Jen's been hiding a BIG secret...

Actually, it's still rather small in size. Not quite two inches, I do believe!

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been waiting for this for a long time...all my 30 years, to be exact. ;) We had a lull in blogging a while back when I found out; it was just impossible to think of anything else! Then the nausea and exhaustion REALLY set in, and I mean big time. I'm about 11 weeks now, so the nausea at least seems to be more off-and-on now rather than 24-7 like it was, and I'm fervently praying it continues easing up. My husband and I had our first appointment with the midwife last week, where we got to listen for the heartbeat. He was pretty sure he heard it, and the midwife definitely did, but I couldn't hear anything over my own booming one. lol Oh, God, I just had a weird realization that I'm going to be a mom and just said "lol." Is that okay anymore?!! heehee And in a little over a week, we'll get our first ultrasound! We found out the news on February 18th, and now scrolling back through older blog entries, it's so surreal knowing I wrote them when I was pregnant and didn't even know it!

Because I've always wanted to be a mom so bad and have always thought there is no more beautiful and radiant woman than a pregnant one, I always assumed pregnancy would be blissful. I had this idealized vision of loving my ever-expanding body while I happily awaited my bundle of joy, totally care-free. I was going to sail through pregnancy with a constant glow and never feel big, only pregnant. What a dolt I was! ;) 

As excited as I am between bouts of puking, pregnancy has brought about a lot of unexpected things for me. I never in a million years expected to have any sort of body image issues when I was pregnant, but I've struggled with some (and may yet as my hormones keep surging).

  

Our friend Melanee over at Looking in the Mirror (a truly fantastic blog about her journey towards self-acceptance) asked if we could swap guest posts. Of course, I jumped at the chance! I've been wanting to blog about the pregnancy/body image thing once I announced it to y'all, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

So after you've left me tons of excited, congratulatory comments underneath this post (was that a shameless request or what), please head on over to Looking in the Mirror to check out my guest post about learning to deal with my pregnancy-induced body image issues (the italicized part above is an excerpt). I think you might just relate to it whether you're preggers or not.

And be sure to check back tomorrow for Melanee's guest post here at TCN!

Oh, and did I mention that...

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!