It Just Got Real — We’re having a baby!

You guys, we’re having a baby! Man, it feels nice to let that giant secret off of our chests! Now raise your hand if you didn’t expect to see that one coming for a while, or was that just us?!

Though we knew since we first started dating that we wanted to have kids, Jared and I had agreed that we’d wait until I turned 30 before we would turn that leaf.

Seeing as how I just turned 29 in May, I still had it in my mind that there’s was an entire year left to coast through.

That said, it was just before my 29th birthday that I thought I had the worst jet lag/dehydration of all time after coming back from our Scandinavian cruise…

We're having a baby! Announcement by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar and Cloth

After a few days of barely being able to keep my eyes open and feeling slightly nauseous, I took a pregnancy test. Half of me thought I was just being paranoid, and the other half of me was very much “brace yourself!”.

So I took the test at home and it came back positive. I then proceeded to sit in complete shock in the bathroom for 20 minutes.

I felt excitement, shock, fear, shock, love, and then more shock all at once. I’m pretty sure time stood still at that moment. It did explain my extreme case of “jet lag” (it turns out I was 6 weeks at the time!), but my mind was totally somewhere else.

We're having a baby! Announcement by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar and Cloth

I walked into the bedroom and told Jared with a smile on my face, and I don’t think I’ve EVER seen him so excited.

WE were excited, and also feeling insanely blessed that what could have been a long road to a family seemed to have become one that found us instead!

Though I was (and still am!) slightly scared of this new role, I’m a big believer that everything happens in it’s perfect timing for a reason.

We're having a baby! Announcement by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar and Cloth

All of the sudden, the more excited I felt, the more I was afraid to let myself be excited. So many of my friends and family have had miscarriages, that I was afraid to fall too in love.

It was such a weird melting pot of emotions. I was basically in a walking daze for two weeks until my first doctor’s appointment.

We're having a baby! Announcement by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar and Cloth

We're having a baby! Announcement by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar and Cloth

Once we went in and got to hear baby’s heartbeat, we were just smitten. It was literally impossible to not be totally in love, fears or no fears!

Needless to say our families might possibly be more excited than we are, and we got to catch Jared’s Mom’s reaction on video (see below!). 

We wrapped her birthday present in two nesting boxes, and the last box had baby shoes and the sonogram.

YouTube video

We're having a baby! Announcement by top Houston lifestyle blogger Ashley Rose of Sugar and Cloth

Random Updates Things So Far —

– Baby is due January 2018!

– Thankfully the second trimester has proved to be my friend, because the first trimester surely wasn’t. 6.5 weeks to 11 weeks was a doozy.

– I’ve officially experienced a new level of tired that I didn’t know existed.

– The learning curve of being pregnant is VERY steep.

– I’m loving The Bump app thanks to my friend Lexy’s recommendation!

– I’ve become a serious carb-loader because that seemed to be the one thing that settled my stomach.

– We’re still going to be your regularly scheduled lifestyle blog! Just in between my intermittent naps, haha.

I’m still waiting for a stork to come drop off a how-to kit for this new life, but until then I’m basically like the Sherlock Holmes of naive pregnant women. Except, I only care to know the absolute necessities and the optimistic parts. I think that’s pretty fair.

Now a few questions for you — Did you find out the gender of your baby or no? How early did you start showing? What was the first thing you thought when you found out you were pregnant?

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52 Comments

  1. Great blog! I appreciate the efforts you made when writing this article. I hope the best work from you in the future is good. I want to thank you for this site! Thanks for sharing.

