.

Thanks to the lovely Amy Horn at Amy Horn Photography for this beautiful Christmas mini-session. 

Final thoughts: I have never felt more confident about myself as I did when I was pregnant. Which is strange, because I definitely gained my fair share of baby weight. Maybe it was because I was cutting myself some extra slack because I was carrying and growing an extra human. Or maybe it was because I cut certain things out of my diet and started exercising on a regular basis. Either way, I loved watching my bump grow and feeling every kick and wiggle. Can’t believe my handsome little man is already 6 months old. My heart is so full I think it could burst.