My Pregnancy...

Once a year my husband and his friend go to Maine for a "man/survival" trip.  If you ask me, it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of.  They typically go the beginning of November for two weeks.  Now, if the light bulb hasn't gone off yet, let me put this into perspective for you.  They travel close to East Millinocket which the average high for this time of year is 43 degrees, the average low is 27 degrees.  However, it has been known to get down to 8 degrees.  None the less, they still go, tents and sleeping bags to camp.  Every year they have gone, it has snowed and every year they come back earlier then planned reeking of camp fire and dirty as a pig rolling in mud.  They claim they go to do man surviving, like you see on TV however, they make a pit stop and buy all sorts of grocery's and boil lobster and clams.  When I think of someone doing a "survival trip" I think of you hunting your food and if you don't catch anything, you starve so grocery food doesn't exactly sound like "surviving" to me.  However, I guess in that kind of weather there is a slight bit of "surviving" going on, or perhaps it's a slight bit of insanity.  They drive on back roads that don't have names, aren't paved and it could be months before someone comes down them.  However, they enjoy it and always have interesting stories to tell when they return so, what the heck let boys be boys as long as strippers and women aren't involved...I'm okay with it.  (hehe)  Well, it was that time of year and he was preparing his bags for weeks with wool sweaters and skull caps.  My sister was preparing to drive to New Jersey for our brother's annual Halloween Party so, instead of staying home, I decided to go with my sister for a long weekend.   

PICTURES TAKEN ON CAMPING TRIP TO MAINE

Farrell (my husband) and I wanted to start trying to get pregnant once we got married.  I had something telling me I needed to take a pregnancy test the day of the party to make sure I'm not pregnant before I drank.  I wasn't late yet so I knew if it said I wasn't, it may not be correct.  Therefore, that morning, I woke up at Aunt Pat's, grabbed the test and went to the bathroom.  It didn't even take the full time to show up...it was positive!  I'm not exactly sure how long I stood there and looked at it, I couldn't believe it actually happened so quick!  I rushed back to the bedroom, woke up my sister and made her look at it to make sure I wasn't seeing things wrong.  She confirmed that, in fact, I was pregnant.  This wasn't exactly the way I wanted to tell my husband, over the phone.  I always wanted to do something really cute, to tell him.  However, I wasn't going to see him for 2 weeks!  I couldn't keep it from him for that long...I would burst!  Therefore, I texted him and told him that he needed to call me as soon as he could.  He called me immediately.  He was in the process of packing the truck to leave.  When I told him he first asked if I was kidding and when I said no, he was so excited, I had never heard him so excited!  My husband has two personalities; easy going/monotone and mad!  (HAHA)  He never gets excited about anything so to hear him so excited was something very foreign for me but it made me that much happier. I really wish I was able to see his reaction.  We decided at this time  that we wanted to keep it quiet until after the first trimester.  I have seen my sister and sister-in-law go through miscarriages and I saw how hard it was for them to deal with it much less tell everyone about it too.  I really didn't want to go through that in the event something did happen.  Although, it was very obvious to those in New Jersey as I was for the first time, a wall flower sipping water and day dreaming rather then dancing.

Once I returned home it wasn't long until I started having pregnancy symptoms.  I got morning sickness!  The name of it is so misleading because my "morning sickness" was morning, afternoon and night sickness.  I decided it should be called "awake sickness" instead because the only time I wasn't sick was when I was sleeping.  Something I was never told, not only do you get sick, your nauseous all the rest of the time and get bad stomach cramps.  Some days it was so bad that I couldn't move, if I did, I would get sick.  Luckily I was given medicine that could help me however it would knock me out.  I tried eating, people told me it could be because my stomach is empty, however eating constantly did nothing but make me gain weight rapidly!  Once I got through the first trimester the "awake sickness" went away and I finally felt comfortable to tell everyone our news!  

I wanted to do everything right.  I wanted to be the "perfect mom".  I wanted my son to grow up and see how much I love him without me even having to say it (even though I will...all the time).  I wanted him to grow up in a very positive environment with no arguing.  I made my husband attend birthing classes with me and CPR.  I'm very happy that I attended the birthing class...however I have already forgotten what to do as for CPR.  (Maybe I should do a reading refresher course).  I made sure I didn't eat the things people say you shouldn't eat, I made sure to stop the caffeine (although, the closer to the end of my pregnancy when I was really dragging, I had a cup of coffee each morning), I would walk away from all people smoking and I made sure not to lift heavy objects.  I wanted to do anything and everything to make sure my child was healthy.  If anything did turn out abnormal, I would know it was because God wanted it that way, not because I did something wrong.

