Finally, Our Post of the Poem

Okay Okay Okay - The Thanksgiving Poem Story!

Every year for as long as I can remember, I (Rob speaking here!) have been in charge of saying grace at family gatherings. I think that it makes the most sense, I am the one that works for the church after all.

Every year, I have grasped at straws, because I don't plan anything in advance. This Thanksgiving I thought I would do something different, so I solicited input from everyone that was coming to dinner. I got responses from just about everyone, so I decided to write an extremely cheesy poem, that would of course end with telling my family about our upcoming baby!

I toyed around with it for a week or more. I think it turned out okay. Here's the poem, read at your own cheesy risk......

Thanksgiving 2006
Things to be Thankful For

As we gather together, we know several things
We’re all thankful to have dinner together, and no bee stings!
We’re thankful for seasons that change from week to week,
Hockey Season, summer, and even winters that make joints creak.

We are grateful to each one assembled here now,
For being in our lives, and that we get along somehow.
We enjoy being around the house, yard, car and table.
And other times, good and bad, as best as we’re able.

No bad storms in the place we live brings us happiness,
And we’re all thankful we haven’t been attacked by a grampus*.
Through the year, shopping and home renovations have taken up hours,
But vacations and ‘Lost’ make the hours seem much more ours.

Now looking to the future things that we are thankful for:

If you’re an aunt, uncle or grandparent at this time,
You will have an even Grander title around month nine.
In June we will take time to celebrate with you all,
The arrival of A New Monroe, and we’ll have a ball!

*//Definition of Grampus// My grandfather goes by Gramps, and that is what prompted the use of this unusual word.
1 : a dolphin (Grampus griseus) of temperate and tropical seas; also : any of various small cetaceans2 : the giant whip scorpion (Mastigoproctus giganteus) of the southern United States

What do you think? What we heard from the family was... ( )

That, my friends, was an awkward silence! I ended up just blurting out "ANNY'S PREGNANT!" It was funny.

And that's the Thanksgiving Poem for 2006.

And.... POP!

I haven't posted pictures of Anny recently. I think we'll get a new one up this week. (I still need to post the poem from Thanksgiving that I used to tell the Monroe family!)

This morning I noticed that Anny is showing! She noticed a couple of days ago, of course, but that's because she knows what fits and what doesn't. Her students still do not know that she's pregnant, soemthing she's hoping to keep quiet until after Christmas. (Arbitrarily set by Anny herself)

So excited!

New Ultrasound Picture!

We got to see our little one jumping around a LOT while the tech was trying to get a good picture of him/her. We didn't get a new euphemism - but what we were looking at would be much more jumping bean than jelly bean or gummy bear!

We don't go back for another U/S until the end of January, which is good news! Good news indeed.

Telling our Secret, Episode 2!

Several weeks ago my sister Michelle was at our house for the weekend of her birthday. It happened to be the week that we found out our good news, so we HAD to tell her because there was no way we would not talk for the whole weekend about it.

She helped us decide how best to tell mom. I had several ideas that were all over the board, but here's what we ended up with:

While Michelle was here I picked up supplies and put them into a bag for her to take to school, then to their house in North Carolina. On Wednesday night before Thanksgiving I would put everything into motion.

I called Michelle on her call phone to let her know I was going to call mom on the land line. (yes, a bit convoluted. But necessary to the process!) While I was dialing the phone to call my mom, Michelle very sneakily put baby food on the dining room table. It was Thanksgiving so I picked up all the traditional favorites: turkey sticks, green beans, apple/cranberry mush, and sweet potatoes. All in baby food!

When I was talking to mom I said something along the lines of "Michelle should have put something on the table from you. Now I know that you don't normally do a regular thanksgiving dinner, but I thought these might be useful in the future!"

Needless to say, happiness abounds. :o)

A special Thank You goes out to Michelle for keeping my secret for so long!

Hard to Keep a Secret

It's hard for me to keep secrets, which almost anyone who knows me could tell you. It's been especially hard to keep the secret that we are having a baby from my family. Thanksgiving is just around the corner (only four days away!) and I'm excited to have everyone together to tell them all at once.

I'm hoping that none of you will be mad at me for having kept this a secret from you. :o)

I'll post the Thanksgiving Poem that I've been working on after Thanksgiving day.

Telling "Nana"

Yes, this is the pregnant lady's first post, but when you're this tired all the time... So we finally (already?) told my mom and dad. Because they live in Wyoming, we sent them a cute card with a diaper on the front and inside it said "Someone new is on the way! Congratulations!"

