Fertile Mertle and Sure-shot Scott

For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a mother.
I've wanted to be a confidante, disciplinarian, homework helper, advice giver and forever friend to someone who shared my blood and my traits (for good or for bad).

When I met Scott in 2006, he was everything I had never even considered to be vital for a life partner. Except for one minor thing.

He didn't want children.

He had been in a pretty serious, life-altering experience with a woman who had a child prior to meeting me and it had shaken him up so badly that he just wasn't sure raising a family was something he wanted to do.

I almost broke up with him.
But I stuck with him... why, I don't know. :-)

Luckily, he changed his mind.

As we planned our marriage last year, we knew we wanted to start trying for a family right away. We were never going to be rich, we had a great home that we had fixed up for a year and a half, and we were young and probably as patient as we'd ever be.

With some of my past health issues, we thought it would take us a while to conceive. We also had some pretty serious talks about not ever being able to have our own child.

You can just call me Fertile Mertle.
In our second month of trying, we created Little Baby Z, a beautiful or handsome daughter or son who is due Aug. 13.

Today marks Week 12. We are one week away from entering our second trimester and being able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.

It's been an interesting road already since we found out about Little Baby Z. through a pregnancy test on a Sunday morning nearly two months ago that was accompanied by a lot of excited shrieking and staring in disbelief at the little white wand.

Miracles happen. We have never known such joy or faced such fear as we already have these past eight weeks. More of both is certain to follow, but we know that we are strong, loving parents-to-be.

We welcome you on this adventure.
It will be full of true-life tales of hormones, bloating, round-the-clock eating, round-the-clock peeing and all sorts of other lovely details not for the weak of heart.
This is meant to chronicle some of the more day-to-day activities and events in our pregnancy, and as a supplement to a written journal with important and more significant reflections we're keeping for Baby Z. to read when he or she is all grown up.


***Special thanks to Ms. AG who gave me the courage (and several reminders) to do this. She even came up with the BabyZ2b idea!***