My Official Pregnancy Announcement: My Pregnancy Journey

The BIG Announcement:

If you picked up any hints in my last blog post, Changing of the Seasons, discussing embracing the changes we experience in our lives, you may have come to the conclusion that there are a few things happening over here that are a tad out of the norm.  That being said, it’s with great joy and excitement I let you, my blog family, know…I’M PREGNANT!  Above you’ll see our official pregnancy announcement. Snaps for Charlie the dog for being a super trooper. After trying for about six months, Matt and I found out on May 1^st our first baby, sans fur, is on his or her way!

The Second, Pregnancy Announcement (No, I’m not having twins):

Since I’ve always promised to keep this blog very raw, real, and genuine, I’m committed to finding synergy between sharing my experiences and, hopefully, providing you with some useful information. This is the inaugural blog post in my first true series, aptly titled “My Pregnancy Journey. ” The first few blogs will be a little retrospective, as I’ve had to keep things pretty tight-lipped these past few months, but we’ll catch up pretty quickly! I’ll be sharing stories, product tips, pregnancy hacks, nutrition tidbits, and a few other fun posts along the way. So, if this kind of stuff interests you, stay tuned!! To all my readers that don’t really care about all things pregnancy, that’s cool. I’ll have some general content mixed in with some hybrid posts that will still discuss nutrition, stress management/anxiety, and other mind-body topics…oh and the fact that we’re moving!

So, without further adieu…here’s a little background info:

• How did we find out? TBH, Matt and I were actively “trying” to get pregnant. So, basically, pregnancy tests were on subscription in this household. However, the month we did get pregnant, I decided to take it easy and “loosely” track my cycle. I also held off on taking a pregnancy test until we returned from a vacation with the fam in Florida. I’ll get into our whole “TTC” (trying-to-conceive) journey in a separate post, so stay tuned for details on that. I took a pregnancy test  the evening we returned from our travels, not expecting to see anything. MUCH to my surprise, two pink lines showed up immediately!  I took a digital test right after that, and the rest is history!
• How long were we trying? Six months of really tracking everything. Not “not trying” for months before that. As mentioned above, I’ll be sharing our TTC journey in a future post.
• How did I surprise Matt? Sooooo anti-climactic. In my head, and on my pintrest board, I had gathered so many creative ideas for an off-the-hinges pregnancy announcement. Plan a photo session. Have Starbucks write “dad” on his cold brew. The list goes on. However, in the moment, I was just so overwhelmed with emotion, I basically greeted him at the door, shaking (thanks anxiety), with the positive digital pregnancy test in my hand. Needless to say, we were both in a state of shock and excitement. Charlie the dog just looked at both of us like we were lunatics. PRO-TIP: Don’t take a pregnancy test right before bed. On a work-night. I got a total of 1 hour of sleep that night. Totally worth it.

More Quick (But Important) Pregnancy Facts:

• When is the baby due and how far along am I? Baby Sgambato is due January 10^th and I’m 14 weeks, 3 days (which some apps consider your 15^th week) That’s right…peace out first trimester…bidding you a not-so-fond farewell.
• Did I have any symptoms before finding out? At the time, nothing felt out of the norm. For the previous six months, I symptom-spotted like a maniac. I thought EVERYTHING could be a sign of pregnancy. Or I thought I was dying. One of the two. Honestly, I felt the same as I did during the fun, PMS-y phase of the cycle.
• Did I have any symptoms during the first trimester? Understatement of the century. The first trimester was pretty brutal. Nausea, exhaustion, headaches, increased IBS-C symptoms…you name it. Check out my first trimester recap following this pregnancy announcement post.  I was not one of the lucky ones to “not even feel pregnant” during the first trimester. Shocker.
• Are we going to find out the gender?  Confession time: I have, on occasion, been the person that skims through the Entertainment Weekly recaps of a show before I watch it. I’ve also skipped to the last pages of a book just to prepare myself before reading the entire thing.  Needless to say, Matt and I are both planners and while I love surprises, this Is something we both want to know in advance. We’ll find out mid-August during our anatomy scan and, of course, I’ll be sharing.
• Have we had our first ultrasound? Yes! We’ve had two. Our first ultrasound was 8 weeks. and pistachio (our nickname because “the fetus” and “it” just isn’t my style) was a little, magnificent blob. But we got to see the strong heart beat which was pretty cool. Then, we went for our 12 week appointment accompanied by an ultrasound a couple weeks ago and Pistachio actually looked like a baby!! He or she was moving around like a crazy person…child after my own heart. Pistachio is super healthy and developing great. The best thing we could possibly hear.

Consider this my official pregnancy announcement! Now that the cats out of the bag, I’ll be sharing a lot more in the coming weeks!  I’m not feeling like complete garbage anymore, so I’ll be posting a lot more frequently. If you have any questions or requests for preggo-related blog topics, shoot me a message using the contact form below or on my Facebook/Instagram account.

Until next time fam,

– Xtina

• Xtina