I was thinking a lot about Andrew when I woke up this morning. I cried some with Kevin and spent some time just staring at his little pictures. I still can’t get over how beautiful he is! I feel so blessed that we were able to see what he looked like. During those final days of my pregnancy, that’s what I anticipated most – seeing what our little man would look like! 🙂 I will always treasure the pictures we have, although there will never be enough of them.
Speaking of pictures, we found out on Friday that our professional pictures will probably not be ready for another week. I was bummed about that, but there’s no way I could be mad. The man who took them was wonderful. He volunteers for an organization called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and their services are completely free. It turned out that he and Kevin were acquaintances. He and Kevin had met somehow through teaching – he is also a history teacher in our county. God was good even in that – it definitely broke the ice during our time with him in the hospital.
So, back to my pregnancy with Andrew. I think we left off at Christmas since we found out we were pregnant just before. After my first appointment and sonogram on December 19th, we basically hit the road for Tupelo, Mississippi, where Kevin’s family would all be gathering for Christmas. The only people who knew our exciting news was my parents and sister and Kevin had sort of told his brother (Kevin’s brother had called somewhere during the time that Kevin was driving to Walmart to buy me a second pregnancy test. We didn’t believe the first one so Kevin bought a digital one that clearly said “pregnant.” No lines to worry with this time!).
We wanted to wait to tell Kevin’s parents and the rest of his family since we’d see them in person in just a few more days. We arrived in Tupelo after a long drive and none of the rest of the family was there yet, so we had Kevin’s parents all to ourselves. We walked in the door, gave them the usual hugs, and then gave them their “Christmas card.” When they opened up the card, they saw our first sonogram picture! They were ecstatic! We basically used the sonogram picture to tell the rest of the family as they each arrived. Kevin’s sister’s response was probably my favorite. She literally squealed! Needless to say, it was a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of Christ. It was our niece’s first Christmas and it was extra special knowing we’d be celebrating the following Christmas with our own little baby.
It’s funny how the symptoms of pregnancy seemed to start immediately after we found out I was pregnant. Over Christmas, I found myself not being able to eat foods that I normally LOVE!! I am typically all over the sweet potato pie, but could only take a few bites this time. My energy was still pretty good, but my appetite changed almost immediately.
When we got back home from our trip, we both headed back to work. We decided not to tell too many people just yet. I think Kevin wanted to tell the world but I wanted to wait until my 10 week appointment with my OB before making it more public. Kevin did tell one of his co-workers at school and I told one of my friends at work, but that was about it. We didn’t even tell our other good friends until later.
Things with work were very hectic during all this. Business at Circuit City had not been going well for quite some time, and in November they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In early January, we received an email stating that Circuit City was officially up for sale. If we weren’t sold by the end of the week, then we’d be liquidating. We were all shocked – the reality was that within 7 days, we could all be unemployed. That entire week was terrible at work. Since I worked in the inventory department, there was basically nothing to do. I couldn’t buy anything, there was really no point in sending order forecasts to vendors, etc. We basically just sat around and talked about the sick reality we were facing at work.
On January 16, 2009, we got the email stating that a deal for purchase could not be made, so we were officially being liquidated. Our jobs were gone, and we immediately started packing up our cubicles. Some of us cried and some people were angry. It was terrible. Although the past few months at Circuit City had been extremely difficult, I loved my job. I loved the people I worked with. I loved the company. It was almost like a death – the death of what used to be a great company that had been around for 50 years. In the midst of a bad economy, more people in Richmond would be unemployed and looking for jobs. The good news was that we would be paid for 2 whole months – that was certainly a blessing.
Being unemployed was weird, but what helped me feel better about it was that at least I was unemployed and PREGNANT! 🙂 Just a few days after loosing my job at Circuit, we had our first sonogram and OB appointment. I was 10 weeks at this point and our little squirt was starting to look like a BABY! We could see Andrew’s head and what appeared to be a little hand sticking out next to his head. It’s amazing how much they grow in such a short amount of time!! God is amazing!
My first trimester progressed very well. I continued to have a strange appetite (couldn’t stand the sight of Diet Coke and ate a lot of cereal and saltines) and started to experience some nausea and more fatigue. Overall though, no complaints whatsoever. I have a friend who couldn’t keep food down for the majority of her pregnancy and ended up needing IV’s, so I felt very blessed dealing with the minor symptoms I had.
I was worried I’d be super bored being at home, but it really wasn’t too bad. I was able to meet up with people for lunch and was available to people if they needed me for things like babysitting and running grandmothers to doctor’s appointments.
I looked for jobs, but deep down inside I had always wanted to stay at home with our kids. I figured if I didn’t find anything, then it would save me from having to resign a few months later once Andrew was born. During my time off, I did do some things with my BeautiControl business. I had become a consultant back in November so I spent some time doing spa parties and building up some clients. It kept me busy and my mind active.
I had hoped to post some more pictures, especially of our first 2 sonograms, but we seem to be having technical difficulties at the Eddins house. It may sound silly, but could you pray that we can get our scanner working soon? I’ll post the sonograms as soon as I can.
