I know what I'm getting this holiday season... and it's awesome!!

It's been awhile since I have had the energy to update my blog. I have wanted to so many times but just haven't been able to build up the desire to sit and update, but my energy is slowly returning now that school is over and I can't not update anymore. I recently turned 2010 into a blog book and it is AMAZING! It make me want to record everything on my blog because the end product is so worth it, but I digress, back to my update!

This holiday season I know what I am getting, and normally I hate knowing what I am getting but this surprise is a BIG exception!! Wanna know what I am getting? I know you do... It's something that Brandon gets too and he's super pumped about this special gift. Still curious? Well let me share our excitement.

This holiday season we are having a BABY!!

That's right the Bing's are FINALLY having a BABY and we could be more excited. Right now as the app on my iphone is telling me my due date will be December 27 or 28... so who knows maybe we'll have a Christmas baby, but I'm hoping not, I want our baby to have his or her own special day, because everyone deserves a special birthday. No matter when our baby joins us, we don't really care we just want a healthy baby!

I want to share how our journey has been so far.

I decided after days of my girl time not coming, that it was time to take a test, which seemed so strange. I just didn't feel old enough to be taking a pregnancy test. So while Brandon was still sleeping on April 25, Easter Monday, I took the test and it came back with two lines which meant that it was POSITIVE... but I wasn't 100% sure myself because the second line was faint. So me being the Internet lover that I am, went on facebook and tried to find all my friends who had posted their pregnancy tests, and I saw one or two that looked like mine. I also googled it and saw a few more. What I found out in my research is that if there is a second line there no matter how faint, that it is a POSITIVE! I was a little shocked, but not at the same time not at all. I was excited, but still needed to take the second test, just for my own piece of mind.

A little while later I took the second test and again the same thing occurred, which made me even more sure that there was news to tell Brandon. I knew what I wanted to use to tell Brandon but I would have liked to tell him in another way with it. Brandon really wanted to go shopping to get me some new clothes before going to his parents house for Easter dinner. Knowing what I knew, I didn't think buying a bunch of new clothes would be the best idea, so quickly before we were heading out I shared the news with my sweetie.

I had found a book at Chapters one night when I was working called "Because Your Daddy Loves You" which is such a cute story with beautiful illustrations. So I picked it up not knowing I would have a need for it anytime soon, I just wanted to own the book. So as we are getting ready to go, I handed Brandon the book. He looked at it, read the title, and had no clue what I was trying to tell him, gotta love my husband! So I had the pregnancy tests in a zip lock baggie, so I tossed them over to him and he looked at them, but didn't think they were positive, because the line was faint. When I explained to him my research he finally got it, and I think was a little shocked, but excited! He had a hard time not saying anything to his family at Easter dinner.

Brandon and I had decided that we were not going to wait any longer to have a family, if we waited until we had our own classroom's we would be waiting a long time. It's not the way we wanted to live our life, so we decided when it happened, it would happen, and it was the right time. We didn't think it would happen as quickly as it did into the trying process but we were very fortunate, and we are so thankful for this pregnancy.

That night we stopped at the drug store because although I believed the tests I just wanted to try a different brand that basically spelled it out for you. So the next morning as I was getting ready for school, I took my third test, I know paranoid much? It came back saying Pregnant, 3+ which placed me at about 5 weeks pregnant. I left it on the counter and got in the shower. It was on the counter as I was doing my hair and Brandon walked in, picked it up and was SHOCKED! As excited as he was the day before, I don't think he fully believed it, so when he saw the test so clearly saying PREGNANT, it really hit him. It was pretty funny!! I wish I could have made a video of his reaction it was pretty adorable. I took the forth test in May after missing my second period, just to make sure and it still came back pregnant!

We have kept it quiet for longer then some of our family members would like, but I can be a worrier and I really wanted to make it to the second trimester, before we made it a public thing. We slowly started to tell many of the people closest to us, (although I think Brandon told a lot of random people at school, he's excited!) Kathy was the first person I told, it was just after her birthday and I had to tell someone, and she was pretty excited for us, and she did a a fantastic job at keeping the secret which was trying for her because people began to get curious. I want to share about telling people and people finding out, but I think that will be a separate post. For now, let me share about telling our family members.

On Wednesday May 25th we were getting together as a Bing family to celebrate Brittany and Ryan's recent graduations, which is always an exciting time. Nana and Grandpa Wilson were in town for the graduation, so it was a perfect time to share our news. I made some cute, but simple little baby cards that shared our news to the grandparents and aunts and uncles. We went to Cafe Chianti which was DELICIOUS, the bruschetta there is super YUMMY! So as we are visiting and waiting to eat, I had Brandon hand out our little cards and we waited for the news to spread along the table which didn't take long! Brandon's mom Laureen was the first to make it to me with tears in her eyes, which made me tear up too, and she gave me a BIG hug, and there were many more to follow along! It was such an exciting moment and I am so glad almost everyone (except Jason & Alexis, we missed them at night) was there to celebrate with us. I was able to share our due date and how everything had been going. There had been some suspicion, from Meaghan catching Brandon's little random comments to me, that he didn't think anyone else had noticed, and Sarah just noticing my growing little belly. I was so thankful that Brandon's grandparents were there too, they live in Ontario so their time in NS is always a special time. It was a fantastic night!

