You're pregnant?

Well right now, I call you my little kumquat because that is your current state of size. My current job on Tues/Thurs is a hall walker at a middle school where I taught 3 maternity math jobs for seventh graders. I was excited about this position because I can get in my exercise to keep us healthy and also see my old students again. Alas, I miss being in a math class everyday teaching stuff. I do see students during lunch working on math and they ask for help, which I love by the way. :-D Being said, the students.....

The Thursday that I started my job, word spread quick to the teachers and principals about my awesome news and congratz ensued. Then the students saw me in the halls and word spread quick about me being back at the school. Now, one student asked why I wasn't working there. I made frowny face and said I never got to apply for the job but at least i'm pregnant. This one student spread the news and by lunch time, I had multiple students coming up to me and asking:
Is it true what they're saying?
Congratulations!
I heard about your good news!
Are you really pregnant?
How far along are you?
Do you want to find out?
Do you know if it's a boy or girl yet?
You don't even look pregnant.
When are you due?
~and my favorite: You're pregnant? With who??!
Bwhaha. I then reply with my husband as I point to my ring and remind them that I've been married for 2 years. Their friends had to remind them that I was a MRS. Russell. Two kids have asked me that question.

Another thing about my old students is that they all request that I name you after them. Here are some names so far:
Justin, Kaisun, Kalie Marie, Jennifer, and Shanikqua(made up name given by two students).

Some have asked about the names we've talked about and there aren't any definite names because we want it to connect to our baby kumquat and even that name might change. Once we know if you are a boy or girl, your dad said I can discuss more about different names that work well for you!

But my old kiddos are really sweet and ask how i'm doing and how far I am and if I need help with anything.
I hope that you grow up to be a sweet kid to your teachers. They really do appreciate it :)

On another note, sleep is still a wonderful thing while you are growing inside. I've been munching on grape tomatoes with a leafy green salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing (amazing!) and just a cold glass of milk now and then. I did eat dinner with my parents tonight and they are glad that i'm eating my fruits and veggies but my dad (insert name he hasn't decided on yet here) said that I need to make sure I'm eating meat and potatoes. That is what I was eating for dinner with them, but they are a meat and potato eating people! Nothing wrong with that, mmmmmm. It was a steak cooked for three hours with a red tomato sauce, mashed potatoes, and rolls! MMMMM. I love it all, and so did baby kumquat!

And my tummy is feeling a little tighter around the waist band as well. Here are a couple of pictures of more people knowing!

This is Jan, Julie's momma!

This is Dan and Beth. Oh trust me, you will get to know them and there two sons Alexander and numero dos .(I will not say name in case it is not revealed yet to other people)

  

This is weirdo Keith. Cassie's husband. 

This man here was the first to know besides Nick. Denny video taped me telling Julie. Alas, the memory card sent to me did not work. I will see it! This picture was taken like a couple of weeks later and this is typical of Denny. 

Bu-dum!

I still think it looks like a koala from afar using the whole image. At the 8 weeks and 2 days mark, I have a picture of our little gummy bear. That's the size you are right now! Of course when we went in for our appt., the doctor said we get an ultrasound today (cue arms raised going YAY!), and also get to hear your heartbeat :)

This time the ultrasound was done on the outside of my stomach, but I wanted to say do the other method so I can see you better. (My photo/motherly instincts kicking in), but we saw your heart beat and how much bigger you have gotten.

Then time came for hearing your heart for the first time. It was very unreal. Just knowing that it's not my heartbeat, it's yours was something of awe. It was around 150 beats per minute and and a constant bu-bum. We got to listen to it for about a minute. I did shed a tear but it made it more real that I have you growing inside me. I can't wait till you grow bigger and I can feel you move around!

I need to throw this in there because I laughed with your dad afterwards. His first question while listening to your heart beat was how the ultrasound machine was picking up the linear velocity of the blood flow through the heart. I was a bit baffled by the question, and I think the doctor didn't know how to answer it. It's just funny because your dad loves knowing how things work and the why behind it. I hope you get that from him and explore new things and question about it :) Nick did have to explain it a couple of times about his question, and I still kind of understand it. Maybe he will explain it to you when you can comprehend linear velocity used in ultrasounds. OR, I can look it up on the lovely Google!

Right now I am nine weeks and you are the size of a grape! I still like the sound of gummy bear, but you need to grow. I don't get to see you again for another 9 weeks, but at that time we get to find out if you are a boy or a girl! And that's when I get a new picture :) But until then, we get to hear your heart beat and know your doing okay. I am now going to go feed you something, but I don't know if it can top those blueberry pancakes we had this morning. Your dad said they tasted like muffins. It's a cool 75 right now on this the 12th of August and I need to go enjoy it before school starts tomorrow! We love you little grape koala!

Baby is the word!

This was Sunday morning, the 27th of July. We called Tita and Gramps over in Costa Rica the good news! (Hence your dad's face with the phone) Before this moment, we were just informed the Tita's brother-in-law Ricardo had passed away that morning. (Rest in peace Ricardo).

