About nine months into the story (part one)

It was right around the day of our second anniversary when we finally got the positive test result telling us we were going to have a baby. Annie and I had been trying for over a year to conceive.

The news was more than welcome, and news from other family members (my sister Sarah and Weston's wife, Erin) and friends (Jordon and Kyle) that they were with little ones came right before and after the news that we were pregnant as well.

Things went quite smoothly at first, Annie became very excited and quickly had calculated online that the due date for our little one would be November 18, the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

Annie went in for her first doctor's appointment during her 14th week of the pregnancy and everything went smoothly.

A few weeks after we felt the baby move for the first time. It felt like popcorn popping in Annie's belly. This was the first, but definitely not the last time the baby would make it's presence felt. Around this same time, at another doctor appointment (the first appointment I went to with Annie), we heard the baby's heartbeat. It was an intense, exhilarating experience.


Between weeks 19 and 20 (just before Independence Day) we went in for the ultrasound to see how the baby was developing, and most importantly, to determine whether we would be having a boy or a girl. Either way Annie had already caught the shopping bug and had purchased a few articles of clothing for either sex (I was myself pretty excited, I'll admit).

At this point I was almost convinced we would be having a boy, Annie's mom, of course, knew that the other must be true - she had some intuitive feeling that her little girl was having a little girl. And, as was to be expected, mother knew best. The growing fetus in Annie's belly had already developed and blossomed into a little baby girl.

Once we knew we were having a girl, we went straight out to pick out cute little outfits and things for our baby-to-be. I had already picked out a pair of little checkered Vans slip-on shoes and we quickly found a number of onesies and other things for her to wear within the first year of her life. The baby's closet began to fill up fast and Annie also quickly began making plans for a nursery.

to be continued...