My family found on the following Monday May 30th, the day of Laura's graduation, and Georgia's 4th birthday. I should say that Laura ended up finding out the Friday before that. Let's share that story first. So while my family in Disney, I had a Dr appointment to confirm the pregnancy, and Laura took me since I was taking her out to eat to celebrate her graduation. While I was at the Dr I had to get a cup to pee in, and then drop it off at the lab for confirmation. I didn't want to take my pee on the bus so I asked Laura to take me down, which she agreed to do, with Jeremy too since he was in town for her graduation. She was wondering why I needed to do this but I was able to play it off, and keep her from guessing too much. I was impressed with myself at this point. Friday morning though as I was getting ready for school, I threw up, yup it was a blast! Whenever I have been sick it's like 10 minutes before I have to catch the bus to school. So I called my parents house for help because I wasn't going to make the bus. No one answered the first time, and finally Jeremy answered on the second call and he got Laura for me. I explained to her that I'd been sick, but was fine now, and needed a ride to school. She was concerned with me going to school, but I reassured her I was fine, that's when she asked if I was pregnant. There was no more fibbing to her, so I said yes, but that this wasn't the way I wanted her to find out. She was MAD I didn't tell her sooner, but her excitement for me made her get past the anger very quickly!

So the rest of the fam found out a few days later. Mom was already suspicious that something was going on since Laura told her I had to pee in a cup (thanks sis) but she hadn't quite figured it all out yet. So we attended Laura's graduation which was really nice we were all so proud of her! After mom took us out for dinner to celebrate before the dual birthday parties, which I thought might be the first giveaway of the night, since we went for Greek food and I had to pass on the feta on my salad, which I missed SOOOOO much, I love feta. The secret was safe though. So we made it to the dual birthday party, we were celebrating Georgia's 4th birthday and Jessica's 10th birthday. I had run it by Kathy that my announcement would come at the party since the whole fam would be there, although as it turned out dad was at soccer so I shared a video with him later on that evening. So what Brandon and I decided was to have it written in Jessica's birthday card. So the time came to open her gift and I asked her to read the card out loud and the kid didn't want to, ahhh!! Don't ruin the plan! With some talking from me and her mother she read the card out, but mumbled the end, so we had her repeat it. It said Love Uncle Brandon, Auntie Karen and Baby Bing (coming Decemeber 2011) and we waited for the news to hit the room. I was sitting next to mom and she was pretty pumped about it!! Everyone was so excited and happy for us. It was a really joyous moment for Brandon and I. It's fantastic to have our family finally knowing our news. I loved the idea of having Jessica share our news, she was my first niece and we've always had a special relationship, so who better to share our news.

Here is the video that we took as Jessica read her card...

So I am now almost 15 weeks which is pretty exciting. The second trimester has started and I am slowly getting my energy back which is nice. I hate not having the energy to do things. I have been exhausted in the first trimester, hence all the naps I may have mentioned on facebook. Working the two jobs has added to the exhaustion, but I survived. I haven't had too much morning sickness, I have felt rotten some days but have only been physically sick 5 times, which I think in three months is pretty good. I usually could figure out what triggered the sickness, one day I tempted fate and put butter on my toast and it came back up FAST. Luckily I could always tell when I was going to be sick and once I was I was good to go the rest of the day. So I feel very lucky about that, and am hoping the throwing up has come to an end. I'm not risking it yet though, I have cold water and soda crackers for breakfast along with my prenatal vitamin, once I am at school I usually have another morning snack and feel fine. My skin has been HORRIBLE this first trimester an I am hoping it clears up soon, luckily I can edit it out of pictures!! I don't have one of the first bump pictures because Laura took it but here are a few so far, I am all for documenting everything, so not a whole lot of change in the pictures but I love having them.

Just over 11 weeks

13 weeks

14 weeks (Tuesdays are my new week points)

This is me today, July 1st, Canada day. I was pumped that my Canada day t-shirt still fit me.

Yesterday Brandon and I met with the Dr, that will be ours for our pregnancy, she delivered Cooper and came reccommend by Kathy. I was pumped to get in with her and even more pumped to meet her this week. I know I'm going to get used to one peeing in a cup and two peeing in a more public restroom- two things I struggle with. I'm going for my blood work this week, and we go see her again on August 3rd. Brandon was able to come in the room and hear our baby's heartbeat which was pretty darn exciting. It's such a stressful and exciting moment, you lay there while she feels around with the little machine, and you wonder okay find it already, and then it comes on the machine and you can sigh with relief. The baby's heartbeat was fast and sound strong, Brandon was really amazed by it. He said the baby must be running a race in there, It was a cool moment for us. Always a great feeling to know that hey someone really is in there and I'm not getting fat!

This is a BIG post but I just had so much I wanted to record in this moment of announcement of this exciting time for our family. We look forward to recording all our pregnancy memories so that it can be recorded it our blog book. I am just so EXCITED!!!