This lead into a bunch of your Costa Rican family finding out about you..... before both sets of grandparents..... So the next day your dad told me that (she likes Nanna right now) Magda was calling Tita. Well, we didn't want her to find out through another family member in CR. I called Tita (she was on the other line with Magda) and told her to tell family members that Magda didn't know yet. That made me start feeling bad that we had to keep it a secret from a grandparent when other people that I've met a couple of times knew before her. (Very awesome cousins you'll meet one day too!) The reason why both sets of Grandparents didn't know yet is because they were both out of town before we truly knew your were coming (the ultrasound). It's not fun over the phone (besides great grandparents in a different country lol).

So when your dad came home, we decided that everyone needed to know now. We drove over to Magda's house, she wasn't there. Almost drove to Phillip's work, he was too busy to come outside. I called my dad on the way to his house, he wouldn't be home for another 2 hours..... So then I thought we can go to Ty's house....he was picking up Jamie and would be there soon. AHHH!!! Lol. we wanted to tell everyone and no one was home! I wanted to tell my mom and dad at the same time, so that's why we didn't stop off at their house.

We wait in front of Ty and Jamie's place and they finally get there. I hear my Tiny (Katie) run up to the car and get a big hug :) As we start walking to the back yard, Jamie says she has to go to the bank. To myself, "NOOOOOO! I'm tired of waiting!" I follow Jamie, turn the camera on, and take my video!

FINALLY! Someone else knows!!! So then she got out of her car and had to watch Ty's reaction. Let's just say, he was caught off guard because he was changing his shirt. His last picture is showing you what Mommy will look like later on.

We went out back and then I told Tiny I couldn't jump on her trampoline because I was pregnant! She didn't know how to take it, but she was at my side all night after that :)
                                       
So Ty and your dad went to go fly his huge kite and they both took tumbles. Jamie went out and got some sparkling white grape juice, yum!, and then we went over to my parent's house!

Before we left to tell more people about you, we needed a cool way to tell my mom and dad. Ty came up with an idea that he show them a new knife he got and then I say I got something cooler! Then show them the picture of the ultrasound! Alas, Justin was there for this moment, but he wasn't on camera. My mom however thought it was weird that Jamie had her phone and my camera pointed at them. Ty came up with a quick cover story that Jamie got this new video thing and she hasn't been able to put it down and she was comparing the video quality. And then we got Natallia and Jax to come out and we got her with the check out the photo on my phone, tee hee!

Dad looked at me and then my belly a couple of times before it hit him. It made me cry :)

Mom's confused face in the beginning about the cameras. I handed her the photo.  

It hit Natallia immediately when she saw the photo.

We then got some pizza to celebrated you, it was very tasty by the way! Then I found out later that Justin received a certification for family nutritionist thing from taking classes. That was a very proud moment as well! 

After a wonderful and delicious dinner, it was off to go tell Magda. She was home this time too. My plan was to put your picture in a pair of shoes I borrowed from her and then inform her I got a stain on them. She would have to look at the shoe and BAM!, see the photo. It worked out pretty well!

She was running a fever and after she realized I was pregnant, she told me to get away from her. I wasn't that close, and a week later, I haven't gotten sick. (knock on wood). She is very very very very very very exited to be a grandma! We went up to Phillip's work to try again, but he was really busy to come out and say hi, so Magda got to tell him about you. He is also really excited!

He knew something was up because your dad and I had both called him on separate occasions to see if he could talk. But he was very excited to see that picture of you on their fridge. 

On the way home after Magda's house, texting and phone calls were made so that people found out about you!! That got me going and pumped me and anyone I told up. The ones who got texts got something like, Hey? can I get a picture of your face after finding out that I'm pregnant? Here are some pictures!

 


      

In the orange we have Justin Baker (a.k.a. Baker), bald guy (bwhahaha) is Greg, shocked Koala is Theresa, glasses lady is Julie (greg's wife), and mommy and really excited son is Cassie and Caden!

First Trip!

On July 24, I had my first trip to the doctor! Your dad took off work and we both really wanted to know if we could do an ultrasound. Well, we did!!

Today marks week 6 day 2. Based on my body's calculations and what I wrote down, we were both right on track. Due date for you is March 17, 2015! Let's find out how close you are to that date!

Today was more of the do's and don'ts with eating, exercise, and vitamins. I was still super excited about getting an ultrasound! We also got to see your heart flutter today too! That was something awesome! :)

I know your dad has been excited about you, but I saw it more today. After the doctor left the office to go get prints, your dad high fived me, fist bumped me, and then when he looked at your photo, said, "that's our baby!"

We can't wait to see you!!

Finding Out

July 15, 2014

I am going to throw this out there now. It is a very special thing announcing you to everyone, but the reason why we didn't tell your grandparents and uncle/aunts first was the whole facebook thing. I'm pretty sure if I told them about keeping it a secret for a bit, it would be a little difficult not to want to say something about. We won't wait the entire first trimester, by maybe after your first photo. But goodness gracious, I have to tell someone!

