The Story of Rex - Part One (Finding out we were pregnant)

I wrote this when I was 6 weeks pregnant with Rex!


Back in September 2011 Andy and I decided we were ready to start trying to have a baby. I went and got my IUD taken out and starting the end of September we were on the "we're not trying but we're not preventing" approach. Since I had my IUD for 3 years we didn't know how long it would take for this to happen. The only person that knew this was going on was my Mom. I had to tell someone!

Fast forward to December. Part of me was hoping we wouldn’t get pregnant this month and the other part was hoping we would. My period was due on Christmas! My thought was that if I wasn't pregnant then I could drink for all of the holiday festivities and we could try again in January! Because in the previous two months I had taken pregnancy tests early and gotten a negative result (basically throwing money down the toilet) I decided not to take a pregnancy test Christmas Eve. My mom also helped this decision because she said “even if you are pregnant and have a glass of wine on Christmas Eve it won’t hurt you”. So, I didn’t take a test, had a couple glasses of wine and smoked cigarettes. I didn’t feel pregnant and had no thought in my mind that I was.

At 6a Christmas morning Levi woke up to pee. After taking him to the bathroom and putting him back to bed I realized I needed to go myself. I had pregnancy tests stashed under the sink and I thought “what the hell?” If it were positive then Andy and I would have a quiet moment to enjoy the news together without having Levi up and running around. And if it were negative then I could just go back to bed and look forward to watching Levi open all of his gifts and being able to drink at the festivities. As I’m sitting there about to pee on the stick I all of a sudden can’t pee and my heart starts RACING! I finally get up the courage to take it. I’m watching the stick, heart racing and slowly but surely I watch two solid blue lines appear.. meaning I’m pregnant! Tears started flowing and I started to sweat. How do I tell Andy?! He's sound asleep! I crawled back into bed and just laid there for a few moments in complete disbelief. Finally I started kissing him and gently waking him up. When he started to come to I said “Merry Christmas! ..... I’m pregnant!” His response was, “Are you really?”. We just laid there snuggling together and enjoyed the first few moments of knowing we were going to have a baby.

We go back to sleep and Levi wakes us up around 8 to open Christmas presents for the last time together as a family of 3. I was really kicking myself that I hadn’t taken the test yesterday because we had been with my entire family and we could have told them all in person at the same time. I had to have my Mom be the first to know but we were so busy that day that there wasn’t time to stop by her house and tell her so I gave her a call. She was so excited! Andy wanted to stop and tell his Mom since it was on our way to my Grandma’s house that morning. We decided to tell her by wrapping up the pregnancy test. It took her a few moments to realize what the stick was telling her. She looked at me and said “Is this you?”. I nodded my head, started tearing up and she just started gleaming! She almost couldn't contain her excitement!

At my Grandma’s I had another test wrapped up and gave it to my Dad in the middle of everyone opening their gifts. I just quietly watched him open it from across the room while everyone else had no idea what was going on. He looked at it and instantly tears started welling in his eyes. He walked across the room, gave me a hug and told everyone “Emma’s pregnant!” They were all very excited for us!

When we got to celebrate with Andy's family for Christmas later that day we had two pregnancy tests wrapped up for each of his sisters to open at the same time. His younger sister got hers opened first and when looking at it told everyone “it’s a pregnancy test.. and it’s already taken..” and just looks at me. With that said his older sister realized that it meant I’m pregnant, said “oh my gosh!” and got up to hug me. His brother in law (who was in the kitchen) had no idea what was going on but when he realized it he shouted “Are you f******* serious?!” Completely shocked. Probably the best reaction we had!

All in all everyone is really excited and happy for us! It’s nice to be experiencing a pregnancy that is planned, that everyone is thrilled about (without feeling stressed) and that I have the support of my partner through.

[Right away I knew that I didn't want this baby's birth to go the way Levi's did. I had different plans for this time around and I couldn't have been happier with the decisions we made and the way everything went when Rex came into this world!]