About my pregnancy

This is a fun questionairre that I just filled out on Facebook. Thought I would share it here since Noah's birthday is now a week away.

_____________________________

1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? Absolutely not. We got pregnant right before my in-laws were to come to Hawaii to see us for 2 weeks. I guess Noah was a total love child and meant to be!!

2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? Happily. For 1 ½ years.

3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? To say that I was shocked is an understatement. I called my sister-in-law, Annie, who had been in Hawaii with us for 2 weeks before we found out that I was pregnant and the first thing she said to me was “But we drank the whole time we were there!” Oh well, Noah turned out perfect.

4. WAS ABORTION AN OPTION FOR YOU? Stupid question.

5. HOW OLD WERE YOU? I was 27 when I conceived and 28 when I gave birth.

6. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Funny story… I was actually deep cleaning my house after we had the Beall clan here and had an old pregnancy test in the medicine cabinet. I didn’t even think that I could be pregnant but I wanted to get rid of the test before it was old and unreliable and I had to toss it. Plus, I had had all the PMS signs one could have plus some spotting. There was no reason to think I could be pregnant.

So, while Dan was downstairs drinking beer and watching basketball on his Memorial Day 2007 off, I took the test and set it aside. Almost 30 minutes had passed before I went back into the bathroom to use it again (what can I say, I drink a gallon of water a day) and realized I hadn’t thrown the test away. I picked it up, glanced at it and began to toss it into the garbage can when I realized there were two lines instead of one…. Uh oh. So, I go downstairs, tell Dan I had taken a test (which he got mad about because he thought I should’ve told him that I had taken it…) and then shoved it into his face. I said “what does this say?” he said “I don’t even know what that thing is.” He paused his game and I told him it was obviously a pregnancy test and it was clearly positive. He told me to go to the doctor the next day, unpaused his game and took a long swig of beer. That’s my guy.

I went to the doctor the next day, had some blood work done and was told to go back to work and wait to hear from them. 4 hours passed with no word. So, I called them and the nurse said “Oh, sorry. We were supposed to call you. Well…. Congratulations. You are 5 weeks pregnant.” What?! How could that be?! We weren’t planning this for like, 2 more years.

I decided to drive to Dan’s office to tell him and when I got there, I got a call on my cell from Dan. He said he had driven home over lunch to let our new puppy, Piper, out. He said “What’s the verdict?” and I told him that I was pregnant but had wanted to wait to tell him in person. And if you can believe it, he actually said to me: “Catch me next time around!!!” And that is our story.

7. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? See answer above!

8. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? I knew from Day 1 that I was pregnant with a boy and never doubted it for a second. Noah was Noah from the get-go and I knew it instinctively. But, yes, we definitely found out at 20 weeks.

9. DUE DATE? 2 February 2008 but he had other plans and was almost 2 weeks late. Insert the word misery here.

10. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Not once.

11. WHAT DID YOU CRAVE? Bleu cheese dressing, chicken pot pies, root beer and lots of water.

12. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? I got sick of the “Is this baby ever going to come?!” routine. I also heard that I had been pregnant forever a lot…

13. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? A sweet, sweet boy.

14. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? Not for a millisecond.

15. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? Ugh, too much. About 45.

16. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? I had two baby showers. One in Troy, Alabama that was fabulous when I was 7 months and another about 2 weeks before Noah was due in Hawaii by my group of girlfriends.

17. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? They were both surprises initially.

18. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? At 10 weeks, I had some spotting and thought I had miscarried. But after that, it was smooth sailing. Except that he was so late. That can be considered a complication by my standards!

19. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii

20. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 36 HOURS. Went in at the crack of dawn on 11 February and he didn’t come till the following night.

21. WHO DROVE YOU TO THE HOSPITAL? Dan. My mom was with us.

22. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Danny Boy.

23. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? C-section

24. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? I didn’t get an epidural till after 30+ hours of labor. Couldn’t take it anymore. But, who could after that length of time?!

25. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 7lbs, 10oz and was 19” long

26. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN? Tuesday, 12 February 2008 at 7:18 pm

27. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Noah Everard Beall (after the Biblical character, Noah, and after my grandfather, Everard Flude Grindley, who was an immigrant from Ireland and a truly amazing man of God).

31. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? My sweet boy will be 1 in a week. Wow, how the time flies.