crackers are a girl's best friend

okay, so enough teasing. you asked for the details and here they are:

when are you due? baby stew will be welcomed with open arms into our home sometime in january. the due date i've been going by is january 16, but that could change slightly in the next couple of weeks. i'm over 7 weeks along now and my first ultrasound was scheduled for today, but unfortunately had to be postponed for another 2 weeks.

how have you been feeling? i've been feeling ok. i'm slightly sea-sick on and off all day. thankfully, i'm past the stage of feeling REALLY gross in the morning, but i find that if i go too long without snacking, my queasiness gets worse. so far i've only thrown up once and that was after gagging on one of my giant prenatal vitamins. ick, those things make me gag just thinking about them! i also can't stomach the thought of lasagna or cereal most of the time, but LOVE eating any kind of fruit, especially strawberries and watermelon. and i've been craving potatoes lately.

were you trying to get pregnant? well, it's kinda funny because we've been telling everyone that we wanted to have a baby next june (long story having to do with the birthdays of josh, his dad, and grandpa all falling within 2 days of each other) but we secrectly decided that after our trip to england, we'd throw all precaution to the wind. well, it was actually DURING our trip to england that all precaution was thrown and we believe that our baby was made on english soil (well, we weren't actually in the dirt, but you know what i mean) which is really cool when you think of it because that's where josh and i met and fell in love!

are you going to find out the sex of the baby? we're still slightly undecided on this one. josh would love to find out, but i kind of like the idea of being surprised when s/he pops out. however, the more i think about it, the more i agree with josh that i will be unable to handle the suspense and will cave in and find out. just so you know, if we do end up finding out, we'll let you all in on it!

have you picked out any names yet? YES! we pretty much finalized the names before we even conceived. we've told some people, but i don't think we want to blurt them out in such a public place. not because we don't think you'll like them; we don't care if you don't. but rather because we think they're such fantastic names and we don't want anybody else stealing them :)

aside from all of the obvious questions that i've just answered, i have found that there is so much about being pregnant that i never had a clue about until now. a few of those things are:

* i never knew that freckles would appear on my body where they have never been before (and i'm not a very freckled person)
* i never knew how freaking HARD it is not to tell people that we're expecting! as soon as i found out and told josh, i was all, "but we have to wait for a few weeks before we say anything" and he was all, "no way!" but we kept quiet, and then about 3 days later i came home from work, tired and cranky and feeling queasy like none other and lamented, "i just CAN'T keep it in anymore!!!" so, after buying me a fat carne asada burrito to shut me up, we drove straight to josh's parent's house to tell them our news and i called my mom straightaway the next morning. after that it kind of trickled out to our close friends until our pastor decided that it would be a good idea to announce it from the pulpit a week ago. so now that all of ramona knows, there's no point in keeping it a secret from my blogging friends any longer, even though i am only JUST pregnant as people like to say.
* i never knew anything about constipation. never really had to use that word before. loaded up on prunes yesterday so i'm all good now.
* i never knew how much i'd appreciate my husband during this time. my man has the steadfastness of Job. not only does he put up with my mood swings and queasy moments, he has helped out so much. on mother's day he spoiled me rotton buying me flowering plants, plus a gorgeous candle holder & candle, writing me a poem AND buying me pride and prejudice on dvd which is HUGE since he had previously vowed never to spend a cent on anything jane austen. not only that, but he cleaned the kitchen and vaccuumed and did a ton of laundry and has since continued to help out with the housework without me even asking for help! not only is he a gem of a husband, but i know that he will be the best daddy. i get teary eyed every time i think of him holding our baby for the first time. then again, i get teary eyed thinking of a lot of things lately :)
* i never knew how consumed with this pregnancy i'd become. i'm reading like 15 books at a time right now, journalling for our baby...every waking moment it seems i'm thinking about what baby stew will look like, what part of the body is developing right now, making sure i'm eating the right things every day...i've never experienced anything like it.

so there you have it. lengthy leah, just the way you requested it :) and now, because i had to go and type it, i am craving carne asada. which sucks cuz i'm making chicken for dinner. blah.