Superbowl Discovery!

We started having suspicions when I missed Freddie's visit.  This has happened before, but when it did, I was freaking out from the PMS, so David knew I was most definitely not pregnant.  This time, I missed it, and was all "meh, whatever."  He knew it was time to panic.  The girls were sore, I was skipping hunger and going straight to nausea, and not even cramping a little. 

So, we grabbed a cheap pregnancy test at Walmart and I took it just before we left for our Super Bowl party.  The control bar was a light pink, but the cross bar was dark and clear.  I thought at first that they switched the bars.  Apparently, though, that's a decent sign that there were oodles of hormones just dying to enjoy their rampage around my body.  

David had the genius idea to get a few people praying for us.  We don't want to announce it yet because of the decently high percentage of first-babies that don't implant.  I'd hate to start calling our parents "Grandma/Grandpa" and then have to announce a miscarriage.  So, I told Bailee and Jess, David told Steve (because he sold us the prenatal vitamins) and Brian and Anna. 

Brian and Anna are the most incredible couple in the universe!  They have 3 boys, all under the age of 5.  Brian is David's internship "boss" and is the discipleship pastor at our church.  Anna is a stay-at-home mom and takes care of their little boys.  They decided the day David told them about it to take us out to dinner.  They gave us great practical advice--who is a really good OB practice, when to make an appointment, what to expect next, and offered us some books to check out.  But beyond that, they gave us assurance that we weren't going to die, we were going to be ok. 

"It bothers me when people say things like 'your love is over because you have kids.'  I have just as much fun dating my husband now as I did before we had kids, because we're intentional about getting time together," Anna told me.  They also said,

"Not that I expect you to be at this place or anything, but our last one was unplanned like yours.  It was really cool knowing that God did this, it wasn't our plan, and He knows exactly what He's doing." 

"Yeah," David admitted, "I know that intellectually, but not having experienced it is very different." 

Brian told us to "consider it as if you owe your first child an apology.  You have to learn this by trial and error.  If you go through it already understanding that you owe that one an apology, it gives you the grace to go through it."

"Yes," Anna said, "I think God's biggest gift to parents is that the kid won't remember the first couple of years.  You'll look back and think, 'why did I do that?'"  They laughed, probably remembering a few things they did for which they're going to apologize to their oldest in a few years. 

On the way out, David asked what he should look forward to or "handle" next.  They said to look out for the mood swings, and shared a story of one of Anna's most dramatic. 

"Just decide ahead of time that you're going to laugh about it one day.  Have fun with it together!"  Anna encouraged us. 

"Maybe I'll write a blog about it."  I said. 

And that's precisely what I plan to do.  I think I'll write myself a few reminders.  I've been working on my responses when I get emotional for PMS, so this will be worse.  But I've discovered I can't control how I feel, but I can control how I deal with that feeling (at least for now). 

David is super gracious and responds to my emotional basket case self by taking me in his arms and quietly talking to me and holding me and helping me until I calm down.  He'll go out of his way to be there for me, and he's eerily able to know before I do exactly what's going on.  I'll be feeling like I want to do some housework, and he'll know I'm about to get grouchy.  This kind of man is rare, but it's a tremendous relief to know I have a super supportive husband who will be walking with me through this.