Ready, Set... Wait.

It was sort of a surprise and also not a surprise when my due date of November 11th passed by without the little one making his grand entrance. I hadn't realized just how much I had my heart set on that date until it came and went with no little babe.

I had a check-up appointment on my due date and in addition to wishing the baby was here, I'd also been hoping to miss this appointment because I really didn't want to be weighed again haha. While I was there my doctor set up an induction for the following week that I was sure I wouldn't need. He was coming soon, I remember thinking. He just needed a little bit more time.

I joked with Joe that I should have known our little guy would keep us waiting just like his good ol' dad did when we were engaged (we waited for Joe's visa for almost a year FYI, so waiting an extra week for Wells should have been nothing ;) haha).

The next day was Saturday and Joe's friend from Fiji was in town for a work training. We took her out to lunch downtown and walked everywhere. Throughout the day as we walked around, his friend was so nice and kept asking if I was okay.

Each time I waved away her concerns, letting her know I was doing great. To be quite honest, my feet hurt and I was really tired. The main reason I was so chipper during the whole thing was because I had secretly hoped all the walking would make me go into labor. It didn't, but at least I was a great walking tour hostess! (Note: I refused to get my picture taken so here is Joe with his friend Pritika)

Days went by, I officially started maternity leave, and I made a few finishing touches to the nursery. Everything seemed like it was ready—except for the baby who'd decided to set up camp in my uterus.

The day of my induction loomed, I'd really wanted to avoid being induced because I'd heard they often resulted in long, hard labors. I managed to stay hopeful that I'd go into labor naturally until the very last day. When I woke up that morning, I remember sighing and muttering to myself, unhappy that I'd slept through the night without contractions or my water breaking (I know, I should have been grateful for the uninterrupted nights sleep when I had it).

Dreams of a Hormonal Pregnant Woman

After finding out we were pregnant, we couldn't wait to find out what we were having (patience is not one of my strengths). One reason I really wanted to know the gender was so we could start picking out a name. I'd already been keeping a list of both girl and boy names and I was excited to begin narrowing them down.

One night (around 10 weeks along), I had a very distinctive dream that we would have a little girl and name her Norah. I remember waking up and thinking it was so strange because "Norah" wasn't even on my list.

Over the next few days I convinced myself that the dream was true. Why else would I have this strange dream telling me we'd have a girl named Norah—a name I'd never even considered before.

Then I began wondering if maybe I had an ancestor named Norah. After all, I'd always wanted to name my children after people or things that held meaning. A few days later, curiosity got the better and I casually sent my mom a text and asked whether we had any ancestors named Norah.

"No," Came her response followed shortly afterwards with, "Why?"

We hadn't yet told my parents we were expecting, and I really didn't want to make a huge fuss out of it. I debated whether to tell her the real reason over text message or to keep it a secret a little longer. I decided to just get it over with.

I quickly shot off my reply, "Well... I'm pregnant. And I had a dream that we were having a girl named Norah."

My mom was so surprised when she read my message that she started to cry. Since she was having lunch with her friends, it did not go unnoticed. By the end of the lunch they all knew the news—grand-baby Norah was on her way!

As we began sharing the news with more family and friends they'd ask, "Well, what do you think you're having?!" I began to proudly share my dream. More than once I heard, "Oh you can never trust your dreams! It always ends up being the opposite."

Maybe some people can't trust their dreams, I remember thinking, but I know for sure. At 17 weeks we went to get an ultrasound to confirm our suspicions. I don't know what I expected ultrasounds to be like, but it was there that I realized just how much I loved this baby.

Why?

Because for the next hour, I let a stranger poke and jiggle my belly trying to get a good shot of our little one. I remember laying on the table as Joe watched the ultrasound tech just casually shaking my belly fat as she chatted with me.

Was this really happening? I remember thinking. How had I ended up here with a complete stranger jiggling my tummy as my husband just sat and watched? That's love people. It was definitely a little humiliating, but totally worth it to get a glimpse of our little one.

An hour (and much tummy poking and jiggling) later she announced that we were having a BOY.

And so I'll say—yes, they were right. You can't trust your dreams—especially as a hormonal pregnant woman. But, that doesn't mean dreams don't come true, because a few months later we held a perfect little baby in our arms.

First comes love.

When I found out I was pregnant last March, I was pretty excited. Joe and I had been thinking about having kids for over a year, but we were going with the flow (a la "it would happen when it happened"). Well, after it not happening for over a year, I started to worry. Okay, that's a lie. I always worry—I just started to worry more.

So my excitement at peeing on a stick (three times just to be sure) and seeing a positive result felt like a long time coming. Afterwards, I hid the positive pregnancy tests on the very top shelf of our bathroom as I thought over how I should tell the hubs. I knew this was a safe spot since Joe is kind of short and the top shelf of our bathroom is pretty much off limits to anyone under 6 ft.

I posted the video of how I told Joe the news on Instagram when we were ready to share the news with the world (or realistically, all of my 124 Instagram followers). And even though Joe argues that he knew what was coming, if you watch the video I think you'll see genuine surprise on his face.



Fast foward 9 months and our little babe is here and I can't even believe it. Mostly because, I'm still in awe of how he came to be. Feeling him grow and kick inside my tummy for 9 months is one thing, but to meet him and hold him—it's crazy. From his perfect ears to his little toes, my body helped him grow. While I continued on with my day-to-day, heading to work, playing fetch with louie, cooking dinner with joe at night, bingeing on Stranger Things, my body was busy making this perfect little human that I now get to snuggle. How amazing is that?

And speaking of baby snuggles, I think I'm going to go get a little more from baby Wells right now.