First we had each other, then we had you, and then we had everything!

As my first trimester draws to a close, I thought I'd pass along some of the valuable tidbits I've learned over the last several weeks:

1. Starting at about the 8 week mark, your pregnancy alter-ego starts to show up at very unexpected and inopportune times—and she is not nice.

2. Your significant other will start to worry if the sweet little woman he fell in love with is ever coming back.

3. You will start to pray (for the sake of your relationship and your sanity) that she will come back someday.

4. Prissy girls be warned: You WILL break wind in front of other people, whether it’s your significant other, your co-workers, or everyone in the produce aisle at Wal-Mart. You have two choices: You can either cough really loudly or you can swear that you just saw a wild, rabid duck running by.

5. At some point in time, you will go to bed at 7:45 p.m. and you will love it.

6. You will frequently be seen by others with a blank look on your face because you’ve just forgotten what the heck you were right in the middle of doing.

7. Being able to say, “Oh yeah? You try growing a human and see if you feel like (insert here: cooking supper, doing laundry, vacuuming the carpet, sweeping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, being romantic, and basically anything else you need an excuse to get out of) never gets old!

I can't wait to see what I learn in the second trimester!

I just began the last week in my first trimester and I think I’m more worn out than ever. I was exhausted before I even managed to get out of bed yesterday! My poor little dirty house just keeps getting more and more piled up by the day. My dog, Bubby used to come into the bathroom with me every night when I’d take my shower and lie on the bath mat in front of the tub while I took my shower but these days, he has to lie in front of the sink because all of the laundry that I can’t seem to get caught up on is spilling out of the hamper and onto the floor, leaving no room for the little guy and I can’t exactly blame him for not wanting to get cozy on someone’s dirty underwear! I actually went to sleep at 7:45 last night and didn’t wake up until 6:30 this morning. It was fantastic! I think I’ll do the same thing tonight. I’m hoping that my energy level picks up soon, otherwise we’re going to have to buy a new couch because I’m quickly making a permanent indention of my butt in the one we have now! Who knew manufacturing a human could be such hard work?!?

This has been a really tough week for me. If Tony were reading this, he’d just laugh and say, “Honey, they’ve all been tough for me lately, living with your crazy hormones!” He told me the other day that if he didn’t know better, he’d think I was on drugs. Remember those commercials on television telling parents about the warning signs of drug use in their children that described how your child may become really moody or sleep more than usual? Yup! That’s me! Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s a rehab for pregnancy, unless you count getting your tubes tied. And I have had ZERO motivation lately. I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning and when I get to work, I just sort of sit in a fog most of the day because I can’t gather my thoughts enough to accomplish much. And then when I get home at night, all I want to do is throw some supper together real fast so I can shower and go to bed. Even writing this, just now, I sort of zoned out for several minutes before I remembered that I was in the middle of something and started typing again. It’s been so hard for me to concentrate. Sometimes women develop Gestational Diabetes during pregnancy. I wonder if maybe I’m the first documented case of Gestational Attention Deficit Disorder!

I recently read that the baby has fingernails now. Maybe that explains my blinding back pain: the little booger is trying to claw its way out through my spine! Pregnancy just got a lot less fun in week 12. Stay tuned for week 13, hopefully things will look up by then, but even if they do look up, I probably couldn’t focus on them anyway, what with all my pregnancy-induced vision changes. :-)

My mind has finally been put at ease and the weeks of torture that Tony has endured thus far haven’t been in vain: I’m not losing my mind, there is indeed a human being growing inside of me and now we have the pictures to prove it! For the longest time, I was wondering if those two pregnancy tests were right after all. Since I have yet to have morning sickness (Thank you, Jesus!) and until yesterday hadn’t had my pregnancy confirmed through ultrasound, I was beginning to wonder if there was anything in my belly or if it was all just in my head. It’s tough when you first get pregnant and the only signs you’re exhibiting just make it look like you’re turning into a fat mean woman! But now I have proof that there has been a reason for my crazy mood swings and bloated belly, and I’m not losing my mind after all. I’m just rapidly losing my waistline!

This is baby's first official photo, taken on ultrasound February 10, 2009 at 11 weeks pregnant. The baby is upside down with its little butt facing up. If you look really hard, you can see little legs and an arm. Love at first sight!

