Baby Girl & The Longest Week of My Life
In case you missed my first post, I’m trying hard to document the last several months of pregnancy so one day I’ll be able to tell our baby girl the story of her and the exciting process of telling those closest to us of her existence. We may not have met her yet, but we already love her more than words can express .
Photo by Dana Arnold Photography
I remember the weekend like it just happened. My husband was, at the time, working in Hawaii. On Friday night I drove to a wedding in upstate New York (then back to Connecticut that night) and left for a family session in New Hampshire early Saturday morning, followed by another family session in CT for sunset that evening (you can see that session here - one of my faves!), and then the next day a commercial photoshoot. It was busy and I remember thinking a couple of times “I feel real weird.”
Long story short, it was that weekend I realized I was pregnant.
And I couldn’t tell my husband for a week.
I found out and immediately thought “WHAT DO I DO?”
Andrew was scheduled to visit home that Friday and I knew with his arrival being that close I had to wait. With all of the different scenarios we had talked about with growing our family and entering into parenthood we had definitely never discussed what I would do if he was working 5,000 miles away at the time I found out I was pregnant. In the end, I decided telling him in person was more important than anything and I would just need to find a way to avoid talking to him as much as possible. Did I mention I’m terrible at hiding things from my husband? Something I don’t actually see as a fault in any other situation, but in this particular instance it was fairly inconvenient.
And so the week went, I met with the Dr., started hydrating like my life depended on it, and began planning picking him up from the airport and how I would tell him the good news. I purchased a “Mama Bear” sweatshirt and wrote a note. We aren’t really big neon sign kind of people. Leading up to his arrival he said, “You don’t have to park and come in I’ll just come out and meet you at the car.” Of course in my mind I was screaming, if only he knew…. which somehow translated into my response being, “We’ll see if I feel like parking.” Somehow, I managed to keep the secret and he had no idea what he was arriving home to.
I arrived at the airport, parked (I mean really, is anyone surprised?) and then walked inside holding the note I knew would change his life forever.
I spotted him on the escalator, our eyes met (his slightly exhausted looking from a red-eye and mine from, well, the first trimester of pregnancy) and without a word I handed him the note and told him to read. A few moments later he looked up, his eyes now both tired and glistening and he said “Are you serious?” I watched completely amused as the grin spread wider as the news sank in.
No one else around us knew that our lives were changing, but they were. And in that moment, in the embrace and the tears, I felt the flood of pure relief and excitement. Of finally letting him in on the secret and being able to celebrate with my best friend.
Up next: the first ultrasound (later that afternoon) and how we let a couple more people in on the big news the next day.