First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes....

A BABY!! That's right folks.. In September 2013, Tilton and I will be welcoming a beautiful new addition to our family!  And we couldn't be more thrilled, although we were a bit surprised!  We had decided only a few weeks before we found out that we were ready to "start trying", but I was SURE that it would take a few months before anything would happen.  But from the very beginning I guess this child was out to prove me wrong, because after just a month of trying, we found out we were pregnant!  Like I said before, it came as quite a shock that it was so easy for us, but for that very same reason, we felt completely blessed!  

I "passed the big test" on December 31, 2012.  I was off work for the New Year holiday, and Tilton and I were planning to sleep in, run some errands, and relax before heading to my sister's house with the family to celebrate New Year's Eve.  But that morning, I couldn't sleep in.  I woke up around 7:30, and just had a feeling that something was... different.  I tried to shake the feeling as I checked my email, thought about our plans for the day, and planned what dish I would take to my sister's that night.  That's when the thought hit me like a ton of bricks: "I need to take a pregnancy test".  I hadn't missed my period yet, but something told me that I needed to take a test.  So I headed to the nearest drugstore to pick one up.  I decided to stop and pick up some doughnuts from our favorite bakery while I was out, so that I could have an excuse for where I'd been if Tilton was awake (I didn't want to tell him that I was taking a test before I'd even missed my period... He'd think I was crazy!).  When I got back home he was still sound asleep, so I was able to sneak into the bathroom without him knowing.  Even though something had told me that I needed to take a test, I still fully expected to see a negative result.  So I took the test, waited the three whole minutes, took a deep breath, and saw the most incredibly exciting (and at the same time terrifying) thing I've ever seen!

I stared at that little plastic stick for what felt like hours. I finally looked up at myself in the mirror and a face full of shock stared back.  I looked back down at the test again, to make sure that I really saw what I thought I saw. And sure enough, that little + sign was still there.  It was at this point that I realized that I had stopped breathing for a minute or two and suddenly gasped for air as the words "Oh my God" spilled out of my mouth over and over and over again.  I finally collected myself when I realized that my dear husband was still in bed just one room away, and that I needed to get myself together before he woke up.  And then it hit me, "How am I going to tell him that I'm pregnant?!?"  

I wanted it to be a special moment when Tilton found out that he was going to be a Dad, so I began plotting how to tell him.  I didn't want to just blurt it out, so I woke him up, and as we ate our doughnuts in bed, I acted like it was just any other day.  We went out all afternoon, had lunch, and did some shopping, but I still couldn't decide on the best way to tell him the good news. But then I came up with the perfect idea!  Since it was New Year's Eve I thought it would be perfect to countdown until the new year, and then when the ball dropped, instead of saying "Happy New Year" I could say "We're having a baby!"  It would be perfect!  But then I remembered that we were planning to celebrate the New Year with my parents, and my sister and her husband, and his parents and family... And as excited as I was to share the news with everyone, I wanted Tilton and I to have a chance to celebrate alone.  So I decided that it would have to wait.  

So we went about our evening at my sister's... Eating, and playing games, and catching up.  I planned on telling Tilton that night after we got home, but then the obsessive-worrywart in me came out and my head became filled with thoughts of "What if it was just a false-positive? What if I'm not really pregnant?" So I decided to wait until the morning, so that I could take another pregnancy test, and then I would figure out the perfect way to tell him.  That's right... I waited an entire 24 hours to tell anyone else the good news.  I still have no idea how I slept at all that night! 

The next morning, I took a second test and got the same result... Another big, fat +.  So I snuck back into our bedroom and grabbed our marker board frame that we write each other notes on, and wrote this message:

I sat the frame on our dresser, directly in front of Tilton's side of the bed to be sure that he would see it when he woke up.  I made us some eggs and brought them into the bedroom for New Year's breakfast in bed.  Tilton sat up and very sleepily ate his eggs, while I just shoveled mine around my plate because I was too nervous to eat.  As  he chewed each bite he stared ahead, practically directly at the frame, but was so sleepy that he just wasn't seeing it!  It was driving me crazy!  FINALLY, it caught his eye, and he said "Why does that say Dad?"  I just looked at him and smiled as he repeated his question a second time.  I was so nervous that I couldn't respond, so I just kept smiling as tears filled my eyes.  Then he said "Oh my God! Are you pregnant? You're not pregnant? Are you? Are you really?" And the whole time I just shook my head and smiled and cried and laughed and cried. And then he smiled and cried and laughed and cried. And we hugged and cried and laughed some more.  This whole thing went on for about and hour and it was PERFECT!  

We decided that we would wait to tell our parents until after we saw the doctor, which I assumed would be sometime in the following week.  But when I called my doctor that Wednesday, they said they wouldn't see me until I was 8 weeks along, which was three weeks from then... THREE WEEKS!!  We decided that we couldn't wait three weeks to share the news with our parents, so we decided that we would do it that Thursday when I was off work... But those stories will have to be told another day :)

Until next time...