I'm Carolann! I'm a military spouse and new mom currently calling the DC area home. Finding Ithaka is all about the journey and about finding yourself.

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We’re about to embark on our greatest adventure. Our daughter is arriving in July!!

That makes me 28 weeks pregnant, and while I wanted to share this news earlier with you, I decided to wait for a bunch of reasons. But now I’m thrilled to be able to share our news.

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How did we find out?

It’s a funny story (now). It was Friday, November 3rd. I was getting ready for a girls’ trip. We were going to a resort on the other side of the island for a weekend of drinking and laying by the pool.

I ran to Target to get alcohol to make margaritas. When I got home, I started to change into my bathing suit. I had to leave in about 5 minutes but as I was changing I was reminded how sore my boobs were.

I had just taken a pregnancy test a day or two before at the doctor. It came back negative and I remember thinking, “that’s wrong but it’s too early for it to be positive.” I decided to take a test again before a weekend of binge drinking.

It was positive. I was 4 weeks pregnant. I instantly knew it was a girl.

But I had a slight problem. Nick was still at work, and I had 5 minutes before I was supposed to leave for the weekend.

I called Nick at work and asked him if there was any chance he’d be coming home tonight (he was scheduled to work overnight). I thought maybe if he was coming home I could stay behind and meet up with the girls a few hours later. But he said no. I told him we needed to talk but it could wait until Sunday. He immediately knew what I was getting at, but didn’t say anything. We had to wait from Friday to Sunday to talk about the biggest thing ever.

All weekend, I pretended to drink. I poured out drinks when no one was looking and strategically went by myself to the bar to order virgin drinks. When we went out to dinner, I even ordered a drink and just acted like I didn’t like it so I didn’t have to drink it. I probably would have told my friends that weekend if I had had the opportunity to tell Nick first because pretending to drink is annoying. It was a great weekend but all I could think about was the baby and I couldn’t talk to anyone about it!

As soon as I got home from the trip, I said to Nick, “I’m pregnant!” I didn’t realize that he had picked up on it so I was very surprised when he said, “I know!”

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How am I feeling?

The main reason why I was away from my blog for so long (apart from moving) was because I have been so nauseous. It started the day after Thanksgiving when I was about 6 weeks pregnant.

There has been lots of vomiting and lots of sleeping. I’ve been on two different kinds of medication for nausea at different points. I’m still on one of them.

But I’m so thankful for our little girl that nausea is nothing to me. The nausea was hard in the beginning because I could not eat anything and I wanted to be eating healthy. But I still have loved every minute of this pregnancy.

I love my bump, I love seeing my belly move and feeling her kicks, I love getting ready for her, I love talking to Nick about her, and I especially love watching Nick prepare for the baby. I feel like the two of them already have a special bond and I can’t wait to watch it develop.

Other than the nausea, I just have typical pregnancy symptoms. Now that I’m feeling better I also feel like I can’t stop eating, which is more than making up for the first half of my pregnancy.

I’m just so thankful to be pregnant and for this little girl. I was really lucky to get pregnant pretty quickly but my heart breaks for anyone who is having trouble conceiving.

Moving was stressful being pregnant. But luckily Nick is a moving pro and handled a lot for me! He’s been so great throughout the past few months.

Do we have a name?

Nope, we’re still working on that. The one thing we decided on is that we won’t be naming her after anyone in our family because we want her to forge her own path. I don’t want my daughter to feel like she is living in someone’s shadow.

Preparations and Feelings?

We’re really excited/scared/nervous/elated. We’re reading everything we can get our hands on. We signed up for every baby class under the sun, everything from breastfeeding to infant CPR and a class called understanding infant sleep. Nick even took a couple of classes just for dads. I’d love to hear about your favorite pregnancy/baby books.

Baby kicks?

This little girl is strong!! Around week 20 I started seeing my stomach move! Her kicks are so strong and they are getting stronger and stronger. I love every single kick. Sometimes I just sit and stare at my belly or videotape it while she kicks because my belly moves so much.

Blog future?

I promise this won’t turn into a pregnancy/mommy blog, mainly because I am not sure how much I want to share about her on here. I want to maintain her privacy but I also want to talk about motherhood, so I will need to find some kind of balance. But I do have some posts about pregnancy that I have been drafting that I hope to share soon. I am sure I will post about her but I hope to also post about travel/books/marriage/being a military spouse.

Phots by Military Spouse Photographer Lacy Shill!