My idea is to try and capture everyone's reactions to the news. I want to print screen of the first smile and create a collage for you for when your older. The whole thought behind everyone finding out about you for the first time. I think it's a pretty awesome idea. And we were to only let let close friends and family know first before a website called FaceBook announced to the world that you would be joining us and them. That's how I found out about Uncle Justin having Jaxon. I was completely thrilled that my little brother was going to be a dad, but not through facebook first. 

So the next day, I asked your dad if I could tell Julie (best friend). *Little back story. When Julie first got pregnant, I was the first to know besides her husband. She kept it a secret for the first trimester in case anything happened. Everything went well and she had a little girl named Zoey. She is over 2 years now* I called her and she was at work. Soooo I called Denny (her husband and another best friend). He was super stoked and agreed to video tape Julie when she found out. I ganked this idea from her when she recorded her mom's reaction. Lets just say her reaction was awesome. I can't wait to see the video. 

The next person to know was Troy. July 17, 2014

This is his finding out face :)

*Little background* I know Troy through Julie. Troy knows your dad. That is how I met your father. bum bum buuuummm!!!! 

He kind of already knew about you. A couple of weeks ago I said I didn't want to drink much in fear that I might be pregnant (I didn't drink much, maybe one glass of wine). So when he came over, Nick said something that lead Troy to say, "Tiffany's pregnant!"... Well my camera wasn't recording yet, so I said hmm while Nick detoured him off the thought while talking about breaded mushrooms. I then said I was pregnant and he congratulated me and your dad. 

Now, it's a toss up between who would be more excited to know about you. Giselle or Magda (I don't know what you are going to call them yet. We've already discussed Tia Giselle when she found out and she liked it better than Aunt Giselle)

So on July 18th, your aunt and I went to the zoo. The previous night, I took a picture. 

I make goofy faces and your Great Tita doesn't like it..Bwhahaha!

First funny surprise idea was to show people this photo (since I do it a lot right now with pictures of Jaxon. That will soon change!) Plan... "Hey, check out this photo." It worked really well with Giselle. I shall show you, oh you made a funny face look, confused look, then happy look. Her video by far is my favorite, but alas, I only have three in my possession. Still need Julie's!  

She later told me she thought I was holding someone else's stick. So the dialogue kind of went like this. 

me: "Hey Giselle"

her: "Hmm?"

me: "Check out this photo."

her: *first photo*, then looks back down.*second photo* "Is that real?"

me: "Yup! You're gonna be an aunt!"

her:"Really?"

me: "Yeah"

her: "Are you lying?"

me: "Nope" *third photo*

her: "Is that why you were sick the other day?"

So that Saturday I was feeling like crap, I was supposed to go on a float trip with her, your dad, your grandparents and Tio or Uncle Nick. (Still don't know what you'll call him). So you dad went and told them I had sushi that Thursday night and wasn't feeling good. Possibly food poisoning. (Turns out it was just you! Very happy indeed about that and that it wasn't the sushi. I like it a lot!) Giselle told me on this zoo trip that her and Nick laughed saying that it probably wasn't the sushi and I might be pregnant. So she jokingly already knew about you.

She was very happy all day and so excited. She was the first family member to know about you. So to add more pictures (because I love them) here are the baby animals we saw on this trip!

Little baby camel feeding, baby zebra, baby African painted dogs, and baby elephant!

Next! 

Mike found out on July 22. 

Now, this is a very hungry Mike and he even asked if I was looking for a better reaction. It was all good :) But I can't wait to tell more women, tee hee. This is another friend I met through Julie. I was hanging out with him the night Troy called to see if we all wanted to hang out together. (That's when I met your dad).

More family and friends will know soon and we can't wait to share the news with everyone!!

Knowing

Sooooooooo, where to being.... After a weekend of not eating anything but crackers, soup and apple sauce, something was up. My "period" was lasting over a week (normally 3-4) days, it felt as if someone punched me in the lower region on the 12th, and I was sick (thank God I didn't puke, just felt like I had to).

So on July 14 around 6:30 a.m., I jumped up and took a test. 

I was very excited. I need to write this down based on what your father did. He lost his work I.D. that morning and was really panicked because he can't get into work without it. After I took the test, I went into the kitchen, grabbed him by his hand, went into the bathroom and showed him the test. He smiled at me and that's awesome and probably why I was sick. (most likely not the sushi I ate that previous Thursday). After a brief hug and smiles, we went back to looking for his I.D. We couldn't find it, so he drove to your great grandparents house to see if he left it there after fixing their t.v recording box dealie. I did find it in a drawer by the bed (weird because it always goes on the dresser or his computer table). He was very happy that I found it. 

I know the excitement wasn't much there because he already had his I.D. on his mind and not working, but later that day he would send me texts about being the happiest ever, and walking around being preggers all day, and being the best day ever. I truly am excited and every day I wake up going... I'm pregnant and so frickin happy!! I've been ready stuff online, what not to do and things I can do/eat, reading books. I wanna know!! 

We didn't want anyone to know at the beginning based on my job searching :( I completely understand the logic behind it, but it's soooo exciting!!!