  2. Congrats! I’m actually due December 7th with my first child. Like, you I felt so many emotions all at once when I first saw the positive pregnancy result. I was both shocked and terrified but somehow I also felt elated. Fortunately, the more positive emotions have since taken over for the most part although I’m not sure if the full reality of the situation has kicked in yet. I started showing around 14 weeks or so. We decided to find out the sex of the baby because we were too excited to wait (because we had a strong feeling that it was a boy which proved to be true!) and it’s just one less unknown variable out of millions of unknowns. Best of luck to you! xx

  3. Congratulations! This is such happy news! I found out I was pregnant on my 30th birthday. I took a pregnancy test so casually, just because I had been feeling nauseous for a few weeks and thought I could “rule it out.” HA! I was so shocked and surprised. And then came the feeling of joy! Easily my best birthday ever.

  4. Congratulations on this great blessing! A child is the greatest inheritance we can receive in this world. With it, we receive important learning and the opportunity to become better and more complete people.

    My daughter today is 6 years old and she was planned and much desired, but the walk to birth brought some challenges. The first child usually has the desire to be a parent. Maybe the second child has different motivations. Anyway, it’s an incomparable experience.

    Best regards

    Ana Paula

  5. Such exciting news! That’s is wonderful! I was in the same boat – I wasn’t expecting to get pregnant, and I was the first of all my friends. Not to mention I didn’t live close to family and the two women closest to me WERE

    1. Whoops.
      Were trying to get pregnant. It was a crazy time. The good news is she was perfect and really she came when she was meant to, and we adore her (that was 9 years ago now!)

    2. My advice on finding out the gender – don’t do it if you have a preference. We didn’t with our first, and it was a girl (I’d wanted a boy). The second one we did find out. It was a boy (and I wanted a girl). I was quite sad for the pregnancy as I really wanted my daughter to have a sister like I have.

  6. Eeeeeeeeeekkkkkk – Reading your post reminded me of all the emotions I felt when we found found I was pregnant! Once I warmed up to the idea of having kids (ha) we decided that when I was 30, it would be a good time to have a baby. Wow, you’ll live will change in amazing way, the love you feel for your son or daughter will be overwhelming. We found out the gender of the baby. I HAD to know, in order to prepare for the nursery and outfits (ha) but overall, I think knowing the gender of the baby helps you bond while they are in utero. Congratulations!!!!!

  7. Congrats! It will sound superstitious but with my son I didn’t show until pretty late and then I ballooned into a house. Lol with my daughter, it was a smooth increase in baby bump but I was sick through almost the entire second semester with her!

    Pregnancy has been the most magical, transformative experience of my life.

    Side note: I was walking out of the Orange Show during your wedding shoot w/my kids & you & Jared are a beautiful (in real life) couple. 💙 This baby is going to be a doll!

    -Ashly

  8. congratulations!!!!! what a great news!! So exciting!! I wish yoy a fantastic 2nd and 3rd semester! We knew the gender of the baby every time, I was just way too curious not to know! People sometimes mistake that for having a preference, but it’s not about that. I liked it so much to know and to be able to prepare for a more ‘real’ little person! Buying clothes, preparing the room, finding a name, … so much easier if you know the gender! Anyway: good luck with everything!! And it indeed is a blessing if it just comes naturally! I have had a pretty long path to my first -lasting- pregnancy, and that caused a lot of sadness, but also made me realise how big a miracle every new life actually is! Enjoy!

  9. Congratulations you guys!!! We were halfway trying and I was still TERRIFIED when we found out we were actually expecting. We wanted to know the sex bc there are enough surprises that come with baby! And I think I started showing around 20 weeks. I’m so excited for you guys–you’ll be fantastic parents! xx

  10. Congrats! I’m currently pregnant with my first and just barely started showing at 21 weeks. I’m still sort of looking like I just ate a big lunch, but people who know me can tell now!

  11. OMGigaPet!!! Congrats to you and Jared!!! That’s awesome news!! I’m so excited for you guys.

    I’m due the 26th of this month and my hubby and I can’t wait to meet our little bundle of joy!

    We did find out the gender of our baby, because we’re planners, lol. Needed to know what colours and styles we’d have to buy. I started showing around 6months. I just looked like I had a punch for most of the first part of my pregnancy. And I only started buying maternity clothes when I was 8 months in. When we found out we were so happy!!! We planned for this pregnancy and couldn’t believe it happened so quickly and easily! Lol.

