We've had a crazy week. I think I've told all of our close family and friends about our big news, but if I missed you, I apologize...
After 12 years of marriage, Dave and I are finally pregnant!
We'd all but given up hope and figured if we were meant to have a child, God would provide. Well, now he has! I'm only 7 weeks along, so it's still early days. Our first ultrasound is next week - I can't wait! So far I haven't had much morning sickness - just extremely tired and moody. Due date is expected to be May 5th.
I knew I was a couple of weeks late, but that has happened before so I fully expected the home test to come up negative. It didn't. Dave and I were quite shocked. I called him upstairs because I was sure I was seeing things and he had to ask - "is there a big spider or something in the bathroom?" Later, I said he had the "deer-in-the-headlights" look about him (he was supposedly watching a movie, but I'm not sure he got much out of it). As a result, we only got 2-3 hours of sleep last Tuesday night.
I went in to the clinic the next morning and had it confirmed. Dave felt he really needed to talk with someone so he visited Pastor Chris ... she's only been our interim pastor since mid-August, so first he had to introduce himself! Then he said he ended up "comforting" her (handing her kleenex) as much as she was helping him!
I ended up telling my manager almost right away and left work because I couldn't concentrate. We drove down, "kidnapped" Dad from work and went back to my parent's place. Dave said we wanted to talk to them concerning something that we'd been thinking about for quite a while. The opportunity had presented itself and we'd decided to go with it and we really valued their opinion. [Meanwhile, they're thinking this has something to do with finances or the business.]. Would they mind giving us some input into how we should decorate the nursery?
I had him say it because I wouldn't have been able to with a straight face.
We called my sister and told her to come over. She complained that she had a migraine and didn't feel like driving. Nothing was getting her to budge, so finally I got on the phone, and the conversation went something like this:
- "Auntie Katie is requested to come to Grandma and Grandpa's [house]."
- "What?"
- "Auntie Katie is requested to come to Grandma and Grandpa's."
- "WHAT?!?"
- "Auntie Katie is requested to come to Grandma and Grandpa's."
- [total silence]
I fully expected her to scream over the phone, but to render my sister speechless was PRICELESS! It's funny though ... her migraine suddenly disappeared in the drive over to our parent's house!
We had to wait and tell Dave's parents until Friday. His mother makes dozens of quilted baby blankets each year and donates them. He brought one over to her and asked if she'd make us one. She said yes, but why? [thinking she wasn't going to make one for the DOG!] That's when he said we'd need one. Her response was: "Well! I think I'm going to fall over." Fortunately she was already sitting down and didn't
. We're completely messing up the Nuland family time-line - since they already have 6 grandchildren, 6 greats and a few "steps". We had already planned on seeing his parents on that weekend because on Sunday we celebrated the 2nd annual Nuland family reunion. So EVERYONE found out that day! There were a lot of "congratulations", "we're very happy for you", and even one "it's about time!"
We also had to tell our good friends Mike & Lucy right away. Since Lucy is an OB RN, she asked if she could be our doula. We had no idea what that was, but when she explained that it's a birth assistant, we'd already discussed the fact that we wanted her there. She's pretty excited.
Some of the other funny comments we've gotten from friends and family:
- Uncle Erlan says Grandpa can babysit because then they (Grandpa and baby) could take naps together!
- "Aunt" Gail says we don't have to worry about camping with the baby next summer - we probably won't even SEE the baby except for feeding time.
- "Uncle" Mike says he needs to stay in shape so he can train another athlete.
- And from the co-workers: "Baby pool!" (I said they could wait a few months)
I'll try and post regularily to keep everyone up-to-date on how the pregnancy is proceeding... Just remember to keep us in your prayers, please.
Just walking around would have been interesting enough, but I learned a lot about Mom & Dad growing up on their respective farms and of course, we had the historian with us to fill in additional information. They had homemade butter and cheese to taste, demonstrations of threshing, spearing tobacco leaves, separating cream/milk, shelling corn, etc. It was a gorgeous day for walking around!
(That's Dave comparing notes with the "old-timers" about how they work tobacco).
