Announcing...Little Baby Parker!!

Six and half years of marriage, one apartment, a cat, one house and a dog later Dave and I are about to embark on a new chapter of our lives together: AS PARENTS!!!

Yes, we are expecting our first child this coming April! I can hardly believe that I'm even writing this down! Having kept this a secret for most of the first trimester, I can't tell you how amazing it feels to be able to share our news with the rest of the world beyond just our family and several close friends. We had our 13 week appointment Tuesday and after hearing our baby's heartbeat for the second time, I cried happy, relieved, tears delighted to know our little one was happy bouncing all around inside of me. (A concept that still continues to blow my mind!) This gave us the confidence to share this incredibly personal but exciting moment with the rest of you!

We've been asked, how did we know that this was the time? And I don't really have an answer for this other than it just was. Dave and I have completely enjoyed these last six, almost seven, years together. We've traveled, we've bought a house, adopted a cat and a dog. We've learned to live with one another, we've learned to disagree, to communicate, to love unconditionally, to have fun together. And now, well now, we're ready to take on a new role in life and experience a new adventure together.

Pregnancy so far has been completely different than what I had expected. Every pregnancy is different and I had heard some pretty horrifying stories from women in their first trimester. To be honest, I was stressed for this fall wedding season envisioning the worst. And while I was completely exhausted and most certainly nauseous for those first three months of pregnancy, I made it through. (MANY thanks to my amazing clients and amazingly supportive second shooters who made this fall a WONDERFUL experience!)

So here we are in the second trimester! It felt like this day was SO far off and couldn't get here soon enough. And yet when I look back on the last three months, the time has FLOWN by. I'm left wondering if this is what it will be like come April!

Next month we'll be able to find out the sex of our baby (yes we want to know) and of course I'll be sharing the bigger pregnancy news with you here! But certainly don't expect this to become a mommy blog! If you'd like to follow our journey to parenthood in a more personal way, please feel free to check out the VERY personal blog I started back in August. Check out The Parkers Made A Baby here.

At times I can't honestly believe that this is my life! Am I truly pregnant? I mean I have an ultrasound to prove it and heard the baby bouncing around via a doppler, but really this can't be ME!! It truly has been a completely surreal experience but I'm incredibly thankful (INCREDIBLY THANKFUL) to be given this experience and responsibility. Even if it means I can't enjoy a glorious cup of joe for the next nine, now six months. ;)

Friend and fellow photographer, Kendra, took some time yesterday to grab a few photos of Dave, myself and as my Dad calls the baby "the player to be named later". I'm so thankful for these images with the hubster, especially while I still have a waistline!

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A huge thank you to all the people who have wished us well so far. We are incredibly excited to share our journey with you! Here's to a happy, healthy (and hopefully) cute ginger baby come April!