Expecting our 1st baby!

2010: Upon returning home from a relaxing Christmas holiday in Creston, I had a sneaking suspicion that there was more to know behind my heartburn and complete exhaustion.  After taking 3, yes 3, digital pregnancy tests (holy shnikey those things are expensive) we were elated to know that we were expecting our first child.  Barry held me in his warm embrace while we cried together, panicked slightly  and finally jumped for joy at the news.  It's pretty crazy how one tiny little stick can evoke such intense emotions!  We waited until 5 weeks and finally told our family....true Barry and Jodi style by making t-shirts that said "Bun in the oven" and "The Baker"!  Our entire family was thrilled to say the least and so our journey began.
We decided not to tell anyone else until we had passed the "safe zone" of 3 months (as if that even exists).  During those first 3 months I was met with nausea, exhaustion, and heartburn, which I've come to affectionately refer to as volcano chest :(  The nausea intensified resulting in needing diclectin to get me through the minutes.  note: at this time I was substitute teaching all over Calgary so vomiting in classroom garbages and school aged washrooms was nothing short of awful!
The remaining 6 months of my pregnancy where pretty easy.  I struggles with weight gain...47 lbs to be exact! As my entire body changed for this beautiful miracle, I couldn't help but feel ashamed and ugly. I have heard about women who feel radiant and beautiful when they are pregnant...I wanted to punch them!  To be honest, I didn't really enjoy being pregnant but I saw it as a necessary element of this process.
On August 25th, upon finishing a workout at the pool (hhmm, workout...perhaps I am using this term loosly, it was more like an hour of floating), regardless, I met my grandma for lunch.  I remember my tummy feeling pretty tight at lunch but that was pretty much the norm 11 days away from due date and 47 extra pounds in stow.  As I stood up from the table a lunch the gush happened...yup, a gush, just like you hear about in the movies.  I looked at my grandma and said "something happened"...now, I wasn't certain what was going on...in fact, I thought I might have peed myself.  Laugh now, but wait until you have a baby constantly kicking your bladder.  Sure enough, my water had broke, and broke, and broke and broke.  As I squeaked out of the restaurant in my now drenched flip flops, I thought to myself "holy crapy I'm having a baby".
For hours nothing progressed and on August 26th at 11:45am I was induced at the High River Hospital (which was a totally amazing experience and I recommend delivering there if you can).  At 5:14pm, after intense labour (with no drugs, might I add), our beautiful Marleigh Jade Smith entered the world.