Today I had my first ultrasound! Leading up to this morning, I was excited, anxious and down-right scared in equal measure. I couldn’t wait to hear the heartbeat for the first time and I was in desperate need of reassurance that the baby was okay and developing just like it should be. Tony, my Mom, and my Dad all accompanied me to the Dr.’s office and after almost an hour wait, they finally called my name and Tony and I were ushered into the ultrasound room. First, Dr. Bailey lit into me about how important it is to get my diabetes under control (like I didn’t already know that!) and asked Tony if I was lying about my eating habits or if I really was being a good girl and eating like I should be. Tony, being the wonderful hubby that he is, told Dr. Bailey I was doing a good job and conveniently forgot to mention the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup filled brownie I had eaten on Saturday that had sent my blood sugar through the roof (Tony threw them out!). Dr. Bailey then pulled out the little Doppler machine that detects the baby’s heartbeat. He explained to us before he began that at 11 weeks, there is a 20 to 30 percent chance that we won’t be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat with the Doppler. But I was so excited about the prospect of hearing the little boom, boom, boom coming from inside me that I was only half listening to his explanation. If I would have been giving the doctor my full attention, maybe I wouldn’t have been so distressed when I didn’t hear anything when he put the cold wand to my belly. For weeks now, all I could seem to think about was how much better I was going to feel when I heard that wonderful sound of a little beating heart. So you can imagine how freaked out I was when I didn’t hear anything. Nada, zilch, zippo, not even the slightest gurgle. Dr. Bailey tried to reassure me that it was nothing to worry about, but I wasn’t having any of it. Just as I was imagining the worst, Dr. Bailey started to perform the ultrasound. I immediately saw the perfect outline of a little tiny human, complete with little arms and legs flailing around everywhere. Tony couldn’t believe that the baby was moving around so much already. He also couldn’t believe that I can’t feel it moving around inside of me yet. That’s when Dr. Bailey explained to us that the baby is only an inch and a half long and far too small to feel yet, but with all that activity, he’s sure that the baby is destined to be a fantastic athlete!

With our eyes glued to the grainy screen, Tony and I got our first glimpse of the life that we created together. I can’t even begin to explain what it felt like to see that tiny little human being moving around inside me. It suddenly makes everything very real. No more abstract thoughts about baby. Everything is finally concrete. I am a mommy. There is a life growing inside of me that was created by the love that Tony and I have for each other. I am so thankful to God for giving us this wonderful gift and I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that I know everything is okay. My first reaction to seeing the ultrasound was pretty much exactly the same as my reaction to the positive pregnancy tests: lots of happy crying followed by giggling. It was funny to watch the screen every time that I laughed because the baby would disappear for second until I stopped giggling, like my laughter was squishing the little guy or something. So now every time that I laugh, I immediately feel guilty for squishing the baby. No more Adam Sandler movies for me until after the baby is born!

Dr. Bailey also told me that with women who have type 2 diabetes, there is an increased risk of still birth during the last two weeks of pregnancy. For that reason, he is going to induce my labor on Wednesday, August 19th, exactly 2 weeks before my due date. Let the countdown begin! Only 6 months and 4 days until we get to meet our baby! Roberta Flack sang a song called, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” that begins: The first time ever I saw your face, I thought the sun rose in your eyes. I can’t seem to get that song out of my head today. I am already incomprehensibly in love with you baby and I haven’t even met you yet.

Well, it’s official. I am now a human pin cushion. I found out Friday that I can no longer control my diabetes with oral medication alone (which is what I have done since I was diagnosed in 2004) and I am now totally insulin dependent. That means that between checking my blood sugar and giving myself insulin injections I have to stick myself with a needle a minimum of 11 times everyday. Good thing I’m not afraid of needles or I’d be in serious trouble! I am also on a super-restricted diet of no more than 30 grams of carbohydrates per meal and no more than 5 grams of carbohydrates per snack. That may not mean much to most of you reading this, but for me, it sucks! Case in point: My favorite place to eat is The Olive Garden. To stay under my 30 grams of carbohydrates per meal there, I could walk through the door, eat 1 bread stick (27 grams of carbohydrates) and walk right back out again. I guess that puts an end to me and Tony running to grab a bite to eat on Saturday afternoons, because that’s literally all I could eat—a bite. My doctor doesn’t even want me to eat fruit—too many carbs! This is just crazy! Where on earth is all of my already-in-short-supply energy supposed to come from? I can just picture the baby inside of me, almost comatose, because it’s not getting enough carbs to even have the energy the take a stroll around the womb. When the baby is born, it’s going to refuse my breast and immediately pick up a phone and order a pizza just so it can get some carbohydrates in its system! The good news in all of this madness is the possibility that after the baby is born and I am finished nursing, I may be able to completely stop all medications. Here’s hoping! Until then, for some reason I can’t seem to stop humming Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”.

