Update on Life: Our Baby Story (so far)!

I feel like I haven't written anything personal on here in ages, so I want to get back into that a bit.  Lots has been happening in these past months.  Basically, 2012 started off with a bang.  First of all, I found out I was pregnant with our first child!  What a blessing from God!  We were scared at first to announce it so we waited a bit.  We found out on February 18, and aside from just telling some family and a few close friends, we held it in until April 1!

Yes, it created quite the controversy since that is April Fool's Day HAHAHA!  That wasn't OUR fault though.. we planned to do it when I was around 3 months so... I suggested April 1st and then later we realized how fun it'd be LOL!

How to announce it.. Hmmmm.....

Do you all know the app "Draw Something"?  It was like all the rage a few months ago, and since I was spending a lot of time in bed thanks to morning sickness, I became intensely addicted.  It was another way to express my artistic side I guess.  I even had iPad and iPhone styluses laying all around the house for whenever I'd want to play a few rounds.

Well,  I had started a "Draw Something" album on my personal FB page to show off my drawing skills HAHAHA!  I figured that we could draw something to show we're pregnant, and tag ourselves and our baby, and see if anyone would get it LOL.  Pretty clever right?  Except, people didn't really get it, I guess I wasn't as skilled as I thought hahaha!

Bun in the Oven - my masterpiece HAHAHAH! 

At any rate, a few people were commenting but no one was really asking if I was pregnant, so I did the most obvious thing.  I posted a status on FB saying, "I'm pregnant!"

THEN the fun started.  People were like, "HAHAHAHA very funny, April Fools!"  While others were like, "Congrats... if this is indeed true and not an April Fool's joke..."

It was perfect.  Exactly the confusion and speculation I wanted HAHAHAHA!

Here's an example:

So yeah.. I went on a few times to comment that it is indeed true, but there was still a lot of speculation :)  When April 2 came around and I didn't recant my statement, that's when people started really believing me.

It played out really well.  I'm not sure how to top that though if God blesses us with a second child hehe!

I'll show you a few pics of our baby.  When we first saw it at 7 weeks, it was.. amazing.  Even though our baby was just a dot on the ultrasound, we saw its heart beating strong and fast and it just left us speechless.  The miracle of life:

Hi baby!!!! :))

Our last ultrasound was at 12 weeks, and we could see appendages and the baby was moving all around inside.  It was soooo coool!!!!  Maybe a bit scary at first because I'm like - OMGOSH there's something moving around inside of me!! But once I got over the initial shock I was like OMGOSH look at our baby growing!!! :)) HAHA!

The baby already is practicing how to old a camera in its hand HAHAHAH!!

Here's my belly growth so far:

7 Weeks

10 weeks!

12 weeks!

Now let's bring out the iPhone pics lol - 16 weeks!

And the latest: 18 weeks :)

A lot of people ask me how I feel and such.  Well, from week 4 to week 11, I wasn't feeling too swell.  I had morning sickness, but luckily it didn't involve much .. barfing lol!  Just 2 episodes throughout the whole time, but there were some moments of gagging at certain smells.  My morning sickness mostly consisted of me walking around feeling 70% and sometimes spending the whole day in bed.  It could have been worse, and so I am thankful it wasn't.  Most of all, I thank God that I was still able to perform my duties as an organist in my church.  That was my main concern, and even though some days I felt like curling up behind the organ, with His help, I was able to still perform.

Somewhere around 11 weeks it faded away and I started feeling like my old self (aside from the growing belly hehe!)  Since then I have been doing my best to stay active, engaging in light lifting and a lot of walking.  I've been also doing a lot of photo shoots so that keeps me going as well.

Second trimester is definitely the golden trimester because I feel like I am superwoman HAHAHAH!  I am thankful to God for the journey so far and I know with His help I will be able to take whatever may come my way throughout the remainder of this pregnancy.  I am very thankful for my loving husband, Fred, who has been so supportive of me and doing his best to help me through the ups and downs. 

One thing I like about being pregnant: Shopping for cute maternity clothes.  Someone needs to lock me inside my home because now I don't mind going to the mall or a department store to get a new cute dress HAHAHAHAHAHA!  It's so much easier for me to find clothes I like with the belly than without, how interesting!

Ooo in June I'll be in Canada to attend Jerry Ghionis's wedding photography workshop.  I can NOT wait!  He is totally a super awesome photographer who makes ordinary things into extraordinary things without having to resort to Photoshop (except for special projects).  I just truly admire his work and can NOT wait to learn more about posing and lighting from him so I can take this knowledge and use it for my upcoming weddings!  I was originally supposed to attend the NY workshop in October, but my baby is due October 25, the week of the workshop HHAHAAHA! Yeah, so that wasn't going to work.  But we're going to take a road trip to Canada and consider this a babymoon - a second honeymoon before the baby comes :)  We'll be staying there an extra day or so after the workshop so we can spend some quality time together, and I am really looking forward to it!

So, that's what's going on in my life.  There's a few more things that are in the works but I'll save that for another post.  Thanks so much for your continued support, especially for your encouragement as I continue to grow my business, and now.. grow a bigger family!