And So It Begins...

I like to joke with my husband about his tendency to take FOREVER to make decisions. Buying a car, what to order at a restaurant, which peanut butter pretzels to buy ...... proposing........After knowing each other for sooooooo long, he waited almost 15 years after we started dating, to propose. But once he did, it was on! I was in full planning mode, which I completely enjoyed! My wedding theme turned out to be rain. We had a lovely bridal shower in my mom and dad's yard. It rained and rained and we were stuck under a tent the whole time. It was still beautiful and so fun. No one could escape, as I was seated to open presents at the only exit of the tent. I waited 15 years for this, no one was going anywhere!  Which I actually announced at the shower.  Believe me, everyone at that shower had been waiting just as long as me, so no one was planning to go anywhere! Needless to say, I was 34 when I had my long-awaited walk down the aisle. It rained and rained the day of our wedding (there was a hurricane that day actually - it was the 10 year anniversary of THE Perfect Storm - should have known) but we had a beautifully cozy wedding and the time of our lives. Although, if ONE MORE PERSON told me that rain on your wedding day meant good luck, I would have screamed!!!

So as a girl in her mid thirties, now married to a man who could take weeks to decide whether to order the baked stuffed shrimp or the fried clam plate - I started thinking about kids. I am an only child (don't judge!) and never minded. I always knew I wanted kids and liked the idea of having at least 2. My thoughts weren't as much about when I wanted to have kids, but more about how to get this over-thinker husband of mine, ready to think/talk/decide about kids. I had already come to terms with the fact that I would probably only have one child. I figured that by the time I

a.) convinced him he's ready for children
b.) assured him that it's the "right time" for children - whatever that means
c.) had the baby and convinced him that "it wasn't so bad, we should have another"

I would be too old to have any other children. So I was happy with the idea of one healthy, happy, cherubic tot! And here's where the story takes a turn.

Five months after our honeymoon, I started to feeling kind of sick. When I told the ladies at work how I was feeling, their immediate response was, "oh, you're pregnant." I was like, no, no, I couldn't be. Took a test, and yup - they were right. We weren't trying to have kids at this point but we really weren't "not" trying either. I was almost scared to tell my husband, I thought he might be upset that I didn't give him enough time to make this admittedly big decision. So he saw the test at the same time I heard a knock at our back door. I had forgotten that we had made plans with his brother and his wife to go to dinner. He bounded out the bathroom door, and down the stairs asking, "Do we tell them, do we tell them?" like a little boy who can't wait to tell a secret. "NO", I yelled, knowing that the "rule" is to wait 3 months. So I grabbed my pocketbook, apparently put on shoes and went to dinner with my brother in law and his wife. 5 minutes after finding out I was pregnant. Of course I ordered a greek salad wrap and soon after it was set in front of me, vagely remembered something about not eating feta cheese while pregnant. Great. I called my doctor the next morning and told the woman who answered the phone that I thought I was pregnant. Her response...."ok?" Isn't that what you do? Keep it a secret from everyone for 3 months and call your doctor right away? That's all I DID know....I mean, that's what they do on tv....

So then I find out my due date and what that meant for the rest of my pregnancy. I was "advanced maternal age". Loved that. I took that as I'm O -L -D. I was going to be over 35 when I delivered my baby, so I was automatically considered as having an at-risk pregnancy. Soon after convincing the receptionist at my doctor, that I would like a medical professional to confirm that I peed on a stick properly, they sent me in for an ultrasound. I mean, I WAS an ancient 34, so I would obviously need an immediate ultrasound. My husband came with me and followed me into the room where the tech sent me into a little curtained off corner of the room to put on my gown. I listened as he tried to make nervous small talk with her. She wanted no part of it. I came out and lay down and the ultrasound began. My husband tells the story of how the tech began and gave him a funny look. He was terrified and thought, "oh no, there's no baby". To hear him tell it, this look/silent conversation he had with the tech went on for 10 minutes, in reality it was about 2-3 seconds - I missed the whole thing. She said, "are you ready?" and looked at both of us......repeatedly, like we should a) know what we're looking at or b) know what she's thinking. We said yes, as she kept looking between the 2 of us, and then she said it. "There's 2".  I couldn't even LOOK at him. I just started laughing. I thought, "oh my god, he's going to be so mad. I didn't give him any time to decide to have A baby, nevermind to have 2!!!" Then I heard him laugh. She printed out a bunch of little pictures for us, and we walked back out to the waiting room to wait to meet with the doctor.  I was hoping they weren't making us wait and talk to the doctor because we laughed when we heard, "there's 2".  Was that an inappropriate reponse?  Were we already bad parents?  We sat in the waiting room, laughing sporadically, both of us feeling like we had this big secret that NO ONE had EVER had before. It was fun. I miss that feeling, it was definitely a special time.

Our parents happened to be planning to be at our house at the same time later that day. We were having new counter tops put in - oooooooooo - exciting!!! My mom is a cryer, I knew she'd bawl her eyes out in happiness! I showed her the pics of my 2 beautiful babies, (obviously none of us could decipher what the heck we were looking at, but oh how adorable!) AND.........nothing! I said, "Look mom, there's 2". She said "Na-uh". She DIDN'T BELIEVE ME! She thought I was kidding, and I really had to convince her it was true. She was in shock. I barely got any response from her, nevermind the tears of joy I KNEW I would get! Everyone else just kept laughing, Chris and I included. Little did we know, what we were in for.