Bless Tony’s little heart. He’s been such a trooper through my roller coaster ride of emotions these past few weeks. To give you an idea of how bad it’s been, he said to me last night, “Wow, honey! It’s been almost 2 whole hours since you’ve gotten mad at me!” The tiniest things seem to set me off. Case in point: Tony was making garlic buttered shrimp the other night (I know, I know, I should be shot for getting mad when my husband is in the kitchen cooking, saving my too-tired behind from doing it) and he used all of the margarine we had left. The following night I got a crazy craving for garlic toast and when I went to make it, there was no margarine left so I launched into a tirade about how he put an empty container back in the fridge and now I couldn’t make the garlic toast I thought I was going to die without! Then when he pointed out that we still had real stick butter in the fridge, I proceeded to gripe at him some more for not using that instead of all of the margarine we had because it was a pain in the butt to have to melt the stick butter in a bowl when I could have just spread the margarine all nice and neat on my toast and been done with it! The poor guy just couldn’t win. So after I cooled off for a few minutes, I melted the stick butter in a bowl and used it on my garlic toast and apologized to my wonderful husband for hurting his feelings when he was just trying to do me a favor and make us a wonderful meal so I wouldn’t have to cook. I even let him have a piece of my toast, which is astonishing considering that I didn’t even share food before I got pregnant. So to all the husbands out there who have dealt or will deal with their wife’s crazy pregnancy attitude: Hang in there, pray that we return to normal some day, remember we love you, and remember that we didn’t get this crazy all by ourselves: You had something to do with it too! Oh, and when we offer you a piece of garlic toast as a peace offering, just take it and smile, thank God you survived another killer mood swing, and begin the countdown to the next meltdown. Take heart, in a few months it will have been worth it. At least that’s what we have to tell ourselves each day to avoid divorce court! I LOVE YOU, TONY!!!

It never ceases to amaze me how many strange things happen to your body when you’re pregnant. Things that you would never imagine are related to pregnancy. One especially perplexing side effect: the over production of saliva. Yesterday morning at church, I honestly thought I was going to drool on my hymnal as I was leading the congregation in song. And this morning at work as I was educating a new patient on the importance of chiropractic care, I had to swallow more times than I can count just so I wouldn’t spit on the poor girl! Maybe my over zealous drooling is Mother Nature’s way of making up for the fact that I haven’t had any morning sickness. She’s just gotta sock it to ya some way or another!

I know this woman who has 9 children and she's 37 years old (I think she must be related to the Duggars). Every time I see her, besides having a new child, she has several less brain cells. Very absent minded and scatter brained. She can't ever find her checkbook or her car keys. I wonder how often she misplaces a child or two. I even came up with a name for her unfortunate condition: Baby Brain. I'm convinced that the more subsequent children you have, the worse off you become. I have always been very worried that someday I would turn out just like her. I have done everything in my power to conserve my precious little brain cells. I don't drink or do anything else that would potentially put the little things in harm's way. I thought I was doing fine--until yesterday. That's when I discovered that I too, am suffering from Baby Brain. It occurred to me as I was driving home last night. I was supposed to go to my parent's house to pick up my dog after work. They are my own personal Doggy Daycare. If you think I spoil my dog, just wait 'til you see how spoiled my child is going to be! Anyway, I was driving along, listening to the new Mercy Me song on the radio and low and behold, I realize I'm turning into my own driveway! I forgot my furry little son! If I can forget him, it terrifies me to think what will happen the first time I take my baby to Wal-Mart! And to make matters worse, as I was driving to work today, I reached for something in my purse in the seat beside me, and my purse wasn't there! I had to turn around and go back to my house to get it. In the past 24 hours, I have forgotten 2 out of the 3 most important things in my life. Tony better stick to me like glue the next time we leave the house!

