O'Neal News

Well after a bit of an absence from the blogging scene, I'm stepping back into it!  Since my last post in May, lots of things have changed. About a week after my last post Richard and I found out that in January, we will become parents! First trimester has now come and gone. Overall, it was easy but the main struggle was the fatigue. There were a few weeks when I was so exhausted that I'd sleep every second that I could. I'd try to sneak home early and sleep until dinner time and then I would force Richard to go to bed early (really I'd fall asleep and he'd watch tv). No morning sickness though -- hallelujah!

10 week ultrasound 

We had our first doctors appointment/ultrasound at 10 weeks. It may be the most incredible thing that I have ever seen/heard.  What a life altering moment to hear your baby's heart beat and see the little growing human on the tv. I immediately cried and Richard said that he was just so in "awe" that he didn't know how to react. USCSOM teaches its students extensively on ultrasound (it's something they pride themselves on) and so Richard has spent a lot of time seeing similar ultrasounds. It amazed me to see how speechless and awe struck he was, but I guess that it is very different when it's your child.

Both of our families are very excited about this addition.  We told them each pretty early into the pregnancy, so I imagine both sides are thrilled to be able to talk with everyone about it now!  We are beginning to do the necessary prep work for the house and financially. Richard has been booted from his big closet and is moving excess items out of the 3rd bedroom (If anyone needs a dresser and bedside table let me know). We are starting to put together the list of items that we'll buy or register for but it's amazing how much stuff there truly is. Weeding through the excess to have the basic list of essentials is a huge task.

Richard and his silly face

This week I decided to be proactive in searching for a daycare because I had heard things in Greenville fill up quickly. Well thank goodness I did! The hospital daycare has a waiting list of over a year.. I called another one who very nicely told me "we hope to have you placed in a classroom by the 2 year old age group". WHAT?! That phone call proved to me what sort of insanity is occurring in the Greenville infant daycare system. After frantically emailing and calling places, I found the last spot in a daycare beginning May 2016. My baby has barely had its gender developed and I am already late on setting up a daycare option?! So the lessons that I'm sharing with my local friends are 1.) Open an infant daycare and you'll have plenty of business and 2.) if you are even entertaining the thought of having children (even 2 yrs out) that you should look into daycare.  I am just thankful that we found a great place with a wonderful reputation in the community and that although it starts in May and not April (when maternity leave would end should everything go as planned) that we have a plan. We will be on the hunt for a good nanny of some sort for the 1st few weeks until May 1st when the space becomes available.


It is amazing how immediately after seeing that "positive" come up on a pregnancy test how your mind changes and the focus shifts. We still have many months to go but regardless of the amount time we have, I don't think we will ever be fully prepared.  Sometime next month we will have our anatomy scan and will get another glimpse at the baby. This is normally when gender would be determined, but we are going "old school" and will find out around January 16th when she or he arrives.  Until then I am thankful for the ease of everything so far and continue to pray that everything stays that way as this pregnancy progresses. It's hard to believe I'm  already 15 weeks on Saturday.


We cannot say enough about how overwhelmed we were by the countless people who liked and commented on the Facebook post.  406 likes and 122 comments- WOW. Thank you, thank you! We are feeling love from people all over the world and cannot say enough about how much it means to us. Thank you for supporting us, for loving us, for already loving our little one and for starting this new phase of life with us! We are excited about everything pregnancy and parenthood have in store for us!

P.S. We've done a lot of things since the last entry and I will soon write another update sharing pictures from some of the trips/outings that we've had in the past 3 months.