When should I tell my students?

So while a lot of my coworkers know, my students do not.

They probably wonder, "Why is Mrs. Hayman always having to pull up her pants?" I've been wearing maternity work slacks instead of buying new slacks that would be too small soon. I bought them kinda big though for the same reason, and they just don't stay up like regular pants. Eventually, I'm sure they will.

I teach 3rd grade so many of my students have little brothers or sisters. They know what it means when someone is pregnant. I'm trying to decide if I should tell them now, wait until my 2nd trimester begins, or until I seriously start showing. I think they will be so excited as well as my former students.

Reasons for telling students now:
1. They hear other teachers talking about it with me in the hall,
2. Some students run and hug me tight and may be more gentle if they know.
3. I'm excited and want to tell them.

Reasons for not telling them now:
1. It's too early.
2. What if something happened?

Any input is appreciated. Teachers-When did you tell your students? Parents-When would you like to find out your child's teacher is expecting?

An Unexpected Doctor Visit, But a Happy Ending...

What a busy busy week at school! It's Sunday night and am about to go to bed after grading papers and finishing my lesson plans. Hopefully this week will be easier than last week, because last week started rough and had the longest days thus far this school year.

Last Sunday, I started experiencing some issues and got worried. I have researched and read and know that things happen during pregancy that are completely normal. Well, it was harder to convince myself when things started actually happening. I called the on call doctor and long story short went to the doctor on Monday to make sure everything was okay. We were supposed to have an appt on Sept. 20th (when Brian is off), but went on Monday. Unfortunately, Brian was working, but thankfully my mom was able to go with me. I had an ultrasound and saw the baby for the first time AND....everything is fine!!! What a relief! I was so joyous, but at the same time was dealing with horrible migraine that led me to feel so nauseous. I gave Brian the good news and came house and got back in the bed to take it easy.

This is not a great picture. She wasn't that good at using the machine.

Maybe you can see our little baby though.

We were all praying and then giving thanks to God for keeping our baby safe. We love our baby so much already and couldn't imagine that God would have everything line up so perfectly and then for something to happen. If I could have had one more thing that day, it would have been for Brian to be there for that moment. It wasn't the same without him. Our next appt. is Oct. 19th (so far away!) and yes Brian is off, so hopefully we won't have another emergency visit. I saw the heartbeat, but hopefully we will hear it next time. Our official due date is May 1st.

I still feel pretty good. Trying not to lift or carry things. That is hard for me because I'm used to doing things myself like moving desks and carrying my crazy amount of papers to grade to my car. I am so thankful for my friends at work who have helped me. I hate to jinx myself, but I haven't had morning sickness or nausea. On the downside, I haven't been sleeping well at all and have been so tired, so I am hoping to get a good nights rest.

I'm looking forward to Week 8 beginning on Tuesday. :)

But if you have a baby, I won't be the baby anymore...

The world (or at least the facebook world) now knows of our pregnancy. Keeping it a secret didn't really work for too long. We are so happy to share our news, and so thankful for all the support and love from everyone. This baby is definitely loved. :)

Here are some pictures of how we shared the news with our family and friends. First, was Brian's parents and Lauren. His parents had left the house and we made them come back just to tell them. They knew something was up, and were SO happy. It was a great moment and we all kept hugging and crying. Here is picture of them with their onesie. It is a weenie dog holding balloons and says "Special Delivery".

Next was my mom. She was at work, so we went to Babies R Us and looked around. Then we waited at her work for an hour. Then we followed her, but she didn't see us. The woman went to WalMart! We scared her by popping up at her car window, went inside with her, and then finally went to her house because she invited us over for cake. We ate cake and talked and then Finally gave her the bag. She opened it and found her onesie. Mom asked, "Does this mean you are pregnant?" When we said yes, tears and hugs started all over again. Mom is so happy for us and to be a Grammy again.

Next, and the last person for that night was Dana. She was at Target waiting to pick up her roommate. By this point we were pretty tired, so we decided to just go there and tell her. We gave her the gift and she opened it, saw the onesie, and said, "Hey! I have a picture of this onesie on my phone. I love it!.......OOOOH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!! HAHA It was hilarious! The tears and hugs came again. We are so happy that all the tears shed today were tears from extreme happiness.

The next day I had to work. Wow it was hard not to tell anybody! We had more family to tell first though. I ordered a pink carnation with a blue bow to tell Christa, Cody, and the kids. Mom wrote a poem to put on the card, and Kendra did me a huge favor and went and picked it up.

