Welcome to Baby "JoJo's" blog

Dear Friends and Family,

26 weeks

I've been inspired by some of my friend's recent blogs and decided this would be a fun way to share stories of my pregnancy and soon-to-be Baby Calkins! Since I am starting this blog 33 weeks in to my pregnancy, I must back up a bit and bring you all up to speed. Mark and I learned we were expecting on April 8th, the night I returned from a business trip to San Jose. I'd been feeling a bit funny for the past few weeks, but I didn't think much of it. We'd been on the go so much that I hadn't taken the time to think about some of the strange symptoms I was experiencing. It was on the plane ride back from San Jose that I suddenly had a strong feeling I might be pregnant, although I still didn't believe it. I came home that night and took a pregnancy test which revealed a positive sign immediately and clear as day. Mark walked in to the bathroom right as this was happening, and saw the serious shock on my face (and you can imagine his shock when he saw me holding the pregnancy test!). We went from disbelief to laughter to tears of joy in a matter of seconds. It was a very special moment to say the least! We could hardly stand the weeks we had to wait before announcing to our friends. We did tell our immediate family right away. This is the first grandchild on both sides of the family, so there's certainly been a lot of hype and excitement in our family!

Perhaps an even bigger surprise came during our first ultrasound at 7 weeks. We saw the heartbeat right away which was an amazing experience but then Mark asked the tech, "What's that other flutter in the corner?" She replied, "That's what I'm trying to figure out. I don't want to scare you but it appears it might be another heartbeat." Simply stated, we were in utter disbelief. Twins?!! How could that be possible? The tech studied the screen and took various measurements and finally told us it was simply too early to tell. In addition to the extra "flutter" the embryo was measuring different sizes, which she said could mean she was measuring two different embryos. She couldn't be certain. Two signs pointing to twins. She sent us home and said we'd have to come back in three weeks. As you know, neither Mark nor I are patient people so I made persistent and pleading calls until they agreed to see us two weeks later instead of three. Even so, it was the longest two weeks of our lives. We returned two weeks later and obviously learned there was just one baby in my tummy. The tech said it must have been a strange membrane flutter but something she'd never seen before. We would've been excited either way, but I certainly didn't feel prepared to raise twins. I was still getting over the shock that we were expecting one!

9 weeks - just one Baby Calkins!

This pregnancy has flown by as the year has been filled with fun weekends, vacations and lots of work trips. We did some vacationing in Palm Springs, Las Vegas, Cabo with Nikki and Michael, McCall (where we revealed we were expecting to my mom's family), Canon Beach, St. Louis, and most recently our "Babymoon" in San Diego (last getaway just the two of us before we become a family!). I made work trips to San Jose, Boston, New Jersey, New York, Detroit, Minneapolis, Pennsylvania, Kalamazoo, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. This baby is quite well traveled already!

Baby JoJo 20 weeks

Prego Mamma at 20 weeks

As most of you know, we do not know the sex of the baby and are waiting to be surprised upon delivery. For this reason, we determined the need for a nickname. This nickname came about once we determined the theme of our nursery which is sock monkeys. My Nana used to make sock monkeys, so many of our family members grew up with these monkeys which we referred to as "JoJos". And that is how Baby JoJo came to be. These "JoJo" monkeys are all different colors and patterns and hang from a little white tree in the corner of our nursery. The nursery is almost complete with the exception of the crib and some wall decor.

"JoJo" monkeys

The first trimester I was tired and had some nausea here and there, but overall this pregnancy has been a dream and I feel very fortunate that's been the case. I am starting to get uncomfortable at night, and experiencing some carpel tunnel, restless legs and stuffiness, but other than that I feel pretty good. Mark rubs my feet and back frequently and is such a huge help with everything, which is probably a lot of the reason why this has been a relatively easy pregnancy. JoJo is VERY active - squirms, kicks, rolls and hiccups all the time. Feeling the baby move is my favorite thing about pregnancy. I can't get enough of it and neither can Mark. We can hardly wait until this bundle of joy arrives - 49 days now until the due date (December 15th)! We're not sure how our yellow lab Kona will handle it as she's been the center of our attention and focus in this house for the last year and a half, but we're certain she will grow to love him/her. She will certainly be loving and gentle, as that is just her nature.

I will continue to post as the pregnancy progresses, particularly as it gets closer to time and of course once JoJo arrives! We feel so blessed and lucky to have a little one on the way - it truly is an unbelievable miracle!! Thanks to all of you for your continued support. This wouldn't be half as fun if we couldn't share our excitement with friends and family! So, what do you all think, BOY or GIRL???


26 weeks



  





St. Louis - 28 weeks