This baby.

Whoa. This baby has already changed my life.

I'm now in my 10th week of pregnancy! I cannot believe I'm hurtling toward the second trimester. This body is already being stretched. That's why I was scared to read on BabyCenter the other day that "he or she is poised for rapid weight gain." Gulp. Guess that means I am, too!!

I'm amazed to think that our baby has every major organ in place at this point. Makes abortion even more unthinkable — especially when we were able to hear our baby's heartbeat at 8 weeks!

I have dreamed of this experience my entire life. I used to tell everyone that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I wasn't prepared for what this would actually be like — how my body would actually feel. I haven't actually puked (yet), but my life is admittedly pretty miserable on the nausea front most days (Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs pretty much sums it up perfectly!). It's hard to wake up. It's hard to get up. It's hard to eat, but I have to do it all day every day. I don't like the smell or taste of anything I liked before. Everything is highly offensive — including the honeysuckles growing by my car! Sometimes, oatmeal tastes like green beans. Sometimes my spit tastes like copper pennies. My house smells like death and vomit and dirt. I'm really very pleasant to be around.

My birthday is May 12 and I'm celebrating with a beach vacation. The next day is Mother's Day; that will definitely be special for me this year. Please, Loving & Merciful God of all the universe, let me be over this sickness by then.

The last time I was distracted from my nausea was when I was hearing the heartbeat of my baby for the first time and seeing him/her on the ultrasound. If only I could be reminded of why I'm suffering through this at least once a day :-) Anyone got an ultrasound machine??

Here was my fave picture of Nugget (and to think how much he/she has changed since this photo was snapped!):

Winner, Winner...

Thank you to everyone who participated in my inaugural giveaway. Isn't Lezlee impressive?? I happen to think so!

Without further adieu, the winner of the LE prize pack (picked by an online randomizer) is.....

ANNIE BRACKETT!

Congratulations, Annie. I will be contacting you through FB to get your address!

Giveaway!

You all remember the post I wrote a while back telling you about my amazing friend, Lezlee Elliott.

Since then, Lezlee's been creating more fab products on her Etsy store. She's got something in Trader Joe's and I've even spotted an LE design in Kroger! And now a few big companies (secret!) are courting her.

Despite her fame, she's agreed to a giveaway on my blog! Yipee for you! I'll keep this short and sweet since I'm likely dry heaving:

The Bounty:

This one's for the gals (or for a man who wants to spoil his gal!). Lezlee has agreed to pamper one of my blog readers with some lovely products featuring her work, including one of her custom Blossom Toss Up jotters for taking notes on the go, two Not Soap, Radio chap slicks (chocolate hazelnut capo-ccino and milk chocolate orange truffle), an one Not Soap, Radio "I'm not here, I'm really...on holiday in Tuscany" solid parfum, and one of her "Fabulous" Trader Joe's birthday cards. Think of this as an emergency kit for any woman!

The Rules to Enter:

All we're asking you to do to enter is log onto FB and "like" Lezlee's page. If you have already done so, leave a comment on this post (FB is fine, too) telling me you've liked her page. If you want a second entry, leave a comment on my blog telling me what your fave LE product is. I'm going to be generous and give you through the weekend. You have until Monday at 5 p.m. to complete your assignment and be entered to win this lovely, decadent prize. I will announce the winner on my blog, FB and Twitter on Monday evening.

Good luck, ladies!

The Big Reveal

Now that you all know our secret, I guess I can fill you in on more of the details of what's taken place over the past few weeks!

A lot has been happening since we found out about Nugget. The story of how I found out is pretty entertaining, but I will not be sharing that here! I will say that I found out on a Friday afternoon while working from home and decided I was too impatient to wait for Jonathan to return home from work. Instead, I went to McDonalds and picked up a 4-piece count of chicken nuggets and dropped them off at the newspaper, thinking that since we'd joked about wanting a "lil nugget" he would pick up on my hint. This, for some reason, didn't clue my sweet husband into what I was trying to tell him. So, I added, "And I will be giving you another nugget later..." It definitely sunk in then and we shared a sweet moment.

We were fortunate enough that my parents were taking a day-trip to visit us the following day, so we decided to invite Jonathan's parents over to have lunch, too, so we could tell everyone at once. We bought a couple of children's books and presented it to our parents at the dinner table. I have a brief video clip of that moment, but I can't get it to load :-(

Here's a picture of the proud grandmothers with their books:

After lunch we visited Jonathan's Nonna to share the news with her. We snapped a few pictures to commemorate the occasion:

(The boy looks terrified!)

This has been a lot of fun so far (minus the nausea!) We've enjoyed savoring the news as a family, but I'm also thrilled that the word is out and we can openly celebrate our blessing.

Big News....

I'll let our message board tell you:

We wanted to wait longer, but we're bursting at the seams to share our news: WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm already getting prepared:

We couldn't be more excited. Our first doctor's appointment was on Monday. I'm 7 weeks pregnant, and this little one has a due date of November 20, 2012 — as in 2 days before Thanksgiving. Talk about something to be thankful for! We also found out Monday that we get to see our baby on the big screen for the first time next Friday!!!!!!

Things are definitely changing around the Melville home (hence all of the sudden nesting). Thanks to those who have already been celebrating with us and praying for us! We love you all.

You can expect this blog to get really interesting in the coming months!!!!!

Love,

Jonathan, Liz & Nugget

Quick Project Update

We had a productive weekend, though I'm just getting around to sharing on my blog.

We (correction: my father-in-law, Rick) installed a ceiling fan on the back porch. It was my early birthday present! Yay, me!

The menfolk continued putting up screens. It's apparently very time-consuming work!

Once the screens are up, it will be time to install new carpet and then we can purchase the outdoor patio furniture we've picked out and we will have usable space in the summer when the mosquitos make our back yard unbearable. I'm so grateful for all the help we've had—Jonathan's dad and our good friend Keith Kotrla! THANK YOU GUYS!!!

Speaking of Keith...he even borrowed equipment from Yamaha to fill my raised bed with dirt! Jonathan and I hadn't exactly planned out how we were going to do that without killing ourselves. Keith really came to the rescue.

This weekend I retrieved some herbs from Nonna's yard (with Rita's help!) to plant in my own raised bed! I've planted marjoram, parsley, arugula and mint.

I hope to plant some veggies before Easter!

On another note, I'm finally going to follow through with the giveaway I teased you all with before. It will likely be in the coming days. Also, you're going to want to read tomorrow's blog. There will be big news!