We Are Having A Baby! Our Pregnancy Story + How We Found Out
we are pregnant!
Matt and I are extremely thrilled & grateful that we are pregnant, we are experiencing so many emotions right now and are just over the moon!! I plan to be as candid & open with my pregnancy as I possibly can, to share our journey with you and remember all of the little things when we look back at this one day. So thanks for reading along & being a part of this! Just a reminder that everyone’s pregnancy experience is unique and special to them - this is my story and I am so thankful to be able to tell it. Thanks for being here + being a part of celebrating baby Shepp’s life with us!
*ps I wrote this post right after our first ultrasound at 7 weeks, so many more updates to come!
Xx
Background Before Baby
For background context, I have actually been off birth control for probably about three years now. When we first got married I got on it but really hated the way it made me feel; like I was never really myself and sort of moody. I got off of it shortly after. Going into marriage we were fully aware and okay with the fact that we could get pregnant at any time. Going off birth control did not change those feelings, we still were very much in the mindset that God was in control and whatever would happen would be the best timing for us. As Matt just pointed out to me, it is a pretty odd feeling when you get married and people right away ask you when you will have kids. Especially since usually if you are on BC it means you don’t want them at the time and if you are off them then people would assume you were wanting them. We were somewhere in between; so whenever we were asked when we wanted kids we would just say, in the next few years :) Which is all very true. No timeline or pressure.
During the first I would say three years of our marriage we didn’t track ovulation or anything at all it was just not something we had our eyes focused on. We were enjoying being married, traveling, growing my business, spending time with family & friends, and at that point we would have still been thrilled to get pregnant but didn’t have any pressure on it. I was 22 and Matt was 25 when we got married so we were pretty young, honestly did not have much money and were just trying to enjoy life together! If we had gotten pregnant at the time we would have been over the MOON I know it. But we also were not focused and stressed on why it was not happening. Once again, putting trust in God’s timing and knowing we were not to the point yet that we were super focused on “trying” to make it happen.
I would say in the past year we have started to talk more seriously about having kids and self tracking when I am ovulating. I will be honest to preface this; everyone has a different story, different timing, different plan and that is OK. I actually love hearing the way God works in everyones pregnancy stories and how they are all truly so unique. We feel extremely grateful that we felt peace around God’s timing and did not ever feel the stress of wishing we had something we didn’t. That feeling I am sure is different for everyone depending on their timelines and wishes for when they want to start a family. For us we just trusted that it would happen (although we reeeeally hoped it would be this year) and I think if it didn’t happen this year after doing more tracking & being intentional we would have definetly gone to see a doctor and made sure things were okay health-wise. Personally we were just not there yet; our hearts were at peace either way. I think it showed us that even while being in a place of peace where you are at, you can still have hopes for something. We hoped and prayed we would get pregnant, but felt peace really either way with God’s timing.
The Timeline
4/13/20
At this point it had been about two weeks since my period would have started and I was not sure what to think really about everything. Like stated before I was not on birth control for a loong time, so missing a period might have been the first time I missed it in like three years. Literally EVERY day Matt would come up to me with like this sly/silly look and say, “have you started your period yet?” haha half joking but half serious. I would just be like NO I haven’y you crazy person haha stop asking me! Secretly thinking in my head well heck if I am pregnant there will be NO way to surprise him because he was soo excited about me missing my period haha! The funny thing was that we bought pregnancy tests at Rite Aid the week prior and I was going to take them when Matt was out for a run, but when I went to find them in the bag I realized the cashier forgot them hahah so I was like shoot we gotta go back to get more! And then he was really on it haha.
So April 13th I went into our bathroom with a test and the “ + “ result showed in about five seconds . It was pretty clear that it was positive (in hindsight) but I had never seen a positive test before. So I took it out to Matt, hands suuuper shaky like, “I think this is pregnant?” and he took out the instructions and we both were looking over it to see if it was right haha! I really think that it did not hit us at ALL. So I took another test. Then three more. FIVE total and they all really quickly read pregnant. We literally had no words haha I feel like you think about what your reaction would be in that type of scenario and we were basically speechless just hugging each other. My dad called me about five minutes after I took the tests and he had my birthday flowers downstairs for me, so we ran down to the street to meet him. I think I was still shaking and it felt surreal haha. After we got the flowers we ran back upstairs and just like sat here smiling and shaking together. It was just the craziest feeling as I am sure any of you mamas or mama-to-be’s would remember.
That night we decided to call my brother and sister in law since she has three kids and I felt like I needed someone to talk to about what to do next! I facetimed Linds then Derrik and Derrik picked up and she was feeding my niece Lilley so they called us back an hour later. And when we told them they said we thought you might be calling about that haha since we had asked Derrik to call back later with Lindsey when she was done. They were of course so happy and excited!! It made me feel at peace because she had some good suggestions for a prenatal, birth & family clinic and some other tips.
4/16/20
For my birthday Matt had surprised me with a road trip to my parents’ lake house, so we drove over there on the 14th and came back the night of the 15th. The 16th we woke up and it honestly still felt surreal in a lot of ways (it still does) but called the doctor that my sister suggested. They asked a bunch of questions about the pregnancy so far; symptoms, if there was any bleeding, pain, etc. I actually had “spotted” a little bit about a week prior to this so it instantly made us a little hesitant. The spotting was very very light and was not painful, almost like the day before a period. But they wanted to see us the very next day so we scheduled an appointment for 8am the next morning!
4/17/20
Seeing baby in an ultrasound for the first time is one of the most wild things I have ever experienced. They actually had to do a vaginal ultrasound for the first one since I was still so early. I had assumed I was just about 4-5 weeks along but technically since the end of my last period it would mark me at 7 weeks and 2 days!! The nurse was so kind and explained everything we were seeing (like the gestational sac which is the big black part) and showed us that they would even see the heart beating!!! It was too early to hear the heart but based on the visuals they tested of the heart beating she said he/she is beating at 143 BPM (beats per minute). She said that was right on track for 7 weeks which was so reassuring.
hey Baby Shepp!
It is funny because the gestational sac (the black part) is actually TINY at this point just 7 weeks in, even though the ultrasound makes it all look so much bigger than it is. I was so thrown off from size when she first pulled up the ultrasound because it looks like it is filling up my stomach, when in reality I believe at the 7 week time baby Shepp was the size of a small blueberry! So cute omg. We downloaded the Bump app and saw that even at just 7 weeks old when baby is so tiny they are generating 100 new brain sells each minute! Our baby is now 13 weeks old and growing so much stronger & bigger every day. Such a little miracle!
Praying every day for our little baby’s health & growth, and hope that you will join us!
I am also keeping track of every week of the first trimester, so will be sharing more depth of ALL the feelings, growth, experiences and how we are doing there!
Xx