Monday, June 27, 2011

Boy or girl??? Deciding on a name!

I felt deep down I was having a boy. Mother's intuition, I suppose! ;)

We went to Baby Waves on Valentines Day, February 14, 2011. I was so nervous and excited. It was the first time that I would be seeing this little creature inside of me.

The lady began the ultrasound. She showed us each body part. The neatest thing about the whole experience was seeing that tiny heart beating so strongly.

A few moments later she said, well..."It's a BOY!" We were very excited and for me, was confirmation on my gut feeling.

When it was over we walked to the car and Mama had us a gift. It was little boy things.

It was then time to start thinking of a name.

Before we were pregnant, Matt would sometimes throw names out that he thought were cool. The good thing was that we weren't big on traditional, everyday names. We didn't want anything crazy, just different. Being a teacher, I come across hundreds of names. During one of his name ideas, he asked me how I liked the name Edison. Honestly, I didn't love it immediately. It grew on me and I told him that I liked it. After we found out we were having a boy, we both still had the name Edison in the back our minds. We looked through a baby name book that had thousands of names. We liked a few of the names, but we just kept going back to Edison. We decided that Edison would be his name and now we were in debate of his middle name. I told Matt I either wanted him to be Edison Matthew, or Edison Mark after his Dad. Matt decided he liked Edison Mark after his dad best, so there it was! Within 2 days of finding out what we were having, we had his name set!

Edison Mark Sawyer...arriving in August!

telling friends and family

Jamie and Chris came over to exchange Christmas gifts. I got her a bib that said, "I love my Aunt." She got me wine and popcorn and in my head I thought, "Man...I have to go nine more months without wine!" I said thanks and hugged her. She opened her gift and lifted the bib. Then she put her hands over her mouth in shock. We hugged and cried. It was a sweet moment to share with her.


Hillary was with us the night I thought I was getting food poisoning. Matt mentioned to her that he was going to make me take a pregnancy test. The next morning she texted me, "Are you pregnant?" I replied, "No" and she replied, "Good!"...Little did she know...A few days later she invited me to lunch with her parents. While we were going through the line at Minnie's she said, "You're pregnant aren't you?" I couldn't lie. I told her that I was. She was freaked out for me, but in true Hillary fashion, kept my spirits up about it.

We always go to Aunt Sharon's house for Christmas Eve to exchange gifts. Aunt Sharon is basically a grandmother to me. After exchanging gifts we took some family pictures. I then asked to take a picture with just my mom, me, and Aunt Sharon. We had coached my Dad on what to do. He got the camera and said, "Ok...1, 2, 3, Say Cheese" We all said, "CHEESE!" He then said, "Let me take another one...Ok, 1,2,3, say APRIL'S PREGNANT". We all said, "APRIL'S PREGNANT!" Aunt Sharon laughed. Mama and I were waiting for her to get it. Finally she became serious and said, "Are you?" We (Mama and I) both nodded and she began to cry. It was a sweet memory I will forever cherish. Not only do we have pictures, but Jonathan and Matt were videoing the entire thing.

Telling Matt's Parents

Matt could not believe the way I had told my parents that we were expecting. He thought I would have been a little more elaborate about it. I just wanted to get it over with. After knowing my parents were excited for us, I was able to think more creatively. I decided that I wanted to find a creative way to tell Matt's parents.

We decided to share the news with them on Christmas Eve. From the moment I found out I was pregnant, I had a strong feeling it was a boy. We went to Baby's R Us and bought bibs. They both looked boyish, but could go either way. We got one for his mom that said, "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's." We got one for his dad that said, "I love Grandpa".

We called them Christmas Eve and told them we were coming over and that we had an early Christmas gift we wanted them to have. His Dad asked if we could just wait till the next day, which was Christmas, but we were almost there. We couldn't stand waiting any longer to tell them. We had already bought the bibs and put them in gift bags. We went against his dad's wishes. We got there and Matt kept telling his Dad we really wanted them to open it. Finally, Matt said, "Daddy, this is really important to us, just please open the gift."

His mom was in the kitchen with me. Matt brought his Dad in the kitchen and his dad told his mom that they had to open these gifts before Matt had a hissy fit. They opened them at the same time and had a confused look for a few seconds. Then you could literally see the light bulb go off in Mark's head. He said, "You're joking!" We said no and he hugged us. Linda was very excited and we told them the story of how we found out.

telling my parents

After taking the home pregnancy test, we decided that we needed to tell our parents. We found out on a Friday night. After taking the test, I wanted to go to my mom's immediately, but I knew she was in bed. The next morning, we had rehearsal for our Christmas musical. Matt, Mama, and myself all had roles in the play. It was killing me to keep the secret all bottled up inside of me. I didn't know whether or not I should tell her right then and there or wait for a better time. Well, the Lord quickly gave me an answer. As we were looking at the final program we realized that my mom's character along with her name was nowhere to be found on the program. After all of her hard work, she was upset to not have her name mentioned. Also, I wasn't sure how she'd take the pregnancy news, so I had my answer...it wasn't time to tell her. Sunday was the performance and if I wasn't already a ball of nerves, I could really have used a nerve pill at this point! I was so nervous about the musical and even more nervous about sharing the news.

After every Christmas musical, we have a choir fellowship at my parents' house. I knew I couldn't hold the secret much longer. I decided that I would tell her after everyone left their house. Around 11:30 the last few people FINALLY left. I could feel my face turning red and my pulse start to race. Matt was sitting on my left. Mama came in the living room and sat down on my right side on the couch. I really wanted Daddy to be there as well when I shared the news. God made it happen. Normally, Daddy would go to his study or find something to do; instead, he sat down on the floor in front of us. I wasted no time. I looked at the both of them and said, "Mama, Daddy....I'm pregnant." Mama laughed and said, "Yeah right." I said, "No..really, I am." She kind of rolled her eyes and said,"Whatever, April." I then started crying and whimpered out, "No Mama, I am really pregnant." In a split second she said, "Oh, Baby!" Daddy swooped in and hugged me. I wasn't sure why I was crying. Maybe because I was terrified of their reaction. Maybe it was because of the nerves. Maybe it was hormones! This was a big deal!

In my great plan, I had planned to be married for about 3 years before having children. Mama knew of this plan and she had planned to be our nanny (one of her dreams). I knew that, financially, now wasn't the best time for her to up and leave her job. Through tears I explained to Mama that we would figure this out and that we did not want her to even think of leaving her job. We would find a way to afford daycare. Mama, the saint that she is, reassured me that everything would work out and that we would all work together to figure it out. After all, we had nine months to come up with a plan! Nervousness turned into more nervousness and slight excitement. I didn't sleep well that night. The next day, Mama called me around lunch time. She was crying and said, "Baby girl, my baby is having a baby!!! I'm sitting in Cracker Barrel crying!" It had finally hit her. I cried, too.

Next, we had to tell Matt's parents...