The Grays

Tomorrow we have dinner plans with Dean and Melissa, who are also expectant parents and both Darden students. Their due date is about two weeks before ours, and it should be fun to compare stories as we go through the stages together.

Dean and Melissa are our only pregnant friends in the area (at least that we know about). We first learned of their expected arrival through a mutual family friend – Dean’s mother and Kristy’s mother share a common longtime friend.

I’m expecting that the dinner will include a comparison of the bumps. Hopefully this won’t make Kristy uneasy, as she has been a little concerned that she isn’t showing more, and hasn’t gained any weight. The doctor says all is fine, which is confirmed by our Internet research.

Only Kristy and I seem to notice the bump. Although, she mentioned catching a couple teachers checking out her abdomen last week. The photo below was taken in Savannah on Sunday.

Hiding the Bump

The artwork was cool, and was plenty large to hide Kristy’s growing midriff.

This past weekend Bill & I drove down to Charleston, SC to visit our friends Sarah and Kent.  They have a beautiful 1850s apartment on Broad Street in the heart of downtown.  We arrived late Friday evening (3am) and spent Saturday looking at the mansions, shopping on King Street, eating fried green tomatoes and shrimp & grits at Magnolia for lunch, and devouring pecan pralines.  Saturday evening Kent treated us to Moroccan lamb and we went to bed early.  Sunday we drove to Savannah and spend the bulk of the afternoon looking at art gallery’s and walking along the River.  We had a great dinner at Poogan’s Porch (more fried green tomatoes and 1978 prices – what a deal) and drove home early this morning.

Saturday I had to wear my first ‘belly band’ as my newly washed jeans were just a tad too tight.  Bill says that I am showing, but really he and I are the only ones that can tell.  The belly has plenty of time to grow!  I am also seeing the toll that travel is taking on me.  It took me awhile to get going Saturday morning after an atypical sleep schedule and I felt nauseous a few times today – which hasn’t happened in weeks!  This likely has something to do with the fact that I had a BK chicken sandwich for lunch – less than ideal.  We took healthy snacks and dinners on the way but, when in need, it is nearly impossible to find healthy food on the road!  I even ‘got sick’ while eating dinner from Whole Foods this evening – something that has only happened to me twice so far (the last time was also after traveling – from San Diego).   Next time we travel we will make sure to budget in plenty of extra time to relax and follow a normal sleep schedule!

We hope that Sarah and Kent get the chance to visit us in Charlottesville while we are still here.  It was so nice to see them again!

How I found out:

After hiking up Crabtree Falls on a beautiful Sunday, I found out that I was pregnant!  It was November 2nd and I had some suspicions but obviously did not know for sure.  We returned home from the hike around 3pm after devouring lunch at Five Guy’s and I decided to take an at-home pregnancy test.  So I followed the directions and immediately jumped in the shower so as to avoid watching for the results.  After a few minutes I poked my head out to read the stick and saw one dark pink line which indicated I was not pregnant.  I wasn’t surprised but reached over to grab the stick and then noticed a parallel line in a much lighter shade of pink – pregnant!  I would love to have been able to see my reaction at that point, but basically once I saw the second line I went from feeling relieved (my first response) to elated to shocked in a matter of 3 seconds.

How I told Bill:

Bill did not know I was taking ‘the test’.  I had thought of all sorts of creative ways to tell him when I found out I was pregnant and decided on the writing-on-the-cake approach.  A few minutes after finding out I went downstairs – Bill was just getting up from a nap on the couch.  Once  we started talking the cake idea went out the window and I could not keep the news to myself anymore.  Bill did not seem surprised at all (even though it happened really quickly) when I told him.  After a small celebration we decided to drive to Whole Foods to stock up on some baby-in-the-belly friendly items.