The Happiest of New Years

Before I get to the fun stuff I want to say thank you to the many wonderful people who responded to my last post. I was pretty nervous about how others would receive it. It just felt a little weird sharing a personal experience with something that I know is fairly common, but not often discussed. I didn't know what people would think, but the responses I got were all incredibly encouraging, uplifting, and eye opening. I was again surprised to learn of so many people in my life who have struggled with the exact same thing. I just never knew! It was so nice to connect with so many of you who could relate to our experience and offer words of friendship and understanding. So, thank you again for your outpouring of love and support. We love you all!

As promised in that post, I am writing today about the experience of finding out I was pregnant. Its been a long time since I've written a fun post and I am excited. :)

I decided to take the dreaded pregnancy test on December 31, 2013. I always take tests when I am home alone and I was sick of having those disappointing moments by myself, so I wanted to take this one with Jordan home. As most couples who have "tried" before know, it is best to take the test first thing in the morning. When Jordan got up for work that morning at the crack of dawn, I was cranky and decided there was no way in heck I was getting out of bed yet. So that plan went out the door pretty quickly. A while after Jordan left, I finally got out of bed to take it. I did my thing and set the test down and refused to look at it until after the 2 minutes were up. I fully expected to see a negative, throw it away, and crawl back into bed for a while. Needless to say I was quite shocked to look down and see two very dark pink lines! I think the words that came out of my mouth were, "Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh." I looked at myself in the mirror and just stared with the ultimate look of a deer caught in the headlights. I immediately went and took another test and watched as the second dark pink line appeared. That's when I went to the side of our bed and said a prayer of gratitude and pleaded for a healthy pregnancy.

At this point I was glad that Jordan wasn't home because it meant that I could surprise him!! I had dreamt about this moment for a long time so it didn't take me long to come up with a plan of how to tell him. I found an old onesie that was left at our house long ago and decorated it and decided to hang it in front of our fireplace with the positive tests. I had to go to work for the day so I hid my "surprise" in a drawer and planned to set it up to tell him that evening. I thought I would be an utter mess at work with my secret, but it surprisingly wasn't that hard for me. I do remember one customer asking me if I had any special plans that evening. It took everything in me not to say, "Yeah...I plan to go home and tell my husband that we're having a baby!" When we were both home from work I knew I had to tell him soon because I had been patient long enough. I finally got him out of the room so I could set it up along with my camera. When Jordan walked into the room, this is what he saw.

I recorded his reaction, but since I was so nervous and he was so shocked, we're both self conscious of ourselves in the video. Haha so I'm not sharing it, but here is a still image from right after he saw the surprise.

He first let out a loud gasp and then said, "What?? Are you serious?? No way! Babe, are you serious? Are you kidding? Seriously? Oh my gosh...that's so exciting!!" Haha over and over again. Needless to say, he was surprised. Then we just hugged and hugged for a while. It was the best New Years Eve of our lives and one that we will remember forever.

My mom was just as anxious for us to start our family as we were. She asked all the time about it until I had to tell her to stop asking because it was so frustrating. She wasn't being pushy, just a very excited grandma ready for a new little one from her only daughter. I knew that she was the next person that we needed to tell. I also knew that I couldn't wait long, so we invited her down later that week to hang out with us. When she got to our house I told her that I had a late Christmas present to give her. I thought it was so incredibly obvious, but her reaction clearly proves that she was NOT expecting this surprise. I love her and her emotion. I couldn't have asked for a better reaction. :)

Telling the rest of our friends and family over time has been a blast as well. There is just something about a new baby that makes people so excited. :) Jordan and I feel beyond blessed that we get to experience this. We feel like the luckiest in the world to be welcoming a sweet little one to our family. Thank you to those who have shared in our excitement. And to those who enjoy hearing pregnancy updates, I'm sure there will be many posts coming soon to this blog so stick around! 

xoxo ~ The Lythgoes