    Wishing you guys a all the best as you go through new experiences and eagerly await the arrival of your little one!!!

  12. Congratulations!!! I have 4 children. My first 3 we decided to wait until the birth to find out the gender. It was something to look forward to. My 4th child was a different story. She was the biggest surprise my husband and I have ever had. We thought we were done have children and I was older. So, with my 4th child we did find out because we completely had to start over. When I found out I was pregnant with her I was scared. Mostly because we were older. Honestly, she is such a blessing and adds so much life to her house I can’t believe I was scared to have her. Blessing to you and your family

  13. First response when the test came back positive was honestly “no way!” Because we’d only been trying for a short while…ha! Totally did not expect it to happen so quickly. We’re still waiting for our first ultrasound and it’s so nerve wracking. Like I can definitely tell it’s all happening, but it doesn’t feel completely real yet! Best of luck to you both and congrats!!

  14. That’s big news! Bravo! We found out the gender for both of our both our children around 12-13 weeks. My husband’s reaction to the 1st one was to cry for. He only said “yeah, at some point in our lives we are having a baby” and when i told him that time was 8 months away he said “whaaat?????already?”! And when i told him about the 2nd one he said “i hope it’s not a girl!”, but he just wasn’t lucky! I wish you have a great pregnancy and a healthy baby in your arms when the time comes!

  15. Congratulations!!! Thank you for bringing your readers along, it’s such an exciting time. That baby is so lucky to be surrounded by love.

  16. This is great news! I adore your blog, and am very happy for you both. Your lives will be so different from here on out – in a good way!

    Enjoy the journey.

  17. Congrats! I am due with my third this fall. WE are not finding out what it is again! I have two boys and love the surprise.

  18. Congrats, again!! Although I wanted to find out the gender, my husband LOVES surprises and was adamant that we not find out for the first one (so we didn’t!). I started showing pretty early from what people told me – around 8 weeks (I’m 30 weeks now). Like you, I was shocked. We too, had planned to have a family one day but it came a bit sooner than expected! Regardless, my husband and I are very excited.

  19. Congratulations! That’s so exciting! I started showing way before we told people, which got super awkward. I even had a “you’re getting fat” comment! Blamed it on pasta :) I was eating lots of pasta as a result of feeling off, but it certainly wasn’t the pasta’s fault :)
    We did find out the gender. I felt like I needed to know so that I could prepare and didn’t want to feel anxious about that on the big day. Some people love that surprise, but for me I would’ve been scared that I’d be a little disappointed if it wasn’t the gender I wanted. I would’ve been excited either way, but for me it was better to know early so that I could have a moment of disappointment while pregnant and then be over it and super excited by the time we met. (That didn’t need to happen though as we had a little girl, my dream! But then I could relax about it and have fun planning)

  20. Ashley, Jared, I am overjoyed for you guys. Y’all will be the coolest parents! – we found out the sex for both boys. I had to know who was inside of me and it made it that much more special when we talked and read to them.

  21. CONGRATS!!! You both are going to be amazing parents! Being a mom is so monumental, I get so teary when I see my favorite people become parents. Excited to follow along this new chapter xoxo

  22. This is so exciting! I kind of had an inkling because you mentioned not feeling so hot in one of your IG stories.
    I’m due in August and way back before we found out I always said I wouldn’t want to know the gender. But when we it came time to decide I could NOT NOT know. We actually found out early at 16 week scan!

    I started showing at around 16 weeks, but people started noticing around 26!

    Congratulations, mama! No one knows what they’re doing, we’re all kinda wingin’ it! Also, I definitely recommend the Ovia app. Every week they show you how big your baby’s hand is vs how big it will be when they’re born.

