Dear Hope: The announcement, gender reveal and babymoon.

Dear Hope,

The next day, I researched how to tell your husband you’re pregnant. I found a cute card and bought poppy seeds. At that time, you were only the size of a poppy seed so I figured it would be a good thing to put in the card. That night, I took another test to make sure. It was positive again and I filled out the card in the bathroom. I brought it down and gave it to Dad during dinner. He was mad at me that day so I played it off as an “I’m sorry” card. I think he knew something was up when I started taping him. I wanted to capture the moment and glad I did. He was so excited!! I was still nervous but to see the joy on his face was priceless.

The next day, we told your grandparents (your Dad’s side). Mark’s mom wanted to retire whenever we (or his sister) had a baby. We printed out some papers and stuck a piece of paper in the middle that read “Grandma’s mandatory retirement date fall 2015”. At first they didn’t get it but then it clicked and everyone was so happy.

We told my parents the next day by giving them a picture of our dog next to a sign that read “Big sister duty starts fall 2015”. My mom and sister got it right away but my dad thought we were telling him the dog was pregnant. He was super exited after my mom told him what it meant.

I was still scared of being pregnant. I wasn’t sure how life would be with a baby or what kind of mom I would be. As time went on, my fears lessened and I started enjoying the fact we had a baby on the way. My coworkers were excited for me and perhaps their reactions are why I was nervous about the pregnancy. I started the job in May (2014) and took two weeks off in October for my wedding and honeymoon. I didn’t want to them to think I was unreliable because I would be taking off to have a baby one year later. However, it was nothing like I imagined and I was nervous for nothing.

I had a pretty good pregnancy. We were low risk and I only had one instance where I had morning sickness. I had an achy back but I was use to that so I couldn’t complain. The first five months few by! We (mostly I) decided to have a gender reveal party. It seemed to be the thing to do so why not!? Mark wanted to know right away but I thought a party would be more fun. Our 5 month ultra sound went great. Everything was measuring normal and you were moving around. Before the tech asked if we wanted to know, she said how you were going to be a pitcher because you was moving around so much.

For the next couple of weeks, we guessed if you would be a boy or girl. Daddy’s birthday was on June 22^nd and we had a doctor’s appointment. Once again, everything was normal. The next day, we had a terrible storm. Within minutes, our cute town was destroyed. We lost power for almost 5 days. One of those 5 days included your gender reveal party. We had family and friends gather in the house (and outside) with no power. Luckily we had a generator for the fridge and the weather was cool.

We were so surprised to find out you were a girl. I think Dad was a little nervous because he wasn’t expecting to find pink icing in the cupcakes. However, the next couple of days he warmed up to the idea. He even picked out the theme of your nursery, cherry blossoms. Looking back, it was ironic he picked out a theme that stood for how fragile life is.

After that, we started getting clothes from our online community yard sale and the occasional store bought clothes. Before we knew it, we had tons of clothes for you. The following week we went down to Pittsburgh to visit your Great Grandparents. It was a nice vacation and you moved all around when Jeff (your Uncle) played the guitar. You even did great on the five hour car ride!

The following week wasn’t great. I woke up with a UTI (or thought so). I had to go to the doctors right away. They gave me a prescription and sent me on my way. The pain was so bad! I could hardly move. The nurse said I may experience some contractions and that scared me. I could not take this pain, how was I going to deliver? That Friday, I had to get another ultrasound to check my kidneys. Everything turned out good and we go to see you again on the screen.

That was a great way to start our babymoon. We were heading down the shore to have one last vacation before you came. It ended up more like a familymoon when your Grandfather and Aunt came down too. It’s OK though, we still had a great time. You went to the zoo and boardwalk. Dad even won you a small dolphin by throwing darts at a balloon. It was such a nice time.

It these moments that I am going to cherish forever. When I am sad, I need to think of the happier times to get me through.

Miss you ton!
Mom