Little Baby Clark is on the way!

Every ear will hear the story of Your furious love.
 

May 21st, 2016, Drew and I found out we were EXPECTING a BABY. Like this is not a drill, we are pregnant. (Well, I am.) (this is Kaylee speaking, to be perfectly clear.) Do people get annoyed when other people say "we are pregnant" instead of "I am pregnant"? If so, I will stop it right now and never do it again. Be a friend and let me know. 

I want to write all this down and share all these pictures so I can remember every moment. So get ready for a story with details. 

So how did we find out? 

I suspected it right away. I cannot begin to explain to you the feeling, but it's almost like I just knew. I felt slow and sleepy and I was running to the bathroom every hour on the hour. It was too early to be having symptoms, but somehow I felt like I was. Even if it was just a weird placebo. I started telling Lindsay in a joking way, "I'm so pregnant." And we both had a good laugh about it and shrugged it off. It couldn't be true. 

But then it was. I took a test the next week. And the result came up almost immediately. This thing seemed pretty dang sure.

So how did I tell Drew? (You see his feet in the above photo, but this photo was taken a little later.)
I DO NOT KNOW how you people wait and do something cute to surprise your husbands. When you find out you're preg, the literal only person you can tell for a while is your husband. So I needed him to know IMMEDIATELY so we could freak out together! I took it, got my immediate result, and called Drew. It seemed tacky to throw it at him over the phone, so I made sure he was alone and told him to come to the house STAT. (It was a total construction zone - as seen in above photo - so we weren't living there at this moment.) 

I tucked the test into the waistband of my Nike shorts and started pacing around the house thinking thoughts like, Did I have a margarita with dinner last week? and I'm pretty sure I took a pain pill after that dental procedure. Is that awful?? (Update, no. It's fine and baby is fine.) 

Drew walks in two hours (or like five minutes but whatever it seemed like a lifetime) later and he brought friends. My Poppy and my Uncle Darren follow him into our house. SHOOT. 

"Drew. You said you were alone."

"Yeah Poppy and Darren wanted to see progress." 

"Okaaaaaay...." 

So they walk around and check things out a while. Fifteen minutes pass. They're ready to leave. Then who walks in, my mom! "Oh hi mom! Didn't expect to see you here today!" (It was her birthday by the way, so I was actually pumped to see her. It was just inconveniently timed.)

So they finally all head out. It's just me and Drew. This is my moment. Should I just show him the test? Should I start crying happy tears? Should I cry sad tears—like, is he gonna freak out in a bad way? Are we happy about this? I feel happy I think. 

So he's rambling on about paint samples and in the dead middle of his sentence I blurt out, "I'M PREGNANT". He freezes. He smiles. Smiling is a good thing, I feel relieved. I do NOT remember what he said. Something along the lines of, seriously??!! But mostly I just remember that smile and how everything really was going to be okay. I whipped that pregnancy test out to show him the proof and he said, "Has that been in there the whole time?" 

I died. 

So a few weeks passed, and we kept this thing under tight wraps. Except when I accidentally blurted out to Lindsay that YES I actually was pregnant after all. It helped to have ONE other person to talk to! 

We ordered cutie mugs to give to all three sets of parents and my poppy (who we were living with at the time) as a surprise. I'm dumb and only thought to take a photo of one set!! But you get the point! 

Mugs in the construction zone that was our house at this time. Ignore the mess.

We found out we were pregnant early, but we thought we were already at 6 weeks! (We weren't) So we went ahead and told the parents only a few weeks after we found out. 

My mom and step dad were the first set of parents to find out the news. We gave them their mugs and they'd been keeping our dog, Emma, for us while we were staying with Poppy. So mom thought "Grandma Kristy" was in reference to Emma being her granddog. Kevin quickly put it together and said, "Kristy. They're pregnant!" She literally did like a jaw drop and said "No you're not." Like this lady was SO shocked that she could not say another word! We definitely surprised them! 

We told my dad and Gina next! We met them at their house and gave them their mugs. Gina immediately said I KNEW IT! We were both like "HOW?!" My dad was just plain pumped. He's been saying since we got married, "When I'm grandpa this will be a YES house! If it doesn't hurt them, the answer is YES." Scary part is, I know he's serious.

We told Drew's parents and sister, Amy, next at their house in Georgetown. They did not get it, either! It took a second for it to sink in! But when it did, they were, of course, stoked. Again, so confused. I think someone even said "How did this happen?!" Hahahaha. A lot of hugging and laughing commenced.

