November

The first two weeks of November were all about getting moved into our new home. First,we finished packing up our tiny town home. Then we gave our new home a head-to-toe cleaning and painted our bedroom. Finally, the house seemed ready for move in and ready-or-not, our time in the town home had come to an end.

We sent out an email to David's coworkers requesting help and offering a free lunch in return. I expected a few people would come, but their kindness blew us away when every single coworker arrived early Saturday morning to help us move furniture and boxes across town. At this point my "morning" (and noon and night) sickness was in full swing so even the smell of the soup cooking was nauseating and I was completely exhausted feeling all the time. Without the help of his office moving would have been pretty tough on David.

Unpacking went slowly as I continued to feel like I was running a marathon...on a ship...during a nor'easter... David often came home from work to find me laying on the couch, dishes undone, and not even wanting to talk about dinner. The only thing I did manage to keep up with during this time was laundry. The clean smell was wonderful at a time when even "good smells" seemed offensive to my newly installed "pregnant" nose. David took this all with a wonderful "one-day-at-a-time" attitude and even joked that my new ultra-sensitive sense of smell was developing to one day alert me from miles away if our child was even thinking of playing with matches, opening a bottle of household cleaner or burning unattended toast.

I had always heard that pregnancy is a beautiful time in a woman's life, but honestly, I was definitely having trouble appreciating it, despite how excited I was at the prospect of being a mom. November 18th, however, David and I got to see our baby on ultrasound for the first time. Although Baby Gainey's heart was still to small to hear, we could see it beating on the black and white screen. I cried. I still hated being sick constantly and having no energy, but there was no doubt, it was worth it!


Shortly after that we flew to Ft. Myers to spend Thanksgiving to David's family. I was starting to have some good days and was getting a little energy back so I was crossing my fingers that I'd be able to eat and enjoy the Thanksgiving meal! As it turned out, that's exactly what happened. Brian and Amy (David's next youngest brother, and his wife) very bravely volunteered to host Thanksgiving for 18! They did an amazing job and I relished each bite! We had a great time visiting with everyone and I was truly sad to be getting back on the plane to Pennsylvania.

This was Baby Gainey's first trip to the beach and my first official belly picture : )