Since Christa knew, then we called my grandparents and Brian's grandparents. We wanted to do something special for Brian's grandma though so we bought her a baby Brag book. She is so excited for us to be parents and to be a Great Grandma!

My birthday was a few weeks ago and Brian totally shocked me by buying me a baby carriage charm from James Avery for my bracelet. He said it was to remind me to keep faith and that it will happen when it is supposed to happen. Well, my wonderful husband didn't know, but it worked!

To tell my friends at work I pulled them together and showed them my new charm. When they saw the baby carriage they knew! It was so great finally being able to tell some of my closest friends. :)

And finally, last but not least was our little baby, Ava. When we first found out, Ava knew something was up and I turned to her and told her she was going to be a sister. If only she could read. One quote that keeps coming into our head is from the movie, Overboard. This is one of our moms favorite movies. I love the part when the mom tells Goldie Hawn, "But if you have a baby, you won't be the baby anymore!" We changed it a little to be from Ava's perspective. :)

Confession: Because of the excitement, we forgot to take pictures each time, so we had to get together to take the pictures.

How do I feel?

We don't have the pictures yet to share about how we told our family, so that will be a future post. Since finding out I'm pregnant I haven't had too many symptoms thankfully. I have been super tired and nauseous a few times. It is like I can sleep all day. Thank goodness it is Labor Day weekend. Today I am 5 weeks and 6 days. It is exciting reading and finding out what is happening to the baby and to me.

Since I am a first time Mommy there will be so many new things I learn.
Here are the things I learned this week

1. You start counting your pregnancy even before you are actually pregnant. So, while I am almost 6 six weeks pregnant the baby is only 4 weeks old.

2. I shouldn't have lunch meat.

3. I can't take hot baths.

4. The smell of fish makes me instantly nauseous.

Things I am most looking forward to this week:

1. The baby's heartbeat to start beating.

2. The baby to look more like a baby (even if it is kinda alien looking).

3. Gathering the pictures from how we told our family.

4. Beginning to chart the progress of my body changing.

Our Little Secret...

As our close friends and family know, Brian and I have been wanting to start a family. Although we were impatient at times, we knew God would bless us when the time was right. It is always amazing to look back and think, "Wow, I can see why it wasn't right then. Thank you Lord." Luckily, now is the time and we couldn't be happier. Many things good and bad have had to happen for us to get to this point, but we know it is all part of His plan.

Brian and I took a pregnancy test (well you know what I mean, I did the work...lol) on Sunday, August 28th. We walked into the bathroom together and couldn't believe what we saw!

The news took our breaths away and I will never forget that moment. I kept having to repeat it to actually believe it. We are pregnant! We are having a baby! We tried to decide when to share the news with our family, and decided we couldn't wait to share the news. Next blog, how we told everyone!

So much to catch up on...

Well here I am again finally with some time to write. Know why? Because I have finished my Master's! Woo Hoo! <--that doesn't do a good enough job of expressing my happiness!!!

Even though school has started and I am busy again, I will make time to blog.

I changed how the blog looks so I hope everyone likes it. I think it is super cute.

So I still didn't finish talking about our vacation now two summers ago. LOL I'll wrap it up quickly.
After Vegas we went to California. We went to Anaheim, California and went to Disneyland. It was a lot of fun. Not as great as DisneyWorld but still a lot of fun.

After Disneyland we drove to Long Beach but weren't impressed so we went to Santa Monica. We sat on the beach and put our feet in the water, but it was soooo cold! I love that we went here because one of my favorite shows, Private Practice, often shows the boardwalk and view from Santa Monica. After leaving the beach we went to Hollywood and had a horrible experience with a hotel so we upgraded to a much better one. The next day we walked around Hollywood Blvd, ate at Hard Rock Cafe, took a ton of pictures of the stars, and bought a few souvenirs. Then we headed to Beverly Hills to walk around Rodeo Drive and go to this little place called Sprinkles that the waitress at Hard Rock told us about. LOL Little did we know how much we would fall in love with Sprinkles. Oh how things have changed.

Once we had the best cupcakes of our lives, it was time to start the journey home. I-10 all the way home! Brian drove us to Phoenix where we stayed the night. The next day we ate at Heart Attack Grill and then finished our 2nd cupcake from Sprinkles. Then it was back on the road...oh my we felt horrible after eating all that food! We stopped in Fort Stockton the next night and then made the rest of the trip the next day. Brian was fabulous! He drove the entire way. We will never forget this trip.