It's a Boy! John David's Birth Story (Part 1)

     It's been 9 months since I've updated the blog. A lot happened during that time. Most importantly, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. I'm going to do my best to begin documenting his first year here at Hart Adventures. I loved having Sara Beth's monthly posts to look back on, and would hate to miss out on recording all the details about her little brother. So, while the memories are fresh, here is the birth story of our second child, our son, John David Hart.

Part 1: Pregnancy

     We found out I was pregnant in late August 2012 and were so excited! Sara Beth immediately latched on to the idea of having a baby brother or sister. It seemed like I started showing immediately, although I'm sure I didn't really. By 10 weeks, we couldn't hide it anymore (I was already into my maternity clothes)  and decided to tell everyone. Sara Beth wore her Big Sis shirt to spread the big news. Just like with my first pregnancy, I was tired and nauseous for the first trimester. In early January, I took the glucose tolerance test and failed it once again. For the next 4 months, I followed a strict diet and was able keep my gestational diabetes under control. My total weight gain was only 18 pounds, thanks to gestational diabetes (at least it's good for something, I guess). I was able to keep working out until 3 days before he was born. My belly was HUGE for the last half of the pregnancy, which caused lots of aches and pains. Even the shirt that I wore to the hospital when Sara Beth was born was about 6 inches too short in the front. I had to visit the perinatal specialist several times to keep an eye on the baby's kidneys. They were more dilated than they should have been. After remaining stable for several visits in a row, the doctors decided that the only action should be to have an ultrasound done on the baby's kidneys after birth. We decided once again to wait until delivery to find out the gender of the baby. It would either be Jessa Adeline or John David and we didn't care which one. We had an inkling that it was a boy though. It was measuring very large on all the ultrasounds, was crazy active all the time (kicking, punching, and stretching in my belly), and the kidney problem was more common in boys.

Baby Hart at 30 weeks, 5 days



     In March, a sweet group of friends hosted a baby shower for me. The theme was "A Baby is Brewing". Everything was beautiful! My good friend, Brittany, even flew in from Las Vegas to be here. I felt very loved!



     Also in March, we took maternity pictures with Ivy B Photography. We had so much fun with her! She even got Sara Beth to cheese it up a bit. I think the pictures came out great!



To be continued. . . . . . .