It's amazing how as the weeks pass, I become increasingly unable (or unwilling) to tolerate people's bull. Normally, I consider myself a mild mannered, conflict avoiding, peace making, people pleaser. But lately, I could honestly care less what people think of me and I have become increasingly inclined to tell it exactly like it is. For example: Tony was complaining about a guy that he knows, telling me how dumb the guy is and what a big pain in the rear-end he is. Pre-pregnancy, I would have responded with something like, "Now honey, don't you think that's a bit mean? I'm sure he can't possibly be that bad." But non-filtered Amber replied instead, "WHAT A STUPID MORON!" Another example: Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and I understand that many offices observe this holiday and close for the day. Our office doesn't. We never have. And it always amazes me when we get patients who call our office and when I answer the phone, they ask, "Are you open today?" Normally, I would sweetly reply, "Sure, we're open today. What time would you like to come in and see us?" But not the Non-Filtered Amber! She replies, "No, we're closed today. I just like to come up here on my days off and answer the phone for the fun of it." True story! I actually said that to someone on the phone this morning. I'm telling you, I was not prepared for these hormones (and I don't think the poor people around me were, either!).

Another wonderful side effect of pregnancy is sounding like a lumberjack in your sleep. I have always snored occasionally if I lie on my back but as Tony puts it, I had a "princess snore". Very light and dainty. Not anymore! He says I sound like a chainsaw and he has to wake me up during the night to tell me to roll over, all the while praying that he falls back to sleep before I start the chainsaw again! Maybe the filter that controlled the things that come out of my mouth was stored in my nose and now that it's gone, there's nothing to stop the snoring. Let's hope that the filter returns before Tony collapses of exhaustion and I lose my job for being rude to our patients!

I had my first prenatal appointment this morning. It was really kind of strange because they didn't even confirm my pregnancy. Instead of filling me with excitement and anticipation, they pretty much just scared the Buh-Jesus out of me. The nurse basically said that I'm going to have to completely change the way I've been managing my diabetes or I could put the baby at serious risk. And right after she told me this, then they decide to take my blood pressure! And I bet you can guess what happened next! Yep, they put me on blood pressure medication! It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you might get a little worked up when someone tells you that you're a horrible mother already and you're slowly killing your baby unless you completely change your life! Talk about scare tactics! So I took my happy (okay, I was markedly less than happy) self to Sam's Club and bought all the healthy stuff I could find: A case of low sodium V8 juice, (although I barely had the strength to lift it into the cart after they took 6 vials of blood out of my arm), boneless skinless chicken breasts, dried fruit, mixed nuts. I even had a salad at lunch. And for someone who has been terrified of putting anything green in her mouth her entire life, that's quite a feat! But I figure that my baby is the best possible reason on this earth to start taking better care of myself. I owe it to them to be the healthiest I could possible be. After all, I want to be around when my child has their first child. So as of today, I'm turning over a new leaf: a big, green piece of lettuce! :-)

I have been eating non-stop since before I even knew I was pregnant. At first I was just blaming the holiday season but now that I know I have an "excuse", I've been eating even more. I know that the baby needs a few extra calories because of all the growth and development that's going on right now but I've been getting a bit carried away. I weighed myself the day I found out I was pregnant and have been weighing myself weekly since then. I was a bit nervous to step on the scales this week because I just knew I had gained at least 5 pounds since my last trip to the scales. But to my extreme surprise, I had only gained .2 pounds. Yes, that's POINT 2 pounds. Which begs the questions: Just where in the heck is all that food going anyway? Am I going to give birth to a 14 pound baby? Pregnancy just keeps getting more interesting everyday! :-) But seriously, I am going to have to be careful about my weight. Not because of vanity, mind you. I'm a proud little fluffy girl! But I also have type 2 diabetes so I'm more prone to gain extra weight anyway and even though I joked about it just a second ago, I really don't want a 14 pound baby. So to try and head off ridiculous weight gain at the pass, Tony and I purchased an elliptical machine yesterday at Wal-Mart. I use it while we watch our "Friends" DVDs. They're about 20 minutes long so it makes it perfect to exercise for the length of one entire episode. At least that's my goal. Last night I only made it 15 minutes, though. I told Tony the idea is to not gain an obscene amount of weight, not kill me! :-)

Tony is mystified at the idea of looking at baby stuff this early in the pregnancy. We went to Target on Saturday and he just couldn't understand why we kept looking at the baby stuff. He said to me, "Isn't this why we have a baby shower? So people will get us all this stuff and we won't have to?" To which I answered, "Yes honey, but we have to register for this stuff so people will know what to buy us." And he shot back, "What does register mean?" Clearly he has a lot to learn! :-) And for those of you wondering, no I'm not crazy and I haven't started registering for baby stuff yet. I just get a kick out of looking at all those precious little outfits knowing that someday something tiny enough to actually fit into that stuff will come out of my body. Crazy!

