We wanted to tell all of our Uline friends so we got everyone together at Razoo’s under the guise of needing a drink after a stressful work week – the Uihlein visit. We were able to make the announcement to Jason Simpkins, Stephanie Dixon, Pablo Flores Vasquez, Chris Yard, Amanda Vasquez, J & Rachel Lomax, Kelly Lair, Jessica & Jose, and Ashley Kebshull. Everyone was extremely surprised and so very happy for us. We definitely surprised all of them!

I told my work friends, Mary Shelby Costello and April Inmon that I was pregnant while we were dined at Chili’s for lunch! They were both very surprised…..and excited. Told Lauren Deary from work that afternoon. She too was super excited. It’s all becoming more real!

View Hailey’s First Video

Brad met me at the doctor office at 1pm. We got into the room and she started the sonogram. Thinking you were only about 8 weeks old, we both expected to see a little tadpole or something small, but it was only a couple of seconds before you were there on the screen…with arms, and legs, and a heartbeat! It was absolutely amazing and without a doubt one of the most memorable moments in our lives! You were so squirmy and wouldn’t sit still…even the nurse commented on how active you were. I joked about that being a sign of how much trouble you were going to give us! Besides hearing the heartbeat and making sure you were healthy, the other main goal of the sonogram was to figure out how old you were. She measured you from head to rump on the screen and then announced that you were about 11 weeks old! WHAT?! 11 weeks?! How could that be? We were later told 11 weeks and 4 days to be exact. That means our first trimester was almost over, that we were pretty much out of the danger zone for a miscarriage, and that we could start safely telling our friends and family! It was all very weird, crazy, and super exciting!

Here’s one of the very first picture/video ever taken of you!

Hailey's First Sonogram

Click here to see the video

I spent the day with my girlfriend from college, Christine Hernandez. She was the first person to know that you were on the way. She was SO SUPER excited and made me promise she could throw us the first baby shower.

Showed up at the doctor’s office; took a urine test that was very positive, and received a full examination. They couldn’t really give me any more information than I’d already gathered on my own so we set up an appointment for the following Tuesday to do a sonogram.

First day at work knowing there was a baby growing inside me! I called the doctor and took the first available appointment on Thursday. And prepared for the longest 3 days of my life…

It was a nice day out. Midway Square had just elected its new board members and Brad was scheduled to meet with them at 1pm that day. We’d gotten up and gone for a walk around the neighborhood and when we got home I decided to run some errands and go to the grocery store. I got back about 1:30pm and put groceries away and then went upstairs with the test I had just purchased. We were having friends over that night and planned to drink so I thought it would be best to take the test just to be safe. I fully expected it to be negative, but much to my surprise I looked down and it said “Pregnant”! I couldn’t believe it…I think I truly went into shock. The worst part was that I couldn’t yell for Brad cause we had people over…normally, that would have been my first reaction. So I began to cry…tears of joy, tears of fear, and tears of confusion….how could I be pregnant?

I thought for sure it would be nearly impossible for me to get pregnant. How far along was I? Was it possible the test was wrong? What are we going to do with a baby? SO many questions went racing through my mind. So, since I couldn’t talk to your father (though I was doing a lot of talking to myself), I decided to do the next best thing – internet research. As I began to read site after site about the early stages of pregnancy all the pieces of the puzzle started falling into place…I had many of the symptoms I was reading about: exhaustion (I fell asleep on the couch at 7:30pm two nights that week), extreme emotions, frequent urination, tender breasts, bleeding gums when I brushed my teeth, etc. Luckily I’d only had quick bouts of nausea, not full blown morning sickness. But there was no mistaking it…all the things I had been dismissing as something else were definitely pregnancy symptoms!

After about 30 minutes, Brad’s meeting was over and he came upstairs. As soon as I saw him, even though I said I wouldn’t, I just burst into tears. Of course, he was very confused and concerned. So, instead of talking (which would have been very difficult at the moment), I just took him to the bathroom and unfolded the towel to display the pregnancy test….and then I bawled some more. The moment was very surreal…and one that I really didn’t ever think I would experience. He was just as dumbfounded as I was but was super sweet and calm. He just gave me a huge hug and asked me if I was okay. Yes, I was okay…especially now that I knew he was okay.

We spent the rest of the day doing research and taking more tests…just to be sure. We ended up with 3 positive pregnancy tests that day! From our best guess, we were figuring we were about 6-8 weeks along.

We wanted to be sure!

Brad & I were excited and scared to death at the thought of having children. August of 2008 marked our 5 year wedding anniversary, we’ve been smart with our money and have no credit card debt, we just put in a pool that we were able to pay cash for, and we’ve been lucky enough to take a major vacation every year….and in September Brad turned 36 and I turned 33. So, you could say we were at the time in our lives where we needed to decide one way or the other what we were going to do!  I quit taking the pill and started taking pre-natal vitamins in early May. No one but your father and I knew that…we didn’t want the pressures of the outside world stressing us out at such an important time in our lives. Though my periods are very irregular, I had one on July 21st so we knew we weren’t pregnant then. We had my work party on September 20th and I knew we’d be drinking so I decided to take a pregnancy test….just as I expected, it was negative. A few weeks went by and we planned to have friends over on November 1st so I decided to take another test that day.