My husband and I have been married for four years before we had our baby. We wanted to enjoy being a couple before having kids. We’ve been told to travel as much as we can while it’s just still the two of us.
One day, I took a urine pregnancy test because my period was delayed for 5 days. I didn’t expect it to be positive because sometimes when I’m under a lot of stress, it could cause delays with my monthly guest. Being paranoid as I was, when I saw the two lines, I did not want to believe that I was pregnant. I was thinking what if I have a health condition or problem that’s causing the test to be positive?! My husband was with me and we were both unsure if we should believe the positive result or not. So I ended up repeating the test for 2 more days until I told my doctor and scheduled an appointment with an OB/Gyn. How ironic it is that I’m a nurse but I never saw an OB/Gyn all my life and I’m already 30. We decided not to tell anybody until we were sure.
At my eighth week, I had my OB appointment and my pregnancy was confirmed via vaginal ultrasound. At that time, our baby was just the size of a raspberry! He was the tiniest thing but he already had a heart which was beating healthily. Hearing his heartbeat and seeing that there’s a tiny human being growing inside of me, at that moment was when it all became so real to me! I could not describe what I felt. It was an emotional moment for me and my husband. Right there and then, we knew our lives are going to change forever!
We wanted to enjoy the moment to ourselves so decided to keep it as a secret until we reached the second trimester. The exception was my job. I had to tell my boss in confidence because I needed to ask some changes to my schedule in order for me to make it to my OB appointments. It was fun keeping such a beautiful secret. I was lucky not to experience any morning sickness. Nobody could really tell that I was pregnant until when I was nearing the second trimester. I felt really fatigued. My husband’s sisters were already guessing that I was pregnant and it was difficult to convince them otherwise. But we managed to delay the announcement (despite their interrogation) until the second trimester.
We told our families before we announced it on social media. When we finally let the cat out of the bag, it felt so wonderful and liberating! Everybody was so excited. I never really realized how people are so extra nice to pregnant people until I became pregnant. It was nice to be treated like a VIP all the time. Everybody kept checking on me and making sure I was okay, may it be at my workplace, or family and social gatherings, and even in public places! I felt so special!
As a first time preggo, I didn’t have any idea what to expect or do so I picked up the book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” and I’m so glad I did! It had all the information I needed. I’ve found that not everything that’s available online is accurate. So the book was really helpful because it’s based on facts and research. I felt that somebody googled all the answers to my questions and organized them per month/trimester of pregnancy in chronological order up to labor and delivery! I was really nervous and scared at first because I didn’t feel that I was ready but the more I kept myself informed about pregnancy and parenthood, the less I felt anxious. It’s true indeed as said by Ralph Waldo Emerson that “Knowledge is the antidote to fear”.
At my 16th week, our OB confirmed the gender of our baby. My sister in law wanted to throw a gender reveal so we had it sealed in an envelope and it took all our strength to stop ourselves from opening it. I will be writing about our gender reveal in a separate post.
Our baby boy, was due on Christmas day but he decided to meet us on December 15th 2018. I had a normal delivery and everyday with our little prince charming, (although we’re still sleep deprived) has been a great blessing!
champlings
Congratulations and welcome to the beautiful world of parenthood! Love the photos!
Aweeeee!! such a heartwarming story. cant wait to see more pics of your little one. Congratulations, Charlene!!
What a great blessing!!! Welcome to parenthood! Enjoy your little one. They grow up too fast.
I LOVE that book! I actually got that as a gift when I first started telling people I was pregnant! Really helped me and my hubby along the way as first time parents. I eventually picked up other books and downloaded some pretty useful apps as well so by the time I hit my third trimester, I felt like a pro! Course, nothing could prepare you for the final day no matter how well you plan, right??? lmbo I’m soo happy for you, you look adorable!
Oh I waited for my second trimester to tell anybody too, I think that’s pretty normal for most cautious moms-to-be coz you just never know and you want to be sure you’re doing all you can for your baby to be healthy and safe. It’s the most important time of the pregnancy and you want to alleviate as much stress as possible to make sure you’re not doing anything that could harm the baby. I love that you saw the heartbeat from when you baby was that small! Really did make it more real, didn’t it?
Look at those little cupcakes!! What a cute idea! I’m so happy for you, Charlene! What a wonderful experience, thank you for sharing! I’m getting married in July and I agree I want some time to spend with my husband before we decided on having kids. He and I both want to have at least four lol so we’ll be plenty busy. It’s best we take our time and get to travel a bit, so I’m with you there! Did you have any regrets waiting now that you’re a mommy? Just curious. Thanks Charlene and enjoy your pregnancy!!!
I did not have any regrets! Thank you! Best wishes!
To think that he already had a heartbeat when he was only the size of a raspberry! It is such an awe-inspiring responsibility to carry another human being inside of you, so it’s no wonder you were so nervous. I’m glad you found “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”—that book is such a classic.
My pregnancy was a complete surprise as well! When I took the test a few days after my missed pregnancy I didn’t show my husband at first because I honestly could not believe my eyes. I took it for the next couple of days and then finally came to terms with it and then told my husband and saw my doctor.
Your maternity photos are just absolutely darling! I can’t wait for my first maternity shoot. I’m not pregnant yet but we’re hoping soon!
My husband is wanting to keep our pregnancy a secret and I think it’s a good idea too, however, I am horrible at keeping secrets! How did you do it? I just love to tell everyone about how my life is going.
It was hard, a lot of times I wanted to tell people already but it took a lot of self control
What an adorable way to announce your pregnancy! Keeping mum about being pregnant (or even that someone else is pregnant) is one of the hardest things. Great job holding off for so long. I’m sure there were grandparent tears!
Such a beautiful writing, it is nice to read your words, thank you for sharing.
Indeed the internet can be helpful and good, but not always trustable, I’ve heard the book you mentioned is really good, maybe I should get one already (I’m 6 weeks).
Congratulations for having such a supportive family and husband, that’s ones of the most important things in this path of being a mom I think.
Love it! really cute way to live this process. I think your path has been great, enjoying your marriage, then taking a little bit of time to tell the news to the family are both a really wise choice, can’t explain how it was for me to have that beautiful secret with my husband, enjoying ourselves as much as we could, then share it after being ready for that step, great! keep sharing your journey!
You guys are so cute! I need more pictures of all of you! I found you over instagram, now I also love your writing! But why exactly did you want to wait before telling the rest of the family? what difference does it make? As you said, they started treating you way better!
Hello! I can be a bit superstitious. Some of the old people say to wait until the second trimester before announcing,
Seems like you have it all planned! Truly admire how everything went to you, I do want to follow those exact steps, enjoying marriage first, then later enjoy that as a couple too! Waiting for y our next post <3!
Never visited a Gyn? Wow! Beautiful words girl! your journey is like a movie! I would highly suggest from now on have visits to the Gyn at least once a year! It is so nice to be treated like a queen, and yes everybody loves a future mommy <3!
Hey! where did you got all those ideas to reveal the news to family and friends? I’m about to do the same, but now after seeing your post I want to do the same! Something cool and original! If you had more ideas should definitely put them all in another post! Will be happy to read it.
What a cute couple! I’m really happy that a beautiful baby will have such a great parents! It is nice reading such a lovely story (even how much your husband helps you with everything, including the boots). Good luck!