I woke up this morning feeling...different. Hard to explain. Full. Bloated. Tingly. I felt different enough to prompt taking a pregnancy test.
From television and magazine articles, I had heard that pregnancy tests could be hard to read, but never thought this could be true. How hard could it be? You pee on a stick and one line means you are not pregnant and two lines means you are pregnant. Well, when I peed on the stick this morning, one line was BRIGHT pink and the other line, wait, was there another line? Was I just seeing another line? I decided that the test must be a cheap, faulty version and that just to be safe, I would buy another expensive, non-faulty test and take it later.
I headed up to Yakima for a board meeting stopping at Target on the way home to buy the fool proof test. I got home at around 2 pm and took the test, thoroughly reading the test directions beforehand. There, in the fine print, it said "the lines maybe different shades. They do not have to match." So it was official. There were two unmatching pink lines. I was pregnant.
Now what??
Do I tell Court? I mean how official is this stick that I just peed on?? How scientific can this be? I mean yesterday I wasn't pregnant. Now I am? Shouldn't I get some doctor confirmation before I go spreading the word? Yes, that is what I would do. I would wait to tell Court until I had seen a doctor and it was official.
BUT WAIT! In just a few hours, we were having dinner at Dave and Priscilla's with Tygh and Sarah where LOTS of wine was sure to be served. If I was pregnant, I couldn't drink anything. If I didn't drink anything, everyone would think I was crazy and start asking me a million questions why I wasn't drinking. Everyone would get suspicious and weird...ugh...it was looking like I was going to have to tell Court. At least we could decide together what the next step would be.
After having this thorough conversation with myself, it was already 3 pm. Dinner was at 6. Court had asked me to meet him at Dave and Priscilla's so he wouldn't have to backtrack from the office, to our house, and back to his parents' house. What to do....what to do?! This is BIG news. You can't just call your husband up at work and say I am pregant! It has to be memorable. Eventful. Right?
But I only had a few hours to pull something off. Compounding the problem was the fact that we live in the boondocks. I couldn't race down to a cute little baby store and pick up a onesie that says "I Love Dad" or something like that. I was going to have to be creative and I was going to have to be fast.
I decided to race up to Sunnyside because I remembered that there was a little store that carried some baby stuff. I just wanted a trinket of sorts that Court would see when he walked in the house...that he could put away and when he saw it again, 10, 20, 30 years later, he'd remember the day I told him we were pregnant with our first child. So what to buy? It had to be memorable!! Oh the pressure!! I wish I could've called Molly and ask her what to do...she is good at this stuff. But I couldn't call her because she didn't know that I was pregnant yet and I was adamant about telling her in person.
Upon arriving at the store, I realized that everything they offered was either a stuffed animal or some item in either pink or blue. Since I didn't know if I was really pregnant, let alone the sex, I couldn't but anything pink or blue. Plus, if I did buy something blue or pink, I was sure to jinx the pregnancy and whatever color I bought, would be wrong. So I decided to steer away from pink and blue.
Ok my parameters were laid out. So what to choose? Like I said, there was some stuffed animals. (didn't know what the theme of the nursery would be like so didn't want to jump the gun). There were silver boxes that held a child's first tooth or curl. (not what I was looking for) There was a silver birth certificate holder. (ugly) There were some containers that you press the kid's hand into when the are one, two, three, four and five...but again...that is jumping the gun a bit. I mean I wasn't for sure pregnant and this was day one - literally. Plenty of time later on for hand presses, right?
Finally, I saw it. A small, silver rattle. Simple. Elegant. Not pink or blue. It met all the criteria. Done. But I wasn't completely satisfied. I kept looking. I found a little burping blanket that said Daddy & Me. It had firetrucks and stuff on it - but I figured it was masculine for Daddy and didn't necessarily imply the sex of the baby. I also found a figurine of a child holding a balloon that said "Congrats" on the balloon. That was coming home with me as well. Finally, I found some ribbon. It was blue BUT it had the words "Delight in the day...it is a gift!" Because the message was so perfect, I decided to waive the non-blue requirement.
With the trinkets in hand, I got back in the car and started to race home. Now I had to manage to get Court home before the dinner. I called him at work and asked him to come home before the dinner so we could go together. He was instantly annoyed and asked me to justify why he needed to come home. "Please just come home. Let's go together." He agreed.
