The Story of our Surprise

 

Yesterday I surprised you all with our big news that I’m pregnant.  I know you were all surprised but you have no idea how surprised and shocked Andy and I were!

A little over a month ago I started having symptoms.  Being overly emotional, super clingy to Andy and in the evenings after supper I’d feel icky all over.  By the second week of all this I started wondering… “could I be pregnant?”  I was on the mini pill and still breastfeeding Tate but I was crying during commercials and every ‘feel good’ news story on Today.  On Friday, October 3rd I texted Andy and told him I needed to take a pregnancy test, I was certain I was pregnant.  He brushed it off thinking I was nuts.  The next day I was out of town so when we went to town Sunday to run a few errands I made sure to grab a pg test at WalMart.  We got home about 2:30, I went straight to the bathroom and took the test.

Thank goodness Andy followed me in to the bathroom.  He didn’t think I was pregnant but knew I’d need his support either way.  I sat the test on the counter and it instantly turned to a plus sign.  Oh shit. Andy and I didn’t know what to do or say, we both just kind of half laughed, totally shocked and surprised.  Then the tears and worries started.  It’s crazy how so many different thoughts can flood into your head all at the same time.  “FOUR kids?!?” “We need another crib.”  “How are we going to afford sending FOUR kids to college?”  “What about Tate? How will this affect him?”  And on and on and on. 

After about 10 minutes we emerged from the bathroom, Andy ever my strong rock reassuring me that everything will be okay and will work out.  We had been toying around with the idea of having a 4th but about a week or two before taking the test I had decided that we were for sure done, no more babies for us.  And then this.

The next morning first thing I called my OB doctor.  She ordered me a blood test and that night I went to the lab at the hospital and had my blood drawn to estimate about how far along I was in the pregnancy.  My guess was 6 weeks because of the symptoms.  I haven’t had a period since Tate was born so I had absolutely no idea when this blessed event had taken place.

The next day I was at a pumpkin patch helping chaperone Brennan’s Kindergarten field trip.  I knew the dr.’s office would be calling me with the results of the test so I kept my phone close at hand all day.  Finally, just before we were getting ready to pack up the kids and head home they called.  Until this point I had been thinking there was still a chance I wasn’t pregnant but the nurse confirmed I was.  My numbers showed I was between 5 and 6 weeks. 

This was 2 days after taking the pregnancy test at home and I was still in major shock.  I wasn’t at all happy about being pregnant and I was still full of worry and concern about how we were going to make this work for our family.  So when the nurse said I was *only* 5-6 weeks along I was crushed.  I had hoped it’d be farther than that so I’d be that much closer to being done with this pregnancy.

I know you are all thinking I am horrible person for not being happy about this in the beginning, and I do too, but it was such a huge shock that I couldn’t see past the scary to the happy that this news was.

That Thursday they scheduled me an ultrasound and my first OB visit, which is just a health history with the nurse.  My cousin is the US tech at our local hospital, she’s the one who found the anencephaly with the baby we lost and she’s the one who did all the US’s with our pregnancy with Tate. It was nice to have her doing this one, too.  When we walked in I told her I didn’t want her to wait, she had to tell me right away if there was more than one baby in there. I just had this fear that there would be two.  She got started, got a shit eating grin on her face and turned towards us.  “There’s just one baby in there.”  Phew.  When she turned to us with that smile on her face my stomach dropped. I thought she was about to tell us TWINS.  After taking a few measurements she estimated that we were farther along than the blood test showed. We were 8 weeks 3 days along.  That was exciting to me!  Then she told us our due date.  May 18th.  That’s our 13th wedding anniversary! 

After that appointment things started to get less scary and more exciting.

The next night we told the boys our news.  They were beyond ecstatic!  Their excitement was definitely contagious!  Instead of thinking of all the scary I started thinking of all the good things this baby would bring.  I still wasn’t excited to be pregnant again (and to this day I still can’t believe I am going to go through all of *that* again) but I was excited to add another little “us” to our family again. 

That weekend we shocked our families and told them the news.  They were very surprised but happy for us.  We have told a few friends so far but really are keeping this quiet for now and letting the news slowly leak out. 

Today I am 11weeks2days along.  I feel pretty good now, had a few iffy weeks up til now.  Nothing major.  Like I said, I’m still not super excited to be going through a pregnancy again so soon but I am very excited to bring this sweet little baby home in 6 shorts months. 

One exciting thing that will be different this time around is that we’re going to find out the gender of the baby.  This is something new for us since we’ve never found out the sex before but it’s going to be fun to know and be able to plan this time.  I’ll be 20 weeks the Monday after Christmas so I’m hoping I can talk my dr. into scheduling my US the week before Christmas, when I’ll be 19 weeks along, so we can share the news with our families for Christmas. Fingers crossed it works out that way!

So, that’s where we started and where we are now.  This baby is a major surprise, NOT an ‘oops’, and it’ll never be called that or thought of as one.  I want to make that clear.  And I’m happy I kept the baby stuff around instead of selling it like I had considered doing.