  23. Congratulations, Ashley!! You guys are going to ROCK as parents :) Couldn’t be more thrilled for you both!

  24. Without a contraceptive method people get pregnat. Shocker, I know.
    You didn’t expect to have a baby until you’re 30, but you weren’t taking the precautions one year before. I don’t get you people…

  25. So excited for you guys! I have an 8 month old and, though my journey to becoming pregnant was very different, I remember staring at that positive test feeling so many mixed emotions as well! We found out the gender, but they told us WRONG at our 16 week visit and then at 20 weeks we got confirmation it was the opposite. I started showing around 18-20 weeks. Good luck and have fun preparing!! Baby will be here before you know it. Oh, and that level of exhaustion you feel now? Just wait until he/she is here ;)

  26. Congrats! You two are going to be such fun parents – love that baby went on the cruise with us, we just all didn’t know! ;)

  27. I am beyond happy for you guys! You will be the BEST parents! I found out both times what we were having, there are enough surprises with pregnancy, I didn’t need another one..ha! I am glad you are feeling better. Try to rest and enjoy this special time. Again, SO SO happy for you! xo

  28. Eeeeeep!!! We are SO excited for you guys!!! Wooohoooooo! Can’t wait to meet the little Prince or Princess! As far as those questions, yes we both found out the sex with our kiddos. Michelle and I and our hubbies are too impatient not to. 😂 First thought..”oh my god! This is so exciting! Oh my god, can I do this? Oh my god, this is real! Oh my god, am I ready? Oh my god, yes, I can do this..I think.” Haha.

  29. Ahh, congratulations! You guys are going to be wonderful at this whole thing! I’m due next month, and it definitely took awhile for it to soak in and really feel real! We decided not to find out the sex. It’s driving some of our friends crazy not knowing, but I love the surprise. And I think I started showing a little around maybe four months?

  30. OMG…..congrats you two! Parenthood is the most wonderful experience ever. Love every second because it goes by so fast. Love you guys💗💙. I’m excited that Crosby gets a cousin that he can grow up with too.

  31. THEE cutest! How exciting! Can’t wait to see all the baby inspired posts you’ll be sharing. The video of your MIL is the sweetest. Pure excitement!

  32. Ashley, I actually had my hand up for about a week or two now. :-)
    I noticed you looked a bit different in one of your blog post photos.

    I’m beyond excited for you and Jared and can’t wait to read and see y’all experience!

    I’ve been a follower of yours since one of your first events at Francesca’s in Rice Village. I love going here to read DIY’s and hear ya’ll stories.

    Congratulations!!!

  33. Congratulations guys!!!!!! So excited for you! Get ready for a whole lotta change. If you think pregnancy is hard, just wait till that baby is born. But luckily their cuteness makes you forget all the hard parts!

  34. Congratulations on your growing family! I’m so excited for you and can’t wait to give you a hug!

  35. Ohmygoshyallthisissuchawesomenews and yes I said that without taking a breath. Ha! I’m a fellow Houstonian and have loved following your journey since you’ve arrived, established yourselves here, switched over to the blogging fulltime, gotten engaged, married and so glad that you are allowing God’s plan to continue with a little one for you. I know you two are going to be amazing parents. I’m an Auntie only and that alone is an amazing blessing so hold on tight because the love you are about to experience for your little is unreal. Hugs from Conroe, TX

  36. OMG this is just amazing! From the fact that two awesome people will bring an awesome new person to this world, to the way you announced it! Lots of love on your way!
    xo
    p.s. I did cry a little!
    Congratulations!

  37. I am thrilled for you guys! Congrats, congrats! Babies are a ride of both joy and little crazy – but mostly joy!

    We found out the gender with both of ours, no way I couldn’t pre-plan the baby room! HA.

    And I was also in total shock BOTH times we were pregs. Second preg was a surprise, so SUPER shocked on that one.

    Congrats again, Ashley!

  38. Ahhhh!!!!!! So happy for y’all! Congratulations! Y’all are going to make amazing parents! And that video just gave me a little happy cry, too sweet!