The Post of September Past

   I am writing to you from the past. The 12th of September, 2012 to be exact. I am writing this post because of a conversation Joey and I had tonight. Tonight, we decided we were going to try to start a family. We have both always wanted kids, so the fact that we would have them was never a question. It was always a matter of when. We knew for sure we wanted to at least get started with our PhDs. Get to a new place, get settled in, all of that. Well, we have been in Tucson for a few months now, and while we are not completely settled in we feel...well, we don't really know. Nested? Anyhow, we are both at the point where making a baby is something we want. But we do have to be slightly strategic about it in order to make life slightly easier as we pursue our doctorates. It would be most convenient to have a baby in early summer, when we would have a few months off from school to adjust and spend time with baby. That would put the ideal conception date in August or September. So if we want to go this route, we have about a two month window each year to try. Tonight we decided we will give this month a shot. If it happens, awesome! If not, we will wait until next August and try again. We might give up on our timing eventually if nothing happens this year or next, but for now that is the plan.
   So why I am not posting this the day I am writing? Because we don't know if anything will happen. Because I don't want people asking me about it. And mostly because I don't want anyone to know I am pregnant right away. We both agree that we want to wait until around the end of the first trimester to tell anyone, that way if something *happens* there are less awkward, heart-wrenching phone calls to make. Therefore, I am saving this post as a draft until the time is right, be it this year or several years from now. So, for those of you who are a little slow to put the pieces together and still think this is a post about us trying to make a baby...guess what? I'm pregnant! Probably a few months pregnant, as a matter of fact. And I plan to write more posts-from-the-past as our journey continues and post them after I let this one sink in. That way everyone will be caught up, and then I can start posting in real time again. Confused yet?

Here are the "before" pictures. These were taken the day we decided to start trying. They serve two purposes- 1) a comparison for the coming pictures and 2) a reminder for me and Joey that I did look like this at one point in time.

*Note added 11/30/12. I keep telling myself that I don't look pregnant (which is mostly true) and I can't even tell a difference and blah blah blah...and then I come back to this picture. Yeah. There is definitely a difference. I don't know who I'm kidding.