Hellobee

I remember the moment I found out that I was pregnant… I just could not believe it. I had gone my whole life thinking about becoming a parent one day and then suddenly,  it happened. It’s funny how it can take you by surprise, even if you’re hoping or expecting it. I remember that I kept thinking once she’s born and I look at her face, it’ll all be real. But now that she’s here, crawling around being my silly baby girl, I still have to pinch myself.  I look at the miracle that she is and can’t believe God blessed us with such a healthy, sweet, and funny baby.

To start at the beginning, baby fever began creeping up on us around January of 2012. A couple in our church’s community group had just recently had a baby, and seeing them all together really sparked something in us. I wasn’t on birth control and hadn’t been for several years (I suffered extremely dry eyes as a complication and stopped taking it). So whenever we were ready, I was ready. After two months of not preventing pregnancy (really, we were pretty much trying), I found myself picking up a pregnancy test on my way home from work on a Friday afternoon. I knew my period was due to start that day, so it was pretty early to test, but I was too excited and couldn’t help it. I got home, took the test, and it was negative. Oh well, not this month.

Fast forward to 4:30 AM that following Monday morning. Mr. Deer left for work extremely early because his ship was leaving for the week to do some training exercises. I had trouble falling back to sleep, so I decided to get up and start my day. I still hadn’t gotten my period, and I remembered that I had another pregnancy test left since I had bought a two-pack. I felt so sure it would be negative, but decided to try anyway. I remember waiting a couple of minutes, casually brushing my teeth and washing my face (because really, I just knew it wasn’t going to be positive). After a few minutes I realized it had probably been enough time, so I picked up the pregnancy test to check it. And there they were — two very pink lines.

I was beyond shocked. I remember I started crying and immediately sat right down on the bathroom floor. I couldn’t believe it; we were going to be parents! I couldn’t wait to tell Mr. Deer! Then it hit me — I was going to have to go the entire week keeping the news to myself. How was I going to manage that? I knew he hadn’t reached the ship yet so I could call him… but that wasn’t how I wanted to do it. I had always imagined telling him by placing little baby sneakers in his hands, and that’s what I was going to do so I would just have to wait.

Time moved at a snail’s pace that week. After what seemed like months of waiting, Friday finally came and his ship pulled back into port. That morning I went and bought some balloons to have around the house, a mix of white, pink, and blue. I wrote Baby C (what we had been calling our baby-to-be) and our due date on one of them, then placed them around the room. I was able to find the little shoes I wanted and before I headed out the door, I placed them and the pregnancy test under a throw pillow on our couch. Everything was ready.

Before I could pick him up though, as if the anticipation wasn’t enough, there was a Hail and Farewell dinner that night (in the Navy it’s where you welcome newcomers to the ship and say goodbye to those leaving). So I had to drive up to the base, meet Mr. Deer, and then sit through a dinner without telling him. Oh my goodness it was so hard! A friend of his on the ship had just recently had a baby, and I remember Mr. Deer looking over at them and saying, “Wow, that’s going to be us someday.” Oh if he only knew! I just nodded and smiled.

As we were driving home, I told him I had a surprise for him.

Once we walked in, I had him close his eyes and I led him to the couch so he could sit down (I didn’t want him to see the balloons right away). While his eyes were still closed, I pulled out the baby shoes and set them in his hands. I had told him about my desire for these cute baby sneakers before, and that I wanted to use them in our pregnancy announcement when the time came. When he opened his eyes, he saw the shoes and said, “Oh, you got baby shoes huh? You just couldn’t wait.”

He thought I just went out and bought them because I was so excited!

I looked at him and said, “No, I got them because we’re going to be needing them.” It was then that he looked up, saw the balloons, the pregnancy test, and took it all in.

It was a very awesome moment and I’m so glad that I waited that week to tell him in person.

We wanted to tell our friends and family right away since we were both so excited. We knew it was early in the pregnancy and that there was always the risk of a miscarriage, but we decided that if anything happened we would want the support of our family and good friends. I did wait until after the first trimester to tell my coworkers and announce it on Facebook though. Besides telling Mr. Deer, I was very excited to figure out how to tell our family.

Like I mentioned, I wanted to incorporate the baby sneakers into a photo announcement. We decided it would be cute to take a picture of all of our shoes and to write the announcement out in chalk on the sidewalk. My mom was out of town at the time, so we had to wait two weeks before we could gather everyone to tell them. We had a barbecue at our house and invited everyone over (my mom, his parents, sister, brother-in-law, and our niece). For my mom and his parents, we printed out our sidewalk chalk picture, framed it, and had them open it. It took them all a second to read it and really take it in, but boy were they thrilled! Then when Mr. Deer’s sister came over a few minutes later, we had our niece open up a present that had a little t-shirt that said, “I’m going to be a big cousin.” It was awesome to see everyone’s excitement and to get to spend the evening together.

How did you let your significant other and your families know that you were pregnant?