After the initial shock and disbelief passed, reality sank in. My health insurance was expiring at the end of the summer, if not sooner. After a quick flurry of research, we discovered two things: 1. No one will insure a woman who is already pregnant and cover the maternity expenses, and 2. It's really bloody expensive to have a baby without insurance. Quite a pickle. But I put on my best Scarlett O'Hara and decided to think about that tomorrow... After all, tomorrow is another day! Our next big problem loomed... Who to tell first? And how?!
Our decision was made pretty easy by the fact that we were heading to Louisville to spend time with my family for my birthday. It was a pretty momentous occasion, as most of y'all know (I'm sure if you're reading this blog, you were probably at the party!) because it was the first birthday I'd spent in Louisville since pre-9/11 [another story for another entry]. But it was also momentous because it was the last big party we were throwing at The Compound. I was ready to burst with the good news of our little bun in my oven, but it was way too soon to tell everyone. So if you were at the party and didn't find out I was pregnant till several weeks later, I'm really sorry! I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't.
All that being said, the occasion presented itself with Mom and Daddy buying a new house (now dubbed Compound 2.0, as it's a major upgrade). Michael and I decided to take them out to dinner, and since I'd never been, I suggested we go to Morton's Steakhouse. When we sat down and got situated, I asked my parents what they were planning on doing around mid-February and Mom said, "Oh, I don't know? Having a baby?" I said, "Well, actually, yeah!" And again, if you're reading this, you probably know my mom (or at least have heard stories...) and her overwhelming sense of subtlety and decorum. She yells out, "No $#iT?!" and starts crying. Daddy starts misting up. Hubs starts tearing up. And of course, me being a big ball of hormones and nerves, I start to cry. We have a lovely dinner and head back to the house to continue spreading the good news to our family. Michael called his parents and his brother and sister-in-law and, of course, everyone was happy for us! As my sister put it, who's going to actually say, "Oh, well. It's a baby. Big deal."
There was also one other person who found out before my parents: my sweet friend Jessica. She had just had twins in November 2009 and knew the struggles I was having with getting pregnant. She and her mother let me borrow a cherished family heirloom, "for luck". Mama Lolly's sister had brought back an African fertility goddess statuette after a trip to Africa some 30 years before. Upon receiving the gift from her sister, Mama Lolly got pregnant with Jess about six months later. Being the good mom that she is, she passed along the statuette to Jess when she and her husband decided to start trying to get pregnant. Very soon after that, Jess got pregnant with her miracle twins! So these two lovely women passed on the goddess to me... And lo and behold, one week later I conceived our son. I guess I'm lucky it was just the one baby! I made it a point to return the statuette to Jessi the day we were taking Mom & Daddy to dinner. Mom was happily playing with the twins and my niece Maggie in the next room and Jess asked me to let her know when we were done with the fertility goddess, that her sister-in-law had a need to borrow it. I told her that I had, in fact, brought it with me that day- and that it worked! We both started to cry and hug and I have no idea how we survived not tipping Mom off to something being up.
The next afternoon, Michael and I met up with my sister for lunch and to tell her the Big News. She knew... We're pretty close, but she just took one look at me after I told her we wanted to tell her something and said, "I'm going to be an aunt!" We laughed and said yes... We also cautioned her not to tell anyone else, that we were keeping this very, very quiet because it was so early. As soon as her boyfriend Dave showed up to meet us for lunch, she turned around and blurted, "I'm going to be an aunt!" So much for secrecy! That night, we all went to dinner with my grandparents and Daniel (Maggie's dad) and we found a fun way to tell them about the pregnancy: Their 60th anniversary was on Valentine's Day 2011. So I wrote them a little note on the back of the specials menu that said: "Shhh, it's a secret. Happy early anniversary! We're having a baby in mid-February!" My grandmother read it, and quickly snapped the paper up to her chest so no one else could see it. She just stared at me. She then passed it over to my grandfather, who almost blurted it out to the whole room! We also told Daniel that night... Slowly our good news was going public.
I have no idea how I survived the next weeks in Louisville without bursting at the seams. My first trimester was really a breeze. No major morning sickness, but I had to have my McDonald's Chicken McNuggets at least once a week and had to (had to) have ice cream before 4:00pm every day. My daily naps were also awesome. I did have a minor problem with some spotting, and I completely freaked out about that. Lucky for me, my old OB/GYN (who is now just a Gyn.) was still around and told me to go see her husband's partner if I needed reassurance. Sadly, Michael had already left to go back to Birmingham (while I stayed home to help Mom with the move) and he wasn't there for this amazing experience. The doctor's office was very quick about getting me in for the ultrasound. So quick, in fact, that it scared me a little... Why the rush if it was probably nothing? But I get back into the room and Nurse Vicki showed me the first images of our baby... I heard his heartbeat, strong and fast, and burst into tears (I'm welling up now at the mere memory). She handed me some Kleenex and got my cell phone out so we could call Michael- he couldn't get to his phone fast enough so I had to leave him a voice-mail, but he called me back and was able to still hear the heartbeat. We both cried, we were so happy! Dr. Link saw me afterward and let us know our estimated due date of February 20, 2011 and that the little bugger looked to be well implanted and progressing normally.
Now, with the first major hurdles out of our way, and the reassuring news that the baby was fine, we slowly started to tell our nearest and dearest our amazing news.
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| The little bugger at 8 weeks |
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| We dropped a bomb on them, baby! |
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