So I had him coming home before dinner. I had some stuff to give him. But now I had to decide how to give him all this stuff so it would be memorable. I had bought 30 yards of ribbon so I decided to thread the ribbon throughout the house with little "stops" along the way. The ribbon started at the back door. I tied it to a chair and put the chair right next to the door. I taped a card to the chair that said on the outside, "Court follow the ribbon. No cheating. Take card with you but open at the end of the ribbon." I strung the ribbon through the kitchen. The first stop was near our kitchen knives where I put a positive pregnancy test. The ribbon continued to the bathroom where I placed the second pregnancy test just so he would know that I wasn't messing around. The ribbon then lead to the dining room table where I placed the rattle and the figurine. The last and final stop was in our tv room next to our wedding picture. There I placed the Daddy and Me burper.
Done, right? Wrong. I couldn't follow along with him when he traveled the ribbon route but I wanted to see his expression along the way...what to do?? VIDEO CAMERA! I placed the video camera on the kitchen counter so that it would record his reaction when he walked in. I wasn't savvy enough to figure out how to capture each of the stations but I figured at least there would be sound. All was set and I had an hour to spare! Now, I just had to wait for him to come home.
At ten til 6, he called. He was on his way home and wanted me to come and jump into his truck when he got there. Ugh! Now I would have to lure him into the house without giving it away.
Enter Lindey and Lucky - the cutest dogs in the world. I found some gift wrap bows in the closet and tied one to each dog. When Court pulled up, I sent the dogs out, turned the camera on and hid in the den. Showtime!
It worked! The dogs lured Court into the house. Upon entry into the house, he saw the ribbon madness all over the house and said "Oh shit." He follwed the ribbon to the first station and instantly started sobbing. I thought he would never move on to the remaining stations...but he finally did. He cried the whole way! Finally, when he went to the tv room, I jumped out, grabbed the camera and taped his final moments on the ribbon route.
Needless to say he was thrilled, exstatic and happy! yay! A total success!
Now, what to do about the dinner? We went back and forth - tell his parents, not tell his parents. We made a pro and con list as follows:
Pro Con
-honest -false test
-excited to share -it was early
-Tygh and Sarah are home so could tell -we hadn't had time to wrap
them in person our heads around it
-easy way out of the wine situation
We decided to share.
It is funny but we were both really nervous and scared to tell his parents. I don't know exactly why. I guess no matter how old you get, you always feel like a child when around your parents.
So, we walked into the house. Dave started to talk to me about Kodi's vet visit (he's ok - thank god!) and Court walked over to Priscilla and handed her the silver rattle that I had given Court only a few minutes before. She didn't get it at first and said something like, why are you giving me this? I don't have a baby. And Court said...not yet! But in about 9 months you will! I think everyone figured it out then and all were excited and happy.
It was a total whirlwind for me. I hadn't had time to really wrap my head around this pregnancy. I had been so focused on how to share it with everyone else and to make it memorable for them, that I hadn't even let myself feel excited or scared. It didn't feel real. If anything, I just felt overwhelmed because all of a sudden I was supposed to have this plan for the baby...Nursery colors and whether the kid would ski or snowboard first. I was completely overwhelmed.
Looking back, I am glad we told Court's side of the family when we did because Tygh and Sarah were home and we were all together. But I can see why people do wait a bit to tell their families. It is life changing and the couple needs time to just let it sink in and explore all of their emotions.
Now to tell my parents!!
eat at the same old restaurants and are enjoying California weather. Some days, I feel like I 
never lived there. Other days, it feels like I just left. When I go back, I can't imagine leaving. I never understood when my parents told me how lucky I was to grow up in Sonoma because as a kid, I thought it was the most boring place on Earth. What did I care about wine country and vineyards?? I wasn't old enough to drink. I remember standing in line for a movie at the Sebastiani theater and a couple from Miami, Florida telling my friends and I how lucky we were to live in such a great place. We thought the couple was crazy. But the crazy couple was right...and so were my parents. 
eat at the same old restaurants and are enjoying California weather. Some days, I feel like I 
never lived there. Other days, it feels like I just left. When I go back, I can't imagine leaving. I never understood when my parents told me how lucky I was to grow up in Sonoma because as a kid, I thought it was the most boring place on Earth. What did I care about wine country and vineyards?? I wasn't old enough to drink. I remember standing in line for a movie at the Sebastiani theater and a couple from Miami, Florida telling my friends and I how lucky we were to live in such a great place. We thought the couple was crazy. But the crazy couple was right...and so were my parents. 