My 5th week of pregnancy saw the introduction of killer mood swings and extreme exhaustion. I have also been eating everything in sight. I've had quite the short fuse this week and Tony is trying his best to just stay out of my way. Poor guy! I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping at night. I've been waking up with quite a bit of low back pain and I just can't seem to get comfortable. Thank God I work for a chiropractor! Chiropractic care during pregnancy has been proven to lessen back pain throughout pregnancy and it helps shorten the duration and severity of labor pain as well. Plus, it will help get me back in tip-top shape after the baby is born, too. God bless chiropractic care! Even though Tony thinks I am a little crazy, our baby's first doctor's appointment will take place with Dr. Chandler when she gives the baby their very first adjustment. She lives very close to the hospital where I will give birth so hopefully the baby will be adjusted just hours after their birth so their little nervous system will have the best possible start!

I am looking forward to my first prenatal appointment on January 13th, even though I won't actually see the doctor until around my 10th or 11th week of pregnancy. At this first appointment, I will have a lot of preliminary blood work done. Then when I see the doctor, I'll have my first ultrasound and we will get to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! I can't wait! Even though I know that the little booger is in there (and 2 First Response pregnancy tests know too), it will still take a load off my mind to have it confirmed by a professional. :-)

I found out on New Year's Eve that one of my dearest friends, Jessica, is also pregnant with her first child and our due dates will be within days of each other. We are so excited to get to share this experience together!

Well, it's beginning to sink in that Tony and I are actually bringing another little life into this world. As far as symptoms I've been having, so far I've been really lucky. I've just been really tired and hungry all the time. :-) And this is hunger like I've never felt hunger before. Normally hunger pains start out slowly and then gradually get worse until your tummy starts to growl. I normally don't eat breakfast until around 10 a.m., but now as soon as I wake up every morning, my stomach is growling like I haven't eaten for days and it feels like there's this little Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner in my tummy sucking every little piece of sustenance out of my belly as soon as it hits my stomach so that I'm in a constant state of hunger. And I've been light-headed, too. Like I'm a human bobble-head doll. Very strange! Another weird thing is that I haven't gained any weight yet but my stomach is so bloated. Early pregnancy signs, at least what I've experienced so far, are like PMS on steroids!

I think this whole daddy business is sinking in with Tony, too. Already he's more protective of me than usual. And he's been putting his hand on my belly at night when we sit down to talk about our day with each other. He woke me up the other morning whispering in my ear, "I love you so much." If anyone of you reading this knows my husband, you'll know how out of character that is for him. Not that he's not a naturally tender man, he's just been a lot more vocal about it lately. Maybe he's just afraid of my mood swings! :-) All jokes aside, he's going to be a wonderful father and I can't wait to watch him with our child, playing and cuddling. I couldn't ask for a more wonderful husband and I am thankful to God everyday that I have such a wonderful partner!

I am about to embark on the most exciting adventure of my life. At exactly 11:01 a.m. on December 26, 2008, I found out that I am expecting my first child. My husband Tony and I have been married since July 7, 2007 but until recently hadn't been trying to start our little family. But we've been hearing our biological clocks ticking fairly loudly in our ears and decided that it was high time to create a new little Anderson! We couldn't be more excited and happy. When I saw those 2 little lines on the pregnancy test, I immediately started to cry. Then I picked up the phone and called my sister, Angie, who lives in Phoenix. Since she wouldn't get the news in person like everyone else in the family, I thought it was only fair that I tell her first! :-) She can't wait to be an aunt for the first time! It's all starting to sink in that I'm actually going to be a mommy. By this time next year, I'll have a newborn! Unbelievable! Well, ready or not, here it comes! My only prayer is that God gives Tony and I the wisdom and courage to bring up our child in the ways of the Lord and that our baby always knows, from the moment we lay eyes on them for the first time, that it will always be loved, no matter what.

This is footage taken when Tony saw my pregnancy test results. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a baby bib that said "I love Daddy" on it. That's what he's holding in his hand in the video. And the squeaking you hear in the background is our dog, Bubby, playing with one of his toys. He's going to be such a good big brother! :-)

This video was taken when Tony and I broke the news to my parents that they were about to become first-time grandparents. They had been waiting for this day for a long time! My dad caught on right away but it took a little longer for the news to sink in with my mom!