18 Weeks

Size of baby: a rubber ducky or large pear

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 6 pounds gained

Maternity Clothes: Not in them yet.

Gender: Find out this week!

Movement: Any day now. My pregnant best friend and I figure we have probably experienced it and just don't realize it.

What I miss: Water parks, amusement parks, bowling

Sleep: In true Meredith style, I can't fall asleep at night. I don't think this is pregnancy related. Once I get asleep ( 30 + minutes later) I am there.

Symptoms: My back ( the base of my back that I affectionately call my hinge) hurts more and more often. I don't think it is the "amazing" 6 pound weight gain so I dread what it may feel like later on when we are actually carrying a load of baby.

Cravings: I don't really think I have any but I love salsa. However, I would any summer.

Best Moment this week: Getting to find out what this sweet baby is

What we are looking forward to: Gender Reveal!

Belly Shots

As my belly is becoming more and more evident around here, I thought I would share a progression of how it has gone since Week 8, when I started taking belly shots. Some weeks we get really busy ( hence the month of slowed blogging) and don't think to take a pic, but we are getting better.
Week 8 Week 9

Week 10

Week 11 Week 11/12Week 14

I am in Week 17 now. I have Week 15 and 16 pictures. I will post them soon. As far as weight gain is concerned, I was 104 pounds when the pregnancy started. At my May and June appointments, I weighed 107. I have my next appointment this Friday and expect I may have gained two to three pounds. I have been wearing all non maternity clothes to this point. I fear that may end soon in the pants department. We will see. Then a week from Thursday, we find out if this little Dillard is a boy or a girl. Exciting times!

Telling Brad He Was Going to Become a Dad

As I said previously, I was alone when I took the pregnancy test. I had to figure out a great way to tell Brad that he was going to be a dad. After the road we had been down, it was certainly an unexpected development :0)

The day I took the test was the day after Easter. Brad had gotten me some candy for Easter, and I had not bought anything for him. On this Monday, he was down at the hospital visiting with Jack. I called him and told him that while he was gone the Easter Bunny had stopped by and dropped him off a belated Easter offering. He acted confused. I told him that he would figure out when he got home.

I traveled up to the Avenue and into the local Carter's store. I picked some gender neutral baby gear to package for a "You're Going to Be a Daddy " gift and returned home. I packaged it in the bag - from bottom to top - pregnancy test, gender neutral daddy favored bibs, stuffed monkey. I then waited EAGERLY for a certain husband to get home.

When he opened the gift, it went a little something like this:

His face says to me ,"We do not need another stuffed animal in this house....." (obviously not getting it at this point)

"Wait, a second..."

"Are we?!?"

Great hugging and embracing commenced after this. I know he looks completely shocked but legitimately so. We had just been told all these things we needed to do to get pregnant two weeks earlier and then there we were - pregnant without doing any of them. Brad is going to be an awesome dad and he is very excited.

God Intervenes!

As was mentioned on Facebook and alluded to on here, Brad and I are pregnant. This pregnancy is a major miracle! It has been a long road to pregnancy for us. Part of the reason I stopped blogging is because I felt like I was in a dark spot - I was unhappy about things at work, couldn't get pregnant, frustrated with things in our family. I trudged on though and as He usually does, God intervened.

We started trying to get pregnant last April. I went off birth control. We consciously made efforts with ovulating tests and tracking how long my cycle was ( pretty irregular). Then sometimes we would just "go for it". We had a few long gaps between periods but no pregnancies. It was frustrating. So this April rolled around. I went to my yearly apointment on April 11th, the same day I interviewed for a counseling position. I felt like the interview went alright and then at the appointment, we started the conversation - it's been a year and we are not pregnant...now what? My nurse practitioner Dorian told me that the next time I ovulated I would need to come in for bloodwork to see what was going on and then possibly have an ultrasound when they would shoot dye up my tubes and see what was (or wasn't going on). Brad would need to go see a urologist and get a sample taken. We were braced for the future that was ahead of us.

And then, God intervened. Two weeks later, April 25th, after being a little late on my period, I took a pregnancy test on a whim and it was POSITIVE!!!! Brad wasn't home so I went to work on my efforts to tell him ( content for the next post) and was alone in the most wonderful happiness I have ever experienced....happiness so big and wonderful it was painfully hard to be the ONLY one who knew this greatness.

I have such peace over all of the things surrounding our pregnancy. God has intervened in so many ways -

1.)I ended up not getting the counseling job and that is FINE because God knew that taking on a new job while taking on the job of Mommy would be completely overwhelming.

2.) We ovulated during that cycle on March 31st and April 1st. April 1st is the day Brad's brother had a horrific car accident and survived. I feel like possibly God delivered two awesome miracles to the Dillard family that day - by having His hand on our baby and on Jack.

3.) Our baby is due on Christmas Day - Jesus's birthday. What an awesome day to have our miracle come. Plus it is my favorite time of year because I am a December 30th baby.

So there you have it, God intervened and we are pregnant. And so completely blessed!

Big Changes to Come!

To the blog, to our lives...... stay tuned! :0)

"Nieces"

As you know, I have a few blogs to catch up on , so here we go.

I am the proud aunt of one awesome nephew but this summer I have been lucky enough to meet my two "nieces". One introduction was made in May and then one more recently in July.

My first "niece" is Miss Ellie Sexton. Her daddy, Brandon, was my boyfriend in third and fourth grade. Now that meant, we played together on the playground, were around each other constantly and gave each other presents. On Valentines Day in fourth grade, he presented me with a heart shape box of candy. Everyone in the school knew we were " serious". I think it mostly entertained all parties. We continued to be good friends throughout all of our schooling years, topping off our high school experience by going to senior prom as friends. Since then, we have always been there for each other. We visited each other in college and have attended each other's weddings. It was such a proud moment for me to see him and his wife venture into the journey of parenthood. Ellie was born April 30th. We met three weeks later and have also celebrated her two month birthday with dinner out. She is a doll and I love her. This is Miss Ellie and a pic of me and her daddy the last time we visited weeks before her arrival.

My second "niece" is my cousin Nancy's daughter Anna. She is two days short of ten months old. She has such a sweet disposition. We have been shopping with her several times these last few weeks and she is so patient, just hangs out as one of the girls. She is very talkative and has taken to all of us Griswolds. It was amazing to meet her for the first time and great to fix the insane statistic that Nancy and I had not seen each other in a year. Since she lives in Arizona and had Anna last September, there hadn't been a lot of opportunity. I have never gone a year between seeing Nancy! This time together has been so great and loving on Anna has been too.

I'm Still Here

Sorry the blog has gone a little stagnant. I just have been really busy. I have plenty to share. Here is what you can look forward to soon ( and what has been keeping me busy):

- Myrtle Beach trip with Brad
- Seeing my cousin for the first time in a year and meeting her 10 month old daughter for the first time
- Spending time with my best friend since third grade Brandon and his wife Lindsay and three month old daughter Ellie
- Attending a Cocktails and Canvas evening with Nicole
- Going to Savannah tomorrow with my mom and aunt

Have a good end of summer and I will be back soon