Underneath I wrote "We have been keeping a secret. Hope you will come visit us in June." It arrived in Wyoming last night and of course, mom called and was crying. Even dad couldn't wait for his turn and got on the other phone to congratulate us. It is great finally being able to talk to her about being pregnant. I do feel like we've been lying to everyone for a month. But after talking to mom and dad, I called my brother Paul to let them know. Mom's biggest concern was if it was OK that our baby call her Nana too. When our niece, Ellie, was born, Mom asked to be called Nana not to be confused with her other Gramma. And we decided it would be less confusing if all the grandchildren called her Nana (of course, my dad thought she was nuts to be thinking of such little details ;)

We tell Rob's family in about ten days at Thanksgiving and then I think I will let everyone else figure it out as my figure changes.

Ultrasound to Share!

Inside the green box is our "Gummy Bear!" We've changed our moniker for the little one every few days, and I think Gummy Bear is much better than "Smudge." :o)



More on the doc visit later, but I wanted to get this up.

Why Risk High?

Found out officially that we're considered to have a High Risk Pregnancy. What does that mean?
For us, to date, it just means that we should take things a bit easier than most other couples. No exercise just yet, though that should change in the next few weeks. We checked specifically about flying during the holidays, and were told that we should keep those plans on the books. (VERY good thing, we've been looking forward to Saint Louis for a while now)

For those that do not know, Anny has hypothyroidism. (link goes to WebMd, enjoy!) It appears that because of that one reason we get lumped in. That means that we will be having more sonograms and doctor visits.

Being the positive person I am, I'm looking at this as a positive means to a positive result. The more closely we're monitored, the better we will understand what's going on.

11 05 06 Measurement

Belly Size = 41.5 inches

We Saw a Heartbeat!

Today we were lucky enough to see a heartbeat in the baby! We also got our first "picture" from the sonogram. I don't know if we have decided on posting those pics yet or not.

To me, this is one of those small milestones that everyone talks about, so that is what's making it more exciting!

I must apologize, though. They gave us measurements and heartbeat rate, but I had stopped listening because there was a picture to look at!

10 22 2006 Measurement

Belly = 40 inches

Just a Smudge

First sonogram went well today, except that the doctor on duty was too medical for Anny. He's less excitable than the other doctor. Oh well, say's Rob, WE HAVE A SMUDGE!!

Our sonogram today was so early that BabyCenter.com says that it's about the size of a sesame seed, but we were able to see other things pretty well. We konw that things are developing as they should, and I say that's a good thing!

Anny, though, was looking pouty about the fact that all we got to see is a smudge. I reminded her that a smudge is better than not-a-smudge. She agreed, but I think she's a bit less patient.

And that is today's update!

Funky New Math

Now we have three blood tests out of the way, and have an ultrasound scheduled for next week. I know a lot of people that use ultrasounds to make it "feel real" but with all of the information that we have I think that we're already at that point.

Our plan is to tell family on Thanksgiving. Since Jason and Nadia have been our support system so far, we told them already. Since they know and are excited already, we know that we'll talk about it this weekend. Since Michelle is here, we told her last night. I have this fear that I will keep making excuses as to why to tell this person or that person and it will get out of control. I hope not.

So, we found out yesterday that our math is wrong! Apparently people, particularly doctor people, begin counting your weeks along by the time of your last period. Alas, we did not know this. Since we know the conception date, we have been counting by that day.

By this "new math" we are actually already five weeks pregnant! We both know very well that with each week that goes by, chances for problems decrease, so this puts us two weeks farther on the curve!

This is indeed great news!

We continue to figure out how to tell people when the time is right. I'll need to tell my office manager this week because appointments will be more involved. Namely, I will be more involved. I told her when we started trying again, so this will come as less of a suprise I think.

We're already looking ahead to changes that are going to be made around the house. We need to consolidate to one closet. This will take some minor changes, but I'm the advance planner in the process. I know that between December and June lots of other changes will have to happen, so I might as well make the changes I can make now, right?

We Just Found Out!

We got word on Monday that we're pregnant! There was also a follow up blood test yesterday. That test showed that things are progressing way better than normal, which is GREAT! Another test tomorrow, and then we can schedule our first ultra-sound.

Needless to say, we're excited beyond belief! Using this blog is our way to "share" our news without actually telling people. :o)