10 Weeks!

June 23rd - I've been a little more tired this week. Needing naps or deciding to sleep in a bit later. Still haven't had any real cravings - and if I do crave something it's usually something sweet but I'm not sure thats unique to the pregnancy...haha. Oddly enough I've lost some weight. I told Kevin it's probably because I haven't been drinking & although I feel like I've been eating a little more I can't eat a lot in one sitting. Perhaps those diet people that say 6 small meals is better than 3 big ones were right all along!

Yesterday we had our biggest scare of letting the cat outta the bag. I sent Andrea a link on Skype of a rental property we were looking at in Conneciticut & within a second of sending it I realized that the information that I filled out on the side bar was on the link I sent her (or so I thought). The information I filled out included things like How many tenants? 2 Adults & 1 baby on the way :) and then I wrote a little inquiry starting off with We're expecting our first child in January.... My heart about jumped out of my chest. I immediately called Kevin and he left work telling me to start sending her other links to distract her - I did and it seemed to work. I kept waiting to see scroll across the screen ERIN MICHELLE HAWK CALL ME RIGHT THIS MINUTE! but it never came. Luckily, after sending the link to Dave Bass he assured us that the information I filled out didn't transfer to Andreas screen. Close call. 9 more days to keep my lid shut.

June 26th - Growing Pains? So yesterday was an interesting/scary day.....I've fainted before (Mare & Nars you guys remember?! haha) so I know what the 30secs before you're about to faint feels like & yesterday morning while I was getting breakfast ready I got within 30 secs of fainting so I just laid down on the kitchen floor letting the cold floor ease my clamy'ness until Kevin came in to finish what I started and help me up. I spent the next little while on the couch not feeling 100% but eventually decided to get up and do something. I went out shopping for our camping trip this weekend but made it into only one store before I was crumpled over in pain. My stomach hurt so bad it was giving me the cold sweats...I honestly didn't think I could manage walking back to the car I thought I was going to have to curl up on a bench on the streets. But I made it home, laid down in bed & called Kevin. Of course some of both of our first thoughts were the worst ones...which makes me nervous. But after laying down for a while I started to feel better. I got up again to wash the dishes but had to lay back down within a few mintues when the pain in my stomach came back. I did some research online but of course it varies person to person - pain in your stomach could be anything from your stomach growing & adjusting, gas, a miscarriage, raging hormones, etc.... We'll just be thankful when we finally get our first scan ...only a couple more days to go. Feeling better today.

1st Fathers Day

June 18th - Awhile ago I brought to Kevin's attention that this would be his first Fathers Day. I could tell he hadn't thought of that -but then his face lit up and he was all smiles. For this momentous occasion I painted a picture of a penguin for him/baby/us & I bought him a diaper bag! Super DAD! You would never know it was a diaper bag from the outside - very stylish, sleek & leather ...ooo0OOooo. Inside tho - heaps of space & a changing pad. Perfect he's going to love it - I might even stuff it with some goodies like baby wipes, diapers & baby butt cream. Ohhh the word goodies just took on a whole new meaning. I can't wait!!!

June 21st - Fathers Day!!! We got up & had egg & cheese sandwiches & then I gave him his presents. He loved them!!! I had him model it & he's already planning what else he'll put in it. WE'RE HAVING A BABY! Every now and again it reaalllly hits us & we get super excited. I was skyping with my sister this morning :

Erin Hawk: morning [14:23:02]

Andrea Hertel: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to be.....to kevin :)

haha...it's funny because Tom sent a skype to me on mothers day saying ''Happy Mothers Day to be'' to me. At the time, Kevin & I thought it was an odd thing to say - but perhaps Tom knew more than we did ... we were pregnant on Mothers Day and didn't know!!!

Kevin's dinner choice tonight is Irish Stew & I'm making some dessert - YUM.

Irresistible

June 20th -We couldn't help ourselves yesterday - we had to buy these. Kevin picked out the little hat. Love it all. It's going to be very difficult not to go overboard with buying clothes for this little one. I already have an extremely hard time not buying Olivia clothes when I go shopping. The only silver lining would be if Kevin & I have a little girl then they can share clothes!!

I spent quite a few hours last night looking at nursery ideas ''for Andrea'' little did she know I was getting a secret joy out of doing it and snagged a couple cute ideas for our nursery.

Didn't feel too hot last night & wasn't able to fall asleep cause my belly was rolling around - ughhh. Probably didn't help that we had a pizza for lunch & then peanut m&m's at the movies with no dinner. Mental note to not do that again. Must start eating more veggies. Got the fruit under control - just need to bring the green leafys up to par.

