IT'S A.....

So last weekend I celebrated my 30th birthday. I was blessed to have multiple days and ways of celebrating the milestone. My parents and sister were able to join me outside of Atlanta. We rented a lake house on Lanier to host a weekend's worth of activities!

On Friday Chris and I had our OB appointment to confirm the gender. That evening we entertained both of our families at the lake house for dinner and dessert. We had cupcakes made with corresponding filling (pink for girl/blue for boy) so when the family broke into the cupcakes they would know if we were having a boy or girl. We were excited to announce that we are having a BOY! We have decided to name him Montgomery Patrick Harris. We will call him Monty.  It has been pointed out that his initials will be MPH (miles per hour) and I hope he chooses to "follow the speed limit" once he is born!

On Saturday, I had friends join the family at the lake house for some hanging out in the sun, playing on the boat, and floating on rafts. It was a great afternoon that lead into a spectacular evening. Chris surprised me with a video of pictures from three "categories" of my life- my childhood/family, my friends, and us as a couple. He followed it up with a speech that left many a person speechless and seeking tissues. I was so lucky to be on the receiving end of the speech :)

 "group" watching the video

 watching the video and Chris giving his speech

In short, it was an amazing weekend that I will remember for the rest of my life. I was so lucky to be able to bring people that I love together to thank them for their love and friendship over the past 30 years. I have been very blessed and look forward to the next chapter of my life- welcoming little Monty into the world!


This weekend has been full of interesting and emotional experiences as well. Saturday morning we posted our pregnancy news on the almighty Facebook- which if you have an account then you know makes your news official to the world. Below are the pictures we used to share the news with the online friends.We were overwhelmed with "likes" and well wishes!

Last night, Chris was the officiant of a wedding for two friends- Natalie and Ryan. He is very modest about the whole thing, but he did an AMAZING job. He kept the tone serious yet funny- which is exactly what the couple was looking to achieve. He used "interview" questions to create a poem about the couple, reflected on the high and low points that can come with a marriage, and cleverly opened the floor for them to exchange the vows which they had written. I have some video of this event which I will try to add in later (currently the technology is not allowing me access!). I was very proud of him :) Two weekends in a row giving speeches with the WOW factor!


Today we participated in a satellite 5k in honor of my cousin, Lauryn. There is a race held in Pittsburgh in her honor, but since we are no where near the area we made our own race closer to home. It was more emotional than I expected it to be and I was glad that I completed the miles with Chris. Here are some pictures of us after we finished.

Sharing the News

Chris and I attended a cook out this weekend with some of my college friends. We were able to announce our pregnancy to the group at this time. Our hostess, Stefanie always has a toast  during her parties. Rhonda and I had our husbands substitute our wine glasses with milk glasses.

We also called a few out of town friends to let them in on the news as well. It was a special day for us all.

Today we purchased our first outfit for Peanut. As Chris said, "Our child is very fashionable- having an outfit ready for the Super Bowl seven months before the event."

Before the Blog

I knew I would want to have a blog for our family long before we learned we were pregnant. Now a days it is very common for families to document little adventures this way and I think its a pretty good way of preserving some memories and sharing them with loved ones who you may not get to share details with regularly.

While it has taken some time to put the blog together, the story and memories started the week leading into Mother's Day. We learned we were pregnant on Thursday, May 10th. We took a good 24 hours to process the news ourselves before we shared with our parents. Since I could not share the news with my parents and sister personally, we gave them the phone call on Friday evening. We told them we had forgotten to mail the Mother's Day cards with all the stress of moving (that's another story) and wanted to tell them they are fantastic mothers and women. I also pointed out that NEXT YEAR I hoped they wouldn't forget to send me a card. It was fantastic to get the reaction of my family on the phone, I just hope in the future to share those moments in person. Sorry I just couldn't wait to tell you the next time I saw you!

With Mother's Day on Sunday, we wrapped up a pregnancy test to put with the gifts for Chris' mother to open. When she processed the meaning behind the contents of the sandwich bag, we enjoyed many hugs and tears. It was awesome to let them in on the news on a special day like Mother's Day.

In the middle of May we spent a weekend on Lake Oconee for our friend Victoria's 30th birthday party. Months before the party her boyfriend had secretly organized all the college friends to meet for a long weekend and got Victoria on an airplane out of Chicago. When we first got the invitation we were pumped. After finding out that you're pregnant, but not far enough in to tell anyone, this sort of boozing trip becomes very tricky. How do you socialize for days with that many friends and not drink without anyone noticing? Not easily. Fortunately only a few people took serious notice and we think we were able to redirect the others. Time will tell who actually noticed :-)

I decided I could not keep the secret for too long. I had scheduled a lunch date with two dear friends to celebrate the start of summer (June 1). Stefanie is pregnant and due in September and Rhonda has been my confidant on the road to conception. I decided that even if my first OB appointment did not go as expected, I would need some friends to know the background. I also knew that we would need some assistance in telling the rest of "the group" that we were expecting if everything did go according to plan. I beat them to the restaurant and I opted for our "traditional" way of telling other ladies that you're pregnant. I ordered a glass of milk in a wine glass and I was holding it when they came up to the table. Stefanie knew immediately and was overwhelmed with excitement. Rhonda held back a moment pointing at the glass and asking what it meant, but her eyes told me more. It turned out she is expecting as well! Just a month behind us!  It was a very special lunch and we all enjoyed milk in a wine glass.

June 5, 2012 was an amazing day for our growing family. We opened the morning with our first OB/GYN appointment. The first portion was the ultrasound. I was completely overwhelmed with emotion before the nurse even came in the room! We were delighted and amazed as we got our first look at our peanut. Everything looked great- baby was positioned correctly, had visible limbs, and an amazing heart beat. We received pictures (see first post) which we continue to enjoy. Afterwards we met with one of the nurse practitioners in the practice. They can not guarantee who will be on call when I go into labor, so I have to rotate through the providers in the practice. I would prefer to go the nurse practitioner midwife route as they are more available and involved than an MD, but if there are any complications the MD on call takes over. Chris had many jokes while at the doctors office, but my favorite- "If you have complications and the midwife has to bring in the doctor, is that called a midwife crisis?"

We also sold our first home on June 5th. We greatly enjoyed our time at April Drive, but it was time to move on.

We had the home emptied by May 30th and we have been living in a two bedroom apartment. It is a lot smaller than the house, but we have enjoyed the coziness of the apartment and it is much easier to keep clean. We have a new house under contract but we will wait to celebrate that house until it's closing at the end of June. We hope to have started the move in process prior to our annual trip to Hilton Head in July. 

Two weekends ago I traveled to Augusta to see my parents, sister, and nephew. This was the weekended the grandmother's were "clear to share the news" so you probably got your phone call at this time. During the visit my sister helped me start a registry (with the wisdom that only a mother can offer- thank you again!) and she also helped me find some "must read" titles. It was such a fantastic weekend that I am going back to Augusta this weekend while Chris travels to the American Library Association Conference in California.

I think that pretty much sums up the major events of the first ten weeks of pregnancy. Symptoms are all "normal" and present (and none worth discussing), email and phone congratulations have been fantastic, and my clothes still "fit" for the most part.

We look forward to sharing more happenings for us and promise not to be so long winded in future posts.