Y'all Ready for This?

...I just hope we are. We're expecting baby #3 this summer!! Hooray!! I'm just around 9 weeks right now and feeling fine. I have my big doctor's appointment next friday with all the blood work and ultrasound and good stuff like that. But that's not all, there's a fun little story about how I shared the news....and broke the news to Marcus.

I had missed the arrival of my special day in November, but that's nothing new in the "cycle" of my life. I decided to give it a couple days before even getting curious about it's late arrival, but kept it on the dl just in case it showed up unexpectedly as I got my hopes up for pregnancy. After about 4 days I just couldn't stand it any more and got me a little stick to pee on. After Marcus went to work that next morning I decided to give it a shot. Sure enough, Pregnant!!! At that moment I decided that it was close enough to Christmas that I was going to keep it from Marcus and make it a big surprise. We had talked about the possibility of surprising my family with the news on Christmas (but of course he would have had to know before hand) so I ran with that idea and decided to make it for him as well. I probably couldn't have pulled it off if it weren't for a brilliant idea I'd heard from my friend Melanie who was doing something similar to her husband for Christmas...she even faked a period!! That's it...I had to fake a period. No small feat, mind you, but I actually pulled it off.

That afternoon, being only 4 days late, I told Marcus that "aunt flow" made her arrival fashionably late. He comforted me and I acted as sad as possible at the thought of not being pregnant...teehee. It was a light "flow" and only lasted about 4 days (I wasn't about to have a regular flow and a full week cycle if I didn't have to). I just emptied an applicator and flushed the evidence, no biggie. But the hard part was actually not telling anyone!! My girlfriends had known that we were trying and hoping for another baby, but if I told them, and swore them to secrecy, it would leak somehow...husbands aren't as good at keeping secrets if wives share the news. So I called the only person that I knew could keep my secret and that Marcus wouldn't have any way of getting to...Stephanie, my friend in Oregon. She even helped concoct the surprise for Christmas. She didn't tell a soul....not even her husband or any of her 6 kids! That's a true friend. ;)

So, Christmas finally came, but I still hadn't decided on how to surprise him. Luckily, we did Christmas in the afternoon. I got a Christmas bag, some tissue paper, a "Congratulations on your new baby" card I snagged from the store and kept hidden (even while shopping with my sisters!), and a diaper just for effect. We do a gift exchange in our family (with 7 siblings you have to) so after the grandkids all opened their gifts, and us siblings did our exchange, I handed Marcus his special bag and commanded the room to watch. Yes, I have that kind of power. :) He was baffled, of course, but unwrapped the odd gift. As he made it to the little card I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head. My younger brother had a "front row" seat because he was reading over his shoulder and I just kept hearing, "no way! that's awesome...no way!" Marcus didn't believe me at first, but settled into the idea with a few tears and many hugs.

My family was really surprised and my dad was even a little choked up. It was really great to be able to surprise Marcus with such a special gift and to have my whole family be there and be part of that special time. I just wished I would have asked one of my sisters to capture the moment without spoiling the surprise. At least my older brother had a camera out and caught a little of it on video.

P.S. The reason for not sharing until now...we had to wait and make sure we told our WHOLE family before I went and posted it on my blog.