The First 3 Months

Ben and I the day we found out we were going to have a baby! 

My first "baby" picture!  We found out on my birthday which was so special.

It is still hard for me to fathom that there is a little baby growing inside of ME!  It's so surreal and wonderful and scary and amazing all at once.  For the most part, I absolutely love being pregnant...in the second trimester. :)  The first couple of months were really difficult to get through.  I was nauseous and tired ALL the time.  Thus, my energy level was the lowest it's perhaps ever been.

The biggest surprise, though, was that I lost my appetite for many of my favorite foods!  Even pasta with tomato sauce which has always been a staple in my diet.  Saltine crackers fell off of the "acceptable foods" list, along with soup, rice and beans, and, well nearly everything that would usually taste good to me when I'm not feeling well.  It was very challenging to find food that I could stand to eat.  Papa John's cheese pizza actually made the cut!  It became a weekly staple for a little while.

Ben was a HUGE help during this time!  He said that he felt the Lord giving him extra strength, peace and assurance as he was my caretaker for these months.  He made me breakfast in bed nearly every morning, did all of the cooking and cleaning, and was such a strong encouragement to me.  At the same time, he was taking four challenging classes, leading a counseling group and seeing clients nearly every night!  I still don't know how he did it; makes perfect sense that the Holy Spirit was providing him with supernatural strength and energy.

There were some days when I almost didn't even believe that I was pregnant!  In the first trimester, your belly stays the same (or in my case, got smaller as I struggled to eat!), so the visual signs of pregnancy were not there.  I wondered if I had just caught a bad flu!  Thus, the doctor's appointments were key.  It was there that we got to hear Baby's heartbeat and, at our first appointment, saw our first ultrasound of Baby.  It was a thrill!!

Throughout this time, I prayed that my nausea would ease up and that my energy would come back in time for the second trimester.  And boy was I ever so thankful that this happened!!