Ready or Not, Here He Comes!

I was staring at the ultrasound screen and completely intrigued that I had a little human growing happily inside me. I squeezed Bryan’s hand as he held mine and looked at him with love in my heart, because I knew he was just as excited as I was. We waited anxiously as the gynecologist took measurements of the baby, but WAIT, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to about a week before Christmas.

I was at my parents’ house babysitting my little sister when the doorbell rang. My parents were getting a new wifi service and in the midst of trying to instruct where the AT&T guy should enter the backyard from, my grandma asks kindly in Spanish, “Are you pregnant?” To be honest, my first reaction was to be offended because I thought she was commenting on my weight like she has in the past.

I said, “No! Why?”

She replied in her sweet tone, “I just was wondering, don’t get upset.” Then she walked away.

As I stood there and looked down at my tummy, I just thought to myself “What? No. I haven’t felt sick or nauseous. Damn, when was my last period?” I went to the full body mirror in the bathroom and observed myself from the side. I wasn’t sure if it was my workout tights or the form fitting hoodie I was wearing, but I began to see a bump that wasn’t there before.

I called Bryan and told him what had just happened and suggested that I take a pregnancy test. Taking the test was quite entertaining I might add, it wasn’t the usual pee on the stick test that you see in the movies. The instructions were to pee in a glass cup and with a mini syringe that came with the test, I had to pick up a few drops of urine and drop them into the pregnancy test. It took only a matter of seconds for those two pink vertical lines to appear. Bryan and I looked at each other with astonishment. We slowly began to laugh, partially because we were definitely in shock, but then more because we were just happy. He embraced me with a hug. I was blessed to know that the man that I love was going to stand by my side and raise this baby with me, in an environment full of love.

A few days later, we went to see my nurse practitioner to confirm that I was indeed pregnant. Now, I really had to make an educated guess as to when was my last period was and because I had been on birth control pills for quite a while, my period was always irregular. With all the holiday festivities, I didn’t even realize how much time had passed without getting my period. So, my doctor estimated I was about 14 weeks pregnant, but we wouldn’t have an exact answer until my ultrasound—two weeks from then. Christmas came and we had faith that when we told our families and friends, they would celebrate with love and joy, which is exactly how they did. It was truly a Christmas to remember.

Finally, January came along and we were headed to our first ultrasound. As the specialist started the ultrasound vaginally, we saw a picture of a big skull appear on the screen. “Uh yup, you are definitely not 14 weeks. I only specialize to measure the fetus until 14 weeks. Let me go get the doctor who is able to measure above 14 weeks.”

Here we are, back to the beginning of my story, as I’m holding Bryan’s hand. The doctor measures the baby’s head by using the cold gel and flat-head remote/handle thing that they use for typical ultrasounds. “Yeah, you’re about 29 weeks pregnant,” says the doctor with a smile on her face. Now, I wish I had recorded all of our reactions but if your jaw dropped then just go look in the mirror, because that was our same reaction too. I giggled and looked at Bryan, he had the same reaction as when we found out I was pregnant.

Most people, I feel, would be freaking out about something so big coming so soon, but ultimately, we received this news with such peace. We aren’t overwhelmed or stressed about our baby being only a few short months away. In fact, we are just thankful for all the blessings that have come and will be coming because of our baby. We know the great honor and responsibility it is to raise a child, so we will do everything in our power to raise him with love. All the other “fears” of not being ready or not having everything we “need” goes out of the window because our baby is being gifted with love first. Everything else will follow.