Progress so far...it's a loooooong one!

Have you recovered from the shock of the news you just read yet???  I hope so.  We are incredibly anxious/nervous/terrified/mostly excited about what the future holds for the Groff family.  The last few months have been such a pleasant reminder to us about what a solid group of loving and supportive people we have in our lives, and we hope you all know how much we've appreciated your kind words.

This post will mark the beginning of more regular posting about what's going on with us, as there are BIG changes taking place on an almost daily basis.  I know there are a few of you who have been asking about the blog and wanting to see belly pictures, hence the return to regular posting (I considered posting all of this on Facebook, but once I realized that 350 of my "closest" friends would be able to see belly shots, that idea went out the window in about .02 seconds).  I held off posting anything for the first few months or so for a few reasons: we were still erring on the side of caution and honestly, kind of enjoying this little secret that only our families and closest friends know and also because I spent about 3 weeks feeling like I was knocking on death's door.  Those pregnancy hormones are no joke.  It was all I could do to drag my tired, sick butt to work, much less focus my time on anything extra that was not absolutely mandatory.  Plus, pictures at that time would have been pointless, as there were no outwardly apparent changes to see, and I'd rather not have physical evidence of how haggard early pregnancy made me look. 

I chose to begin taking pictures around 8 weeks, since that's when I turned the corner and started feeling human again.  So my 8 week photos will serve as my "baseline" for the rest of my pregnancy.  I've only done monthly photos the last few months, because progress has been slow (at least from the outside).  The first few shots will probably be the only bare belly ones I post on here, because starting around 16 weeks, the progression can be seen with my clothes on. 

Here's my 8 week shot.  Still looking a little green around the gills, but slowly starting to feel better.

Our first peek at Baby G, whom Pat and I affectionately call "Squirmy" because of how active he or she is already (this scan was done at about 10.5 weeks).  The doctor had a hard time getting decent photos because baby was moving so much.  But we didn't mind one bit.  That moment of seeing our baby for the first time was surreal.  Indescribable.  Best feeling ever.   

This is what I looked like around 12/13 weeks.  I had to document this momentous occasion, as I thought this would be the beginning of my bump.  But alas, I was wrong.  This gut represented what can happen when you consume about a week's worth of sodium in one day (I had just gotten my appetite back, ok?).  Good thing I was headed to yoga right after I took this pic. 

And this is what baby looked like at 12 weeks.  Reading ultrasound photos is like reading a map of a place you've never been.  Unless you know exactly what landmarks you're looking for, it's a complete puzzle (or in this case, a mass of blobs in differing shades of black, white, and gray).  Luckily my husband is a bit more of an analytic thinker than myself, and could help me decipher what these pictures were.  In the left photos, the top picture is a profile of the baby's head.  The middle one is baby with its hand up to its mouth (baby was sucking on his/her thumb almost the entire time!).  And then the bottom picture, as the label would indicate, is an arm (thank you, ultrasound tech!).  The picture on the right is my absolute favorite picture, and the first one I've shown to family and friends because I just think it's so dang cute.  Yes, friends, that thing you see protruding from the baby's mouth is, in fact, its tongue.  So much personality already!

It's hard to tell in this picture, taken at 15 weeks, but this bump is the real deal (not all squishy gut like the last one).  I was so excited about this perfect little round, hard mass, that I ran to the mirror as soon as I got up and tried to document the difference, but it's just too hard to capture it with a photo.  So you'll have to take my word for it.  ;)

Ok, phew, so now we're all caught up.  That was the first trimester...and then some.  (I only wish it was that easy and painless for me!).  This is where things start getting better, or so I hear...