11.09.2007

Yeah, baby!

There’s no use holding back any longer …

Kates and I are having a baby!

If you don’t want to read further, that’s fine. The answers are yes, it was planned. No, we’re not finding out the sex. And Kates -- other than a little bit of nausea in the beginning, wanting to tear apart her face because the acne is so bad and, well, looking pregnant -- is doing just fine.

As of this post, the pregnancy is at exactly 17 weeks, 5 days. April 10 has been circled on the calendar as the due date. And a piece of paper has been affixed to our kitchen table with the headline “names.” So far, the number of girls names is about three times as large as the list of boys names -- which is too bad because it appears Kates and I are almost sure of our girl’s name. A boy’s name is still being debated …

And tonight we‘ve come home with our first baby pictures …

But let’s start at the beginning.

We’d been talking about starting a family for awhile -- but it only made sense to wait until after Kates finished her masters degree in December. I hate to say we set such a definitive timeline, but it’s kind of the truth. For a couple years now, whether the subject came up during discussions about our jobs, finances, house projects or whatever, summer 2008 we figured was going to be our time …no matter how many family members and friends poked and prodded and pretty much begged us to have children almost immediately after we completed our walk down the aisle …

There were times, too, that we doubted whether it might never happen for us …

But it has happened. On the morning of the first Sunday in August Kates called me to the bathroom. I’m not sure if it was the sound of her voice, but there was something that told me this could be it. In the bathroom, there Kates sat, holding a pregnancy test. (Interestingly we had been at a gathering the night before where an acquaintance had learned she was pregnant; we had had a ton of fun that night talking about name possibilities and all the things that come with being pregnant … )

“Look,” Kates says as I met her in the bathroom.

It was positive. Dumbfounded, I asked, “What does that mean?”

“I’m pregnant,” she said with a huge smile on her face.

I was speechless. I wasn’t sure what to say, how to react, what to feel. I began laughing.

As usual, we went to church later that morning, but giddy as heaven can be. And yet we couldn’t say a word to anyone …

The next day, I went off to work, while Kates went to school to meet a friend who is partnering with her for their masters work. But we were prepared to drop everything if we needed because Priority No. 1 that day, we thought, was getting a doctor’s appointment to confirm the pregnancy … Or not. When Kates called her doctor’s office and said she might be pregnant, the nurse told her the doctor didn’t want anything to do with her until she reached the 10-week mark -- not in those words of course, but pretty much in those terms. This is all new to us, you’ll have to understand

We had our first appointment with the doc during the second week of September, but even that offered nothing to feed our excitement. A nurse examined Kates and asked us several questions while she filled out paperwork. Then the doc came into the room to ask more questions and answer any questions we had. Still, almost everything they told us we’d figured out or learned on our own with a little research. They gave the baby’s due date as April 10, and we already had it pegged as April 9. So what’s one day

So, with that first appointment out of the way, Kates and I agreed we could finally start letting our immediate family and closest friends in on the secret. We met Kates’ parents on a Friday night for dinner (As we arrived at the house, her father was just arriving himself, with a bouquet of flowers in tow. He already had us figured out … ), and we headed to my folks the next day (When I called them earlier that week to suggest we make the 90-minute trek to visit them, my mother actually tried to talk me out of it, saying “What’s going on!? Why do you guys need to come here?”) Needless to say, all of them were elated when we broke the news …

The first part of October brought another doctor’s appointment, and more to stifle our excitement. There were a couple more tests. The nurse tried to find a heartbeat but couldn’t do it. And then we had to see a different doctor because Kates’ usual doctor was off for the day. Even then, he didn’t give us a chance to ask any new questions we had …

After that second appointment, with Kates entering her second trimester, we let our extended family, co-workers, church family and more friends in on the news …

Finally, this week it’s started to sink in. It’s been a week filled with realizations that hey! this is really happening! and relief that everyone is healthy … I’m feeling like no matter how I write it here, no words can accurately describe the anxiety, the glee or the euphoria we’re feeling these days …

Kates’ belly is growing and our Wednesday appointment finally brought a chance to hear the baby’s heartbeat. It was healthy and strong. … And on Friday we were back at the hospital again, this time for our first ultrasound. By all accounts the baby is doing very well, it’s got two hands and two feet, each with a complete set of fingers and toes. We got our first look at its face, its tiny bones and some of its organs …

Simply, amazing.


Now we’re home. We’re watching “Bend It Like Beckham.” We’ve never seen it. I’m not liking it. Awful soundtrack. Not nearly as exciting as what we were doing a couple hours ago …

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations to both of you! It couldn't happen to better people.

Is this why you're so into the Mamas and the Papas lately? (See how I did that? Full circle, full circle.)

Can't wait to meet the future second baseman/woman.

Congrats!


Matt and Lynne

E and K said...

FINAllY! I have been waiting for this post since I saw you guys at the reunion. There was just something about the way you were both acting...the way you looked at the babies at the reunion picnic, a couple of vague answers you gave...I was suspicious : ) I am very excited for both of you! Congratulations : ) I love hearing about it so post more updates as you have them! Congrats, again : )