Mommy Talk

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How did you tell your spouse/sig. other you were pregnant?

Was he happy, surprised, upset, worried, etc?

How did you feel?

February 5th, 2004 - Sam's story
My period wasn't even late yet when I took a pregnancy test at work and got a positive result. My reaction includes an explative - that's how shocked I was. I waited three days to tell Brian because I knew I wanted to videotape his reaction when I told him. I was working very long hours and couldn't get to the store to buy a video camera right away. I hid the camera in a mound of laundry and had him come upstairs to get his Valentine's Day present. I modified the front of the card so it wouldn't give the surprise away right away. It used to read "Happy Valentine's Day Dad".

He opened the card that on the front read:
Once upon a time,
there was a very lucky kid
who loved a special dad
and all the fun things
that they did....

This is the inside of the card where I signed it "Love, Your Baby."


His present was the book, "Time for Bed", by Mem Fox. It is a sweet, sweet story about animal parents telling their babies it's time for bed. If I were more on the ball I'd have the video footage uploaded and you could see the shocked look on his face when he read the card. He asked if I were sure and I said "three tests sure". You'd also see him sniff his armpits because he wasn't sure if it were him perspiring or me. Obviously it was me because I was so anxious to tell him. I mean come on! I'd been keeping a huge secret for three whole days!!!!
The secret keeping continued because we didn't tell our families until we heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks. (I was about 4-5weeks when I took the test.) As far as "was he happy, surprised, upset, worried"..... We were both happy, very surprised and worried. We didn't have good health insurance at the time and weren't sure how we were going to afford the bills. God worked everything out though. Brian got a wonderful new job 6 months later and they graciously added us to their insurance program just in time. After only one month of paying our premiums we were covered for Sam's birth and prenatal care - all except for 16 cents. Funny how I never got a bill from the hospital.

Fast forward to January 19th, 2006 for Julia's story: This is now the second month of trying so I'd already had some negative tests (The worst was getting my period on Christmas Eve morning - no need for any more tests that month). I got the tests that you can take a few days before you expect your period so they aren't as accurate but I allowed myself to take one each morning, starting on the earliest possible day. On the 19th I took one in the morning - got a positive result and went to work orchestrating the video camera hiding again. This time it was hidden in Sam's closet so it would capture Brian reading a bedtime story to Sam. We had been ending story time with "Time for Bed" since Sam was born so it wasn't a big deal for Brian to pick it up and start reading: "It's time for bed little mouse, little mouse. Darkness is falling all over the house. It's time for bed little goose, little goose. The stars are out and on the loose. It's time for bed little foal little foal. I'll whisper a secret, but don't tell a soul. It's time for bed little sheep little sheep. The whole wide world is going to sleep. Then he read this new page I'd created:

Brian paused, smiled at me and said, "Is that why you had to go to Target?" Not exactly the reaction I was expecting. I replied, "No, we needed food." I had already had this new page hiding in my underwear drawer for a month.
I'd played out how I'd tell him over and over in my head and even with the silly Target comment I thought it went perfectly - Sam was involved, Brian was surprised, and I managed to capture both special moments on video for the kids to watch when they are older. Imagine seeing your dad's reaction when he found out he was going to be a daddy! I think that will be very cool for Sam and Julia to see.

Footnote:
We used the book to tell the rest of our families as well. They never suspected a thing when Brian suggested to his mom that she read Sam a story when he started getting restless after dinner one evening. My mom and one of my sisters were at our house one night at bedtime so we asked her to read Sam his stories.