First Response, Early Response
Good news. Big news. Brand-spanking new news...
I found out on Monday that I'm pregnant! Completely, newly, freshly pregnant! Hadn't-even-missed-my-period-yet pregnant, but nevertheless two-pink-lines, 100-percent, falling-asleep-at-9-p.m., already-freaking-out-about-the-mid-December-due-date pregnant!
(First one to say "I told you it would happen if you'd just relax" gets a poke in the nose. Second person to say it gets a bitch-slap. I'll have you all know that even though this month was supposed to be a hiatus from the whirlwind reproducarama, I was only pretending not to care. What? Baby? Who me? No, thanks, I'm fine, really. Move along. HA. HA HA HA. I fooled you. HA.)
How I found out:
I've had three (expensive) peesticks in my possession for a few weeks now, and because I didn't want to waste one on another negative, I swore to hold off until I was at least a day late this time. But because my cycle has been different every month since December, it was impossible to pinpoint what day that might be, and so commenced the tango between me and my calendar: for each day that I survived without succumbing to the lure of the stick, I pushed back the test date--one step forward, one step back. I kept that carrot dangling just out of reach. Meanwhile, I obsessively checked my temperature and analyzed my charts forward, backward, and upside down calmly watched my temperature, waiting for the telltale nosedive that told me another cycle had come and gone, but when I was up a whopping 98.3 at 7:00 on Monday morning, I had a feeling something more than just my temperature was up.
How he found out:
I came out of the bathroom waving in his face something upon which I had freshly urinated (sorry about that, honey!) and then called him a "sneaky bastard" (sorry again!) because he done knocked me up with a Dreaded Christmas Baby (sorry, Beloved Christmas Baby!). He looked at the test, tilted his head, and asked if that second line really counted, because it looked awfully faint to him. "Of course it counts," I said, not even a hint of screechiness in my voice. "A line is a line." I understand why he was wary: he was comparing this test, which hadn't even developed for the full three minutes yet, to the one I took last time, after I was already a week late. By the time he left the house that morning, though, he was convinced. And also a little battered because who looks into the eyes of a woman holding a blessedly positive pregnancy test and tells her maybe she's imagining things?
That said, I'm a little wary myself. Obviously, our history with pregnancy is less than stellar to this point, and we're still extreeeemely early into the process (4w5d by my count). Sure, it feels traitorous to greet the happy news with a cautious knock on wood, to not be entirely elated, but that's the reality of where we are, still just four months out from the miscarriage. The part of me that occasionally dips a toe into the waters of magical thinking worries that I'm dooming the pregnancy because I'm not greeting it with complete confidence. I must remind myself, however, that just as no amount of positive energy can put a baby in someone's belly--and keep it there--no amount of tentative optimism can take it away.
So, we are nervous, but we are also excited. And having acknowledged that nervousness--recongnized it within our selves, then said it aloud to each other, and now written it here--we're going to focus as much of our energy from this point forward on being excited. One of the things that I regret about the miscarriage is that, because most people didn't find out about the pregnancy until it was over, we received dozens and dozens of condolences but only a handful of congratulations. People who wait until the 12-week mark to let the cat out generally do so because, should something go wrong, they don't want to have to field as many condolences as they got congratulations. But considering that I'll tell the internet what happens anyway--good or bad--and considering that my condolences-to-congratulations ratio is way out of whack, this time around I'm collecting all of the good wishes and crossed fingers and happy thoughts I can get, while I can get them. After all, as I've said before, even though a positive pregnancy test doesn't always mean we're coming home with a baby, it does mean we can at least get pregnant and, of course, more importantly--and certainly worthy of its own congratulations--that we want to get pregnant, with each other, in the here and now rather than in the vague distant future.
Not that I have any beef with the vague distant future. I, for one, am looking forward to it now more than ever.
Congratulations!!! What wonderful news. And, as a December Baby, I have to say: I love having my birthday in December. It's a wonderful month to celebrate!
Congrats! 2 pink lines is ALWAYS reason to celebrate! Pop the sparkling apple cider!
That is very good news.
Oh happy day. C'est un jour heureuse, vraiment!
Pink lines. Can there be anything better? And I think little Christmas babies are the best. You get to dress them in santa suits! And what else could you want for a present?
Congratulations, you guys!
oh yesyesyes-- many many congrats!
Yeah! Congratulations! I too found out only a day after a missed period and I'm so glad I didn't wait to tell. So happy for you -- all the best.
Congratulations!!!!! This is absolutely great news. All will be well this time. This Christmas baby was meant to be :)
By the way, I love how you called him sneaky, like he tricked you into it?
Awww.. Congrats on the two pink lines! I have to say, Capricorns make awesome babies. (Not so great as teenagers - but we grow out of it!)
All the best!
