One week from tomorrow, my beautiful baby girl will turn 1 year old. She was 11 days overdue, so as I've been at work the last few days, I've been thinking back to the struggle I was having exactly one year ago, wishing and pleading with God to PLEASE bring this baby out of me! :-)
It's made me revisit all of my memories, especially the second most precious (next to her birthing)--the day I found out she had been created. It was on Valentine's Day, 2007, and I had just finished a 12 hour shift at work as a paramedic. I stopped for a pregnancy test on my way home not because I thought I was pregnant, but because I had stopped taking birth control pills due to health problems the month before and wasn't really sure when to expect my period. My mind was in a fog during the hour long drive, and I actually got pulled over for speeding (nearing midnight next to a bar). I wanted to tell the policeman "hey, I have a pregnancy test in back! Let me go!" but I didn't need to since he saw the "female firefighter" sticker in my back windshield and told me to have a great day, but that I was going 15 miles over the speed limit (oops--must have still been in ambulance mode).
Upon arriving home, I greeted my husband, our house-mate, Jen, and our friend, Jon, who was spending the weekend. I snuck my bag into the bathroom, read the fine print directions, and peed on the stick. I set it next to me and immediately, I saw a "plus" sign indicating that it was positive. I re-read the directions three times to make sure I'd done it right, and ran a new one under the sink for comparison's sake. Keeping everything to myself, I took the last test the next morning. I was still pregnant.
Finding out you're pregnant causes a flood of conflicting emotions through your body and gives you this very strong urge to tell people. I wanted the "telling" to be special, though, so for 9 days after finding out, I savored this secret between God and me. I prayed over that baby and enjoyed this new found life. On the ninth day, My husband and I were going away for our anniversary. I created a treasure hunt that led my husband from our house to our hotel room an hour away. The last gift I gave him was a Willow Tree figurine of a mother and father holding a baby. An index card was enclosed with our due date written on one side: 10/20/08, and this verse on the other side "Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. (Psalm 127:3-5)."
My plan was for us to keep it a secret until we were done with the first trimester, but my husband would have none of it. We drove home the next day with small "grandparent" gifts for our parents to tell them the happy news with. Happy moments. :-)
How did you tell your family that you were pregnant?
I suspected I might be pregnant, so I took a test one morning, set it on the bathroom counter, then forgot all about it until I'd gotten my hubby off to work... When I found it upstairs (45 min later) and it was positive, I hatched a plan to share my news. Here's a link to the video I took as I spilled the beans:
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I told each person in a different way. My brother I told when he brought his son over. THey lived with us for a little while and I lean over and told my nephew that I was going to have to change "his" room in to a room for the baby. My brother went crazy with excitement. My mom, I played a trick on. My husband and I had been married 9 years when we decided to try for our first child. After finding out we were pregnant, I called my mom and pretended to be upset. When she asked what was wrong, I told her that things were changing and I did not think that my husband and I would make it as a couple anymore. She was very concerned as everyone always told us we were a great couple. After a bit, I told her that since we could not make it as a couple, we would have to try to make it as a family. She started screaming (and she was at work!). I was the first of my 4 siblings to get married and the last to have kids.
ReplyDeleteFrom the day I got pregnant I had suspicions that I was but didn't say anything as it was soemthing I had wanted for a long time but we weren't at that stage in our lives yet.
ReplyDeleteWhen my period was a few days late I mentioned it to my husband but we still didn't take a test as we were on vacation. 2 days before we were supposed to get home I really wanted to get the test but my husband asked me to wait - it was so hard!! Of course, by this time I was pretty sure but really needed to see the positive test.
We finally got home a day after our 1st anniversary and I went out and bought a test while he took a nap.
I had always wanted to share the news with my husband in a special way but I couldn't wait -it wasn't as if he was clueless at this point... So, I took the test and ran to the living room dancing, waking him up, and showing him the test. So original, huh?
When it was time to tell our parents (right away) we ordered gigantic fortune cookies and had a cute little baby poem put inside.