My dear sweet Emma,
Today I found out our baby is you; a little girl. I am beyond thrilled at your coming, I am so happy you will be the oldest of our children. I spent the entire first and most of the second trimesters thinking you were a boy so I am thrilled I am getting a little girl. I felt closeness to the spirit after learning your gender, it was the sweetest thing, just overcoming me at my joy of learning for sure we were having our Emma. (We cheated a few weeks ago and had your Uncle Dave, take a sneak peak for us to see your gender when we were visiting him and Aunt April over Fourth of July weekend.He was only 70 percent sure you were a girl because of your modesty at not showing us your gender, so now we know for sure!).
So I am now going to write you this letter and let you in on the details of this pregnancy that I am having with you. You were a complete surprise in one sense. Your Father (who is also beyond excited about you coming and being a girl) and I were married in the Newport Beach temple. We both felt very strongly about being married in the temple. Mainly because we believe in eternal families and we want to progress and be with Heavenly Father again as a family. You were born under the covenant of our marriage.
Meaning you receive all the blessings we receive because of the choices your father and I have made so far. We still have work at keeping them strong and being the best we can be to keep our covenant active. In our dating courtship, we very carefully kept the sacred covenants we had made prior in the temple and knew in order to be married in the temple we needed to be our best. We did keep our covenants and the spirit was very strong in the sealing room when we were married.
One part of our temple experience was looking into the mirrors and symbolically seeing the future generations as much as the past generations in the mirrors behind us. I think that moment made me want to cry the most, thinking about my children being there with us in the temple from heaven looking down at the blessings we had all just received.
Another experience I had was when your father proposed to me, I was telling Katie about it and she said something like, “just think your children must be so excited at the thought that you both are engaged and were there watching you!” That is when I started to cry just thinking about you all up there and it made it so real for me.
Your daddy and I talked a lot during our courtship about being parents and what kind of parents we aspire to be and how to best protect you and teach you the gospel and how to live life. This is one if the reasons I fell so deeply in love with your father. He is so great with all children and also because of how he treats me and cares for me. We chose your name during our courtship along with three others for our other children we also hope to have.
Your name is Emma; you were named after quite a few great women. One being myself! I know a little vain, but this name is really special to me and inspires me to be the best namesake ever for you. Then you are named after one of our ancestors that I was named after. Her name was Emily, but she went by Emma since they are so similar.
Your name is old fashioned to symbolize traits and characteristics of the past. Your middle name Riley is a modern name and so you are a perfect blend of the beautiful things of the past and all the greatness of the things to come. I am going to decorate your room as vintage with a modern twist. Your Aunt Lindsay loves the theme as much as I do and is helping me with ideas!
Emma Riley Honeycutt has such a beautiful sound and I hope you love your name as much as we do.
Now on to the discovery of your existence. We were married on Friday March 12, 2010, we had our reception on March 13th on Saturday and we believe you were conceived on either the 13th or the 14th. Those are the only two days for the rest of our honeymoon were not so careful since we did not think I needed to be. I had just completed my womanly time table on the day I was married and according to what I had heard there was no way I would get pregnant. I heard wrong and you my dear girl were conceived. We had planned on expanding our family after October of this year, after we had settled more into marriage and fixing up our home. We had no idea we both were that fertile!
Fast forward five weeks later, a few days after Easter, I came home from work excited to see your daddy and give him a kiss when low and behold, it repulsed me. Because he had just eaten a Reese peanut butter cup and it smelled terrible to me! Your Dad jokingly said I should take a pregnancy test. So I took up the challenge and imagine my complete shock to learn I was pregnant. We took a second one just in case.
Your father was BEAMING the minute he found out. I was in shock and it took me a couple of days for the reality to sink in. I was excited, just worried about the timing and how we were going to get the house done in time and then worried about your health since the house needed so much work done to it and I could not be around the chemicals and stuff.
You’re Uncle John and Aunt Lindsay invited us to stay with them while we worked on the home. We stayed for about a month. We still have lots to do on the house, but we did finish the hall bathroom and kitchen and have moved back in along with plumbing the entire house and demo work through out. This is not the ideal situation and so that has been hard.
I have had an interesting pregnancy so far in my first trimester, I threw up really bad in public at a hotel after eating some breakfast it was bad and completely embarrassing. I dry heaved a lot; my chest was so tender it ached all the time. I gained weight quickly at first (all the weight I had lost in the last few months), but it slowed way down quickly and so I am measuring at the right weight for pregnancy gain.
I felt starving sensations so strong in the first trimester I could hardly stand it. And sometimes I had just eaten an hour before. Your sonogram at week 12, is when you felt more real too me. I loved looking at your growing body and being thrilled at your development. You were so cute all curled up trying to sleep. You like sleeping on your stomach. You had your hand over your eye at one point and you love moving your little legs.
Second trimester has actually been tougher for me, overall I have been tired, but I think that is because I take on too much and then wear myself out. So I am working on balance and trying to not over do it. Your sonogram today, has you measuring healthy. You weigh 11 ounces. You moved around a lot and you seem to love to be across my stomach, but at one point you were straight up and down with your leg at my belly button. You were on your stomach again and so cute. I have heartburn more frequently and hardly any energy. Now at 19 weeks I have thrown up twice so bad that I broke all the blood vessels in my face and neck. This last time also resulted in giving me popped blood vessels in my eyes, currently I look terrible!
I was also so emotional yesterday, I could not stop crying and I had nothing to cry about. Everyone at work was so sweet to me. I also lightly sprained my right foot after losing my balance at Target then got caught in a downpour of rain and was soaking wet. My manager Dezi sent me home at 4:00pm and I am so glad, I needed to rest.
This is really gross to write about, but I think you should know just what a huge blessing you are receiving. The morning after I had thrown up really bad, your dad was sleeping when the whole thing happened. I told him in the morning before falling back asleep, that it happened in the bathroom sink since I was going to the bathroom when it came up. And I had hoped the throw up had finally drained. Well it turns out it did not drain.
Your Dad loved me enough to scoop out all of the mess and put it in the trash and then clean the sink three times while I slept. Emma, that’s a real man! I love your father more than I could ever express in words. He is so good to me and shows he cares everyday. We are so blessed to have him as our protector and spiritual leader in the home, he loves and respects women and he understands the gospel and loves us so much.
Until my next letter, know you are loved and cherished. Everyone is so excited to meet you. I have never been so eager for it to be December because I am so thrilled at the thought of holding you in my arms and being your mother. This is saying a lot because I LOVE this time of year and always look forward to Christmas, but with you coming I am even more ecstatic.
Love you with all my heart,
Mommy