9 Weeks!

June 15th - Week 9 as of yesterday! Continuing to feel fine - a couple spells of queasy’ness & what I'm classifying as a lack of cravings. Nothing sounds good - it’s been difficult trying to figure out what to have for dinner when anything warm doesn’t sound good - all cold things sound good…popsicles, cereal, ice cold water... Baby is the size of a medium size green olive :) Been DIFFICULT not telling anyone else & I feel I’m constantly suspicious of my family knowing…so much so that Kevin & I staged some pics on our other blog this weekend so it looked like I was drinking a margarita. BRILLIANT we thought, we’ll see if the fam. falls for it. We just want to get in the, all should be good to go, stage of after the first trimester.

June 17th - Talked to Mary today...ahhh. It's so very hard to think of anything else remotely interesting in my life that doesn't involve me talking about how I've been feeling or that I'm so excited about our first scan. I think I did well - she along with my mom & sister will be gobsmacked (as they say here) that I've been able to hold this news in so long. Wonder if my belly will be any bigger when we go back in 2 weeks?! Everything, clothing wise, is still fitting the same....for now.

8 Weeks!

June 8th - We had our meeting with our midwife at our house last week. It went well …we really just went over paper work and chatted a bit about how the pregnancy so far has gone. More exciting tho is our appointment for our first scan! July 1st - the day before we leave to go to mom & tom’s - YAY! Been feeling fine - just a few mornings where I don’t feel so hot Definitely not interested in coffee & I noticed that that my queasy’ness is amplified when I’m making eggs? I’m lovin cereal tho. 8 weeks this week :)

7 Weeks!

June 1st - Dave & Anna have come & gone and it was such a relief to tell someone else! And have others to share and be happy with. They brought us the game Apples to Apples so that we could prep our strategy of telling our families using the game. It's gonna be good...I hope we can pull it off. I felt fine the whole weekend - a little winded on our hike…from the baby or just being not in hiking shape, I dunno. 7 weeks, unofficially today!

New nighttime reading

May 22nd - Purchased 2 more books with Kevin today before going to our first doctors appointment. The appointment it self was pretty worthless just filled out paper work and made an appointment for next week with the midwife. It's very possible we are the first American couple over here temporarily that has been pregnant. Going to be interesting - but we're both confident I will be just fine getting cared for over here for the first few months. We’re guessing we are between 5 and 6 weeks along putting us at 6months when we leave in November and due early January! Already one of the hardest things to do is keep our news to ourselves. I swear Andrea is on to me....but how?

May 23rd - We’re headed out to buy a digital SLR camera today!! When we were in London we told Andrea & Tim that we were going to put off buying a nice camera until we were pregnant To which they quickly replied - so when you tell us you’re buying a camera we’ll know you’re pregnant.....how are we going to pull this purchase/secret off??! So whether they remember this conversation or not - we’re not going to tell them yet. Although, will they get suspicious when we start posting pictures?! Interesting….I will have to figure some sort of little white lie. Perhaps say it was a surprise gift from Kevin. Yeh, that should work.

May 27th - 2nd doctors appt. again pretty pointless. I wasn’t even given a pregnancy test - we know we were pregnant but theres something different about it when a doctor tells you. We were handed a packet of information to review and fill out. Next appointment will be a house visit with the midwife in a ‘fortnight’ to go over the packet of information and to schedule the first scan. I was weighed & measured. They do weight over here in stones (1 stone = 14lbs) lets just say I weigh equivalent of a small pile of rubble. In & out. In the car we discussed how we were a little disappointed that she didn't give us a blood test or some sort of pregnancy test, so Kevin & I decided to buy yet another home pregnancy test. We spent the BIG bucks and bought a digital one from Tesco …just to make sure. YUP! We’re 6 weeks preggers!!! Tomorrow Dave & Anna come, no way we can go without telling them - they will be the first people to know….

WE'RE PREGNANT!!!!

HOLY COW!!! It's driving us crazy not having told anyone ... I can honestly say that I've been avoiding talking to friends & family just a little bit because what else is there to tell them except that we're pregnant & everything that goes along with it. We've created this blog in secret for now and will expose it to the public when we make our new known. July 3rd is the big day. We'll be flying back to VA and staying with my parents. Joanne (Kevin's Mom) is staying with all of us as well not to mention my sister's family & my brother & Dad will be there. It all has worked out just perfectly. Ahhh little do they know. Or do they? My family occasionally has us worried that they are suspicious about the possibility. The next few posts are just some of the notes and pictures we've taken since we've found out.