One November morning, after three years of negative pregnancy tests, we saw a double line.
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Two weeks later, as excited as we were, we were late to our first doctor’s appointment! That early on, the doctor told us, it’s common to not see a heartbeat yet. But when he started the ultrasound he showed us a black circle on the screen. On one side of the circle was a little white dot. He said, “See that ring?” and then he pointed to the dot… "There’s your diamond!” He zoomed in and the “diamond” was sparkling with a little fluttering heartbeat. He was so excited and said that the heart had probably started beating that very morning! If we’d been on time, we may have missed it.
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At ten weeks the morning sickness hit and I just told myself the sicker I was, the cuter the baby was getting. But at twelve weeks, I was in the ER in Nephi on New Year’s Eve with dehydration and hypermesis gravidarium (just a scary way of saying extreme morning sickness). We had an ultrasound to make sure everything was okay—and we saw that our little baby just didn’t want to miss the party! It wasn’t a dot anymore! It was a baby! It waved at us and danced around and I was amazed at how beautiful it was. The doctor gave me some medication and although the nausea still hasn’t completely disappeared, as long as I don’t skip those pills I feel much better.
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A couple of weeks later, at almost 15 weeks, I felt the first flutter of movement! Miraculous doesn’t even begin to describe that moment.
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A few days ago, at 20 weeks, we went in for our “big” ultrasound. “It’s a girl,” the technician said.
But we already knew that. Greg and I smiled at each other and I cried. In separate spiritual experiences, very early in the pregnancy, we’d both received inspiration that our baby was a girl. To me it was simply a tender mercy showing me that our Heavenly Father’s timing has a purpose and He loves us. It’s like the Lord knew He had to wait three years to give us this gift, but when He gave it to us He was so excited about it that He told us what it was before we could open it! J
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Just a few other fun snippets from this amazing adventure…
*A couple of nights after we found out we were expecting, we went to Build-a-Bear to make the baby’s first teddy bear. We put a little sound box with our voices on it in the bear’s paw, got a little American flag for it to hold since the baby’s coming in July, and tied a white bow around its neck. I decided that was the beginning of a fun tradition.
*My mom has been calling her “Daisy” since the time she was the size of a grape and after we found out it was a girl my dad brought her home a bouquet of daisies. How cute is that?!
*This little lady has a sense of humor when it comes to cravings. One Sunday night, all she wanted was lobster. She knew what it was since we’d had it on Greg’s birthday at a fancy restaurant a couple of weeks earlier and I had to explain to her that first of all, I have no idea how to make lobster even if we did just happen to have one chilling at home, and second of all it was Sunday so we weren’t about to go get one, and third of all, to please not be so high maintenance. On a Sunday morning in January, she decided that all she wanted was watermelon. “January. Sunday.” I told her. She makes me laugh.
*The baby and I have not been friends with meat at all since the end of December, but she loves sushi! I always get the California Roll (cooked imitation crab) and I’ve made friends with the Japanese guys at the sushi counter at Smith’s who say “You need brown rice for your baby.”
*About a week before our “big” ultrasound, Greg was asked to give a lesson at church based on Elder Hales’ talk, “Waiting Upon the Lord.” Greg has had a lot of experience with this topic—getting married later than most and then with our infertility. The night before we found out our baby is a girl, the Elders Quorum President changed the lesson to Sister Dalton’s talk, “Love Her Mother,” which is about fathers raising daughters.
*We ordered doughnuts for our co-workers on Ultrasound Day and decorated them with pink frosting...okay, Greg decorated them.
*The night before our anatomy ultrasound we went to the shoe store and bought a little girl pair and a little boy pair of shoes so the technician could take a picture of us with the appropriate shoes the next day. They look a little big, but if she takes after her dad's size 14 and her mom's size 11, I think they'll fit in no time!