I was always expecting the queen treatment from my husband...you know the kind of treatment you see in the movies.  The man comes home with ice cream and flowers every week without being asked, massages your feet that throb from carrying two people around all day, rubs your belly and talks to the baby.  I got no special treatment at all!  I still had the same house duties, still had to watch the things my husband wanted to watch, still got treated the same way and I think my belly weirded my husband out.  Bah humbug!  However, towards the end when I was very uncomfortable my husband did have someone come clean the house for me and even started making dinner once he returned home from work.  By the end of my pregnancy just getting out of bed and walking around was tiring.  All I've got to say is that I am going to sew every producer who ever put a movie out showing how wonderful husbands are during pregnancy's, because it's not true...at least not in my case.  ;)

I had always said I wanted a boy!  Boys always seem to have a special bond with there Mom's and I wanted that with my child.  I know no matter what my brother ever did he was perfect, even if my sister and I did the same thing...it was always better when my brother did it!  (HA)  When I got pregnant, I immediately started saying it was a boy.  I'm not sure if I actually knew it some how (mother's intuition) or if maybe I wished so hard that it made him into a boy, or maybe it was those boy shirts that my husband made me keep under my pillow for good luck but when we found out IT'S A BOY, we were thrilled.  Farrell had the son he always wanted, a child he could make into a sports star!

I have always thought that pregnant women were so adorable. They had a beautiful glow and it was so cute the way they waddled. I thought I would love being pregnant like so many people do. However, I HATED it. Every second of it! I hated how I had to go to the bathroom 50 times a day, I hated how bad my knees hurt, I hated how my back hurt, I hated how my stomach, sides, arms, legs were now filled with stretch marks, I hated that I could barely fit into my husbands clothes much less mine by the end of my pregnancy. I thought it was weird that something was growing, in me. As much as him moving gave me comfort that he was okay, it also weirded me out! I didn't think I was cute at all, and I certainly didn't think my waddle was either. As much as I would deny it, looking back, I was deffidently over sensitive and super hormonal. I would freak out over the smallest things however, I didn't use it as an excuse because I would always insist it was you not me. (Gawh, what's your problem? hehe)

Okay, Okay....I must admit, there were a few things I did actually enjoy while I was pregnant.  I really enjoyed picking out things to create, what I thought to be, a warm and cozy atmosphere for my baby boys room!  It was fun looking at all of the cute little baby things.  I liked browsing through stores and looking at all the teeny tiny little baby clothes, blankets and toys.  I could spend hours in Toys R Us just looking, even if I left not buying a thing.  I was very surprised when, my husband who hates to shop, also enjoyed partaking in this new browsing activity of ours.  Not to mention, my all time favorite thing about being pregnant was the bond that you start with this child that your carrying and it is indescribable but it's noticeably their.  It's amazing how much you can love something you've never seen or held!

Durring my pregnancy I had so much support.  People came out from every direction to offer there help for when he arrived.  I had people checking up on me all the time.  I really felt loved by so many people.  Tons of people showered us with gifts and went out of there way on so many occasions to do things for me.  I never in a million years would of expected that!  My sister and my best friend (with the help of my sisters Dad) threw a baby shower for me in May because I was so sure that I was going to have this baby early!  I loved seeing my friends and had a fabulous time.

All of my appointments went very well. We only had one scare when the doctor couldn't find the heart beat at one of the appointments. However, we were squeezed into the ultrasound room and found out, that our little stinker was hiding and was perfectly fine. I thought, after I had called what sex of the baby was, that I was a baby psychic or something so I was determined he was going to come in June and not July 7th, my due date. Come June, I found out I was 2 cm diolated. I figured I was right, he WAS actually going to come early.

At this point, Farrell and I decided we needed to get serious about naming "Baby Mullins".  I was starting to believe that we were going to be in the hospital arguing about what to name him or even worse, leave without the baby having a name!  One thing that my husband and I really bump heads on is he is a procrastinator which is the worst nightmare for a major planner...like me!  Therefore, I was REALLY begining to worry.  He wanted to name the baby Godric X Mullins (no, I'm not lieing...he was serious!), I wanted to name him Mason Farrell Mullins.  Neither one of us agreed with the other.  We finally came up with a list of names we agreed on; Payton, Keegan, Brendan (other spellings were Brenden and Brendon), Brennon, Collin, Cullen.  However, none of them seemed right.  I told my husband I really wanted to pass his middle name on to our child.  It had been in his family for several generations and it was very unique and I liked it so he agreed!  Then he decided that he wanted to have his son to have the same initals as him D.F.M. and since we were both Irish, we wanted a strong Irish name.  The last week of June, I started having contractions and just in the nick of time because we picked a name.  However, we decided not to tell anyone the name until after he arrived.  Everyone seemed to have some sort of input about every name.  Either they knew someone they didn't like with the name or they thought another name was better or they knew too many people with that name or they just flat out didn't like it.  If it was already his name, what could anyone say about it at that point?  After a day of contractions, we headed to the doctor.  She checked and said I was 3 cm and she felt his head, she would be surprised if he wasn't here that night.  My sister was instructed to stay close by the phone and my cousin even prepared to come down from New Jersey so she too could be here when the baby arrived...