Stringer Baby!

Yes, the cat is out of the bag - FINALLY! It is official, we are letting everyone know that we are expecting our first baby! I say this because I am in the beginning of my fourth month, and you have no idea how hard it was for me to keep this a secret! But we really wanted to wait until I was out of my first trimester until we let everyone know. It was such a challenge, especially in the very beginning. I wanted to tell Aaron in a special way, but I took my pregnancy test in the middle of the night since I had to get up and go the bathroom, and knew that the first urine of the day was the best, so I took my pregnancy test about 2:45 AM, and I just couldn't contain myself when I saw that positive sign on the pregnancy test. I jumped back into bed and told Aaron I was pregnant. He was so confused at first. He said, "What? Really? How do you know?" He forgets how impatient his wife is and sometimes she just has to know right away, even if it is at 2:45 AM. I was like a timebomb waiting to go off, I had to tell him right away. Luckily, I was able to exhibit a little more self control in letting everyone else know. I still think it is a near miracle that I kept it in for this long, usually I have to share with everyone all of my good news right away. Unfortunately, I was not able to keep it a secret for very long at work. Around week 5, I started to get sick. You can't really pass off vomiting as the stomach flu for so long before people know you are prego. Aside from seeing the inside of a lot of toilet bowls, even ones in Europe, it has been exciting to know that we are having a baby.

Interesting changes have taken place since I've been pregnant. The single biggest thing: I no longer love chocolate. In fact, I've had a bunch of what I know to be incredible french chocolate at my house, and haven't even touched it. Now, that is something, especially for me. I made brownies for Aaron for Easter, not a temptation. It is still very weird for me. Sweets in general, no longer appeal to me. However, some things never change: my love affair with ice-cream for example. I still love ice-cream, and I have found, especially vanilla ice-cream is quite soothing for my nausea. Some other things have stayed the same, only intensified: I love and crave fruit, especially grapefruit. There was a time, where I just couldn't eat enough grapefruit, I was eating like three a day. However, other major changes in my tastes have changed: I now love meat and crave meat, mostly red meat. Chicken sounds gross to me, and I normally love chicken. But apparently red meat is what I crave. Vegetables repulse me. I now hate vegetables. Normally I quite love vegetables, but now I hate them. With the exception of potatoes, which I have also had huge cravings for. And asparagus, I can eat that without wanting to spit it out, but it still isn't my favorite. The last thing which I crave, is spicy food. But I always craved spicy food and that hasn't changed.

For the record, I now HATE crackers, especially saltines. I smell saltines and they remind me of being sick and throwing up, and I now can't stand them. I know everyone is different, but all the pregnancy books recommend eating bland foods while struggling with nausea. I have found that the more flavor and intense taste food has, the less sick it makes me. It is bland food that inevitably has the fastest and quickest route up and out of me.
As for Aaron, he hasn't experienced any sympathy pregnancy symptoms, which apparently afflict some men. Lucky for him, I think one of us being sick is enough. However, he has no problems going with me to get an ice-cream, I don't think he minds these cravings too much. And as for my sweet and loving husband, he has only had to go out once for one of my cravings that hit suddenly. He has however, been completely wonderful, and has had to pick up a lot of my slack around the house. He has done more chores lately, and now is completely responsible for the rabbits litter boxes. Well that about sums up what is going on at the Stringer house lately.