Last to get his mug was poppy. We waited a while to tell him, because we wanted to make sure this little baby Clark was gonna stick around! But when we were pretty sure, we gave him his mug. His was a little different. It didn't say "Established 2017" like everyone else's. He's been a Poppy since '92, after all. His said "Poppy - Est. '92, '98, '03, '04 and '17"

He, of course, did not get it either. But when we told him, he teared up. Which you can see if you look real close at this photo. So. Stinkin'. Cute. He had his coffee in it the very next morning. 

We had our first ultrasound June 7th. I was nervous. I don't think Drew was nervous. Maybe uncomfortable is what Drew was. He'd never been to an OBGYN appointment with me before. And then all of a sudden, BAM, I had to drop my clothes and get in a grandma robe?? What the heck was goin' on??

Don't worry. I took a selfie in the granny robe so we could preserve the uncomfortable moment. You're welcome.

ALL WAS GOOD! Baby looked like a little bean. DEFINITELY didn't look like a baby. We even SAW its little heart beating. IT WAS BEATING FOR REAL. This seemed like a miracle to me. Seriously. 

After I put normal clothes back on, we of course took an excited blurry selfie with "Baby's first portrait". 

From here on out things get more blurry. I got SICK. really sick. Like taking medicine to keep sickness at bay. We made a lot of convenience store runs that resembled this: 

Minus the mascara. 

I mean seriously. I put away some major saltines. Anything with starch, really. I didn't discriminate. Crackers, macaroni, mashed potatoes. I also, of course, dropped coffee and diet soda the minute I took the pregnancy test. If you know me, you understand that this was hard. Exceptionally hard. 

But then, it wasn't hard anymore. My body started rejecting it. Just the thought of espresso made me physically ill. FUNNY how God designed pregnancy, right? Everything is a literal miracle. Your body rejects what the baby doesn't need. Or at least this was my experience. 

Other early side effects: I was TIRED. Sleeping from 5 pm-9 pm, getting up to eat chicken noodle soup and take a shower, then more sleep from 10 pm -7 am. This was my routine every single day. Drew was a champ. He let me be lazy. He still does when I'm having my off days. 

Whenever I had the energy, Drew took me to do something. Anything, but mostly just to anywhere that sold mashed potatoes. My favorite places to eat—Chick Fil A, Mama Fus and Panera—I would GAG just thinking about. So I would walk into Bush's (ew) and order mashed potatoes. That's all I could do. That and iced water. OMG SO much iced water. 

Here's the announcement we made to share with our far-away friends and family! 

Here's the announcement you saw on Facebook/Insta! 

And a few alternative options for funzies: 

At 10 weeks we had ultrasound number 2! All was good. Emma was told she was going to be a big sis. She was not enthused. 

Aaaaand I kept getting sick. 

Honestly, I'm still sick. It's going away, but it still happens regularly. It's no fun. 

So what's next? 

Well, we announced! That's big time! Drew was ready to tell the world at around week 8. Haha. I was more wanting to wait until we knew the gender (about week 20). So, alas, a compromise. We spilled the beans at week 14. 

Next week we have appointment 3! Your prayers are FULLY welcomed and so, so appreciated.

We are thrilled. We are nervous! We are apprehensive in some ways. 

Are we ready? Are we too young? Do we even like kids? Oh no, do we even like babies? What if we can't afford daycare? Am I a bad mom if I want to work instead of stay home? Am I a bad mom if I want an epidural? What if baby Clark isn't healthy? What if baby Clark doesn't make it? What do you even do with a crying baby, I don't know? Is breast feeding weird? Are gender reveal parties cool? Will I gag every time I change a diaper? Will I think my baby is cute?? Shoot, can I even take 8 weeks off of work?? NO, definitely no. I'm so fired. (Update, I'm not fired.)

Do you get the picture? 

I don't want any of you thinking life is just SO perfect and we are SO perfect and this was 900% planned and we are going to be PERFECT parents. Because it's not. We're not. It wasn't. And perfect parents do not exist. 

I keep going back to this song by Amanda Cook. Highest Praise. 

It's my favorite. I've probably listened to it 600 times, no kidding. 

It has nothing to do with pregnancy or anything, but I just resonate with it EVERY time I hear it.

Every ear will hear the story of Your furious love. 

Every eye will see the glory of the coming King.

Every knee will bow, every tongue confess Your name.

And with the crowd I will lift my voice, I will lift my voice to sing- 

To the One who was,

The One who is, and is to come - 

HIGHEST PRAISES. 

We are excited. We are nervous. We are apprehensive in some ways. Sure. But God, He is READY. He KNOWS what's next. He has blessed us so big. And we're ready to raise this little blessing up knowing Him. 

Stay tuned. There will, inevitably, be lots more to come.