He didn't exactly trick me into it, but he still got to have things his way. I was all "No Christmas baby!" and he was all "Yes Christmas baby!" and I was all "Stay away from me while I'm fertile!" and he reluctantly agreed. But...I apparently have a "special" chart, so our timing wasn't what we thought it was. Oops! :)
Hurray for sneaky bastards!
Once you figure out where the parts go, the rest follows pretty easily.
Congratulations in a very big and happy way.
YAY!!!!!!!!
iamno--Oh, if only it were that easy for everyone...
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO happy for you.
"I must remind myself, however, that just as no amount of positive energy can put a baby in someone's belly--and keep it there--no amount of tentative optimism can take it away. "
That is such a powerful statement. I think so often we (I) try not to get too excited about things because I don't want to tempt "fate" or whatever. SCREW THAT! I say, enjoy this moment for what it is - you're pregnant! Congratulations!
Plus, I got two new hats. Isn't that exciting too?
Wow, a baby and two new hats in one week. Who knew such good fortune could befall us?
-Simon
YEAH! Congrats!!!
yay for the both of you! congrats!!
Congratulations again!
Congratulations!
I too was knocked up at the same time of year 2 years ago and it resulted in a fabulously healthy baby girl who was born one week over due on Christmas EVE and after I told her and told her in utero that there were only 2 days I didn't want to be having a baby Christmas eve and Christmas day. It was just preview of her need to do EVERYTHING her own way.
Good wishes, crossed fingers and happy thoughts galore are headed your way. Congratulations!
Good wishes, crossed fingers and happy thoughts galore are headed your way. Congratulations!
Congratulations to you both!
Congratulations to all three (four? five?) of you. Best wishes for a healthy and happy pregnancy.
YAY! Congratulations! These are my favorite kind of blog posts.
Dude that is great for you two. Your dream come true, right?!
Here is to a healthy, happy pregnancy.
Congratulations to you both! I've been keeping up with y'all for a while now, and I'm so happy that you've got the two pink lines. Yay!! xxx
CONGRATS!!!!
CONGRATS!!!!
CONGRATS!!!!
CONGRATS!!!!
CONGRATS!!!!
I thought I'd help bump up the congrats numbers :)
Delurking to say congratulations!!
Yay for two lines. Wishing you well, sending congrats and praying...
Congrats!! That's great news! Fingers crossed for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy December bambino!
Congratulations, good thoughts and fingers crossed! My mom is a December baby (12/30); apparently, it wasn't bad enough to stop her from getting married on 12/27!
Congratulations to both of you! I think that a Christmas baby is an awesome thing. I am a Thanksgiving baby and I love getting to be with my family for my birthday.
Hooray!
Congrats girly :)
Congrats girly :)
Congrats girly :)
Hello and a massive congratulations! After an embarrassingly long time lurking, your news means I have to come out and say how pleased I am for you both.
Excited for you! Yay!
YAHOO!!! Way to go, baby!
Congratulations to you and Simon (and on the hats! - clearly).
That's awesome...I'm so excited for you both! My husband is a Christmas Baby...christmas eve to be exact...it's all good (and having holidays for your birthday is a nice bonus!)
Oh, big congratulations! It's so nice when someone very nice gets something very nice. For some reason I got it in my head that you and Simon should write a song about it. The pregnancy un-blues, or something.
Also, you know what's cool about December babies? They've got their family and friends gathered for one event already, so they can hit them all up for another celebration without much muss or fuss.
Also, I imagine there will also be beef in your vague and distant future.
OK, getting out of your comments section now. Congratulations again!
Congrats!! That's so exciting!!!!
Wowowow! And December is such a great month for babies! Congratulations!
HOORAY!!!! Congratulations! I'm so excited for y'all!!!
HOORAY! Congratulations! Does the baby get to wear Simon's porkpie hat? I sense a photo shoot.
Awesome, AWESOME news!!
Wonderful news! Congratulations! A baby is terrific news regardless of the anticipated birthdate. Here's to a happy, healthy and quick nine months!
Wheeee! Congrats! And all best wishes to the three of you.
Woohoo! Congrats to you and Simon. Wishing you all the best. :o)
oh leah, i am SO happy for you! i so very much hope to be joining you soon in pregnacy land.
huge, huge congratulations to you and simon! you guys rock!
Congratulations!!!! I'll think happy, baby thoughts for you. I've had miscarriages as well and know how you feel about the knocking on wood part.
De-lurking to say a MASSIVE CONGRATULATIONS to you two!!! I am so excited for you both and wish you nothing but the best. It is fantastic news!
Congratulations Leah and Simon! You two are going to be the coolest parents on the net.
A BIG congratulations!! I myself am a Christmas baby, December 20, and funnily enough so is one of my closest friends, when they were trying last year she was all, "we'll take a break in March, don't want the poor kid to have the same b'day/christmas trouble as us!" well she jinxed herself and had a gorgeous little girl on December 21st! The best b'day/christmas ever!! :)
Another chronic lurker here who thinks this post is most definitely worth de-lurking for :) So here is a big CONGRATULATIONS to you both all the way from New Zealand. And I am looking forward to reading all about your upcoming pregnancy and parenthood related adventures.
I am personally tickled that you got knocked up for my wedding. Sweet!
*many happy dances* for you and Simon, who deserves at least another hat. Maybe I'll get to work on that.
Wow! That's really fantastic!
I mean, I would love to have two new hats. I've been thinking I need to get a bowler/derby-type lid for some time now. I find them very stylish. What kind of hats are they?
Oh, and congrats on the pregnancy, too.
Oh my gosh! How fantastic! A million congratulations to you both -- and please remember that you have two very willing babysitters across the bay! (How early is too early to start schooling the baby in the finer techniques of Balderdash? Six months? A year? Any child that shares the DNA of you two is going to kick ASS at coming up with fake movie plots and word definitions. The world might actually not be quite ready.)
Congratulations!
I'm a mid-December baby (the 10th) but came home on Christmas Day in a big red stocking. Christmas babies come in all variations!
Woohoo! Congratulations!!! That is so wonderful!
YEAH! congrats.
Congrats!!!! That is such wonderful news! If I recall correctly, I had my miscarriage about two weeks after yours. This month is the first month that I can see myself potentially getting pregnant (things are FINALLY back to normal in va-jay-jay land) and I'll take a test at the end of April to find out. If I get pregnant this cycle it will mean a due date of January 5th. I can't tell you how excited I am for you and your dreaded December pregnancy :), and I've been checking your blog frequently waiting for this day to come for you. Congrats Congrats Congrats!
I'm all weepy over here.
This sounds exactly like me. I lost our first baby similar to you (as you know). Then got pregnant again (as you know).
Graham was born December 29th, despite me always vowing to not have a Christmas baby.
I was just happy to have A BABY at that point.
So. Excited. For. You.
And still teary.
Hey! Let's be fun moms together!
WHEEEE! Congratulations!
Yay! Congrats, you two! I typically found out before missed periods with both of mine-- though I also did the temp charting.
Congrats again! The next nine months will bring all sorts of emotions...but at the end of this year (lucky you without a summer birth! coming from someone who did July!) there will be a BeBe...or BeBes?
Because, seriously, a boy and a girl? You asking for it? :)
Congratulations!
I just peed MY PANTS! Lucky for me it was negative. Luckier for you it was not! Happily getting tears in my eyes.
I was born December 31st and survived. Holiday babies. Oh sheesh, I need a tissue.
Oh girl, I am so happy for you. Best of best-ofs, from here until forever.
Congratulations you two! I haven't had coffee yet this morning and still I am bouncing in my chair with glee. Great, great news.
Congratulations! That's the best thing I've heard all week. Sending positive vibes to you and your belleh!
Yay! Saw your photo on Flickr before I got to my bloglines this morning, so I was very happy to see your freshly-peed-upon stick. Nice work, you two! Congratulations.
Congrats to you both, what wonderful exciting news.
Hooray hooray! I saw the pee stick first too, glad it wasn't waved in my face though! Congrats to both of you!
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! Your baby's going to be so adorable everyone's going to forget about Christmas.
Whoa dude. Congratulations!
HOLY SHIT, GIRL!!!CONGRATULATIONS!!I am so incredibly happy for you...as soon as I saw the title of this post in my iGoogle, I knew. See what happens when you tempt the universe by pretending not to care?! WORKS EVERY TIME.
YAY!!! How exciting!!! Congratulations!!!
Hats off to you both! Delurking to say Congrats. My son and I are both Christmas babies. We share a 12/20 birthday. He was long awaited, and the best birthday/Christmas present ever. May your little one bring you joy now and in the future.
YEAH. Congratulations!
Also, thanks for not making the partial feed readers wait. ;-)
For some reason when I read what you wrote about the "dreadded Christmas Baby" I thought that Life enjoys irony a little too much and that you would probably be pregnant. I am so happy for you! Congratulations!
I found out I was pregnant with the Beaner on April 1 of 2004 (it was not an April Fool), and he was born on November 30 (10 days early, by my count -- and I knew exactly when I'd conceived). The proximity of his birthday to the holidays is only a bummer when we wish we could buy him a big present in July; otherwise, it's kinda fun. Hope your baby's born heathy and happy sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, too. Can't wait to hear your pregnancy tales!
Warmest congratulations, Leah and Simon. (Leah, I just KNEW you'd start charting, even after you said you wouldn't. The ability to find out way earlier than a missed period is too much for any A-typer --- like we both are --- to resist.) Let the joy and inappropriate belly touching and unsolicited advice begin!
I am not one of those "I'm getting weepy" people. But Jesus. I am getting weepy.
If anyone in the world should have a baby, it's you.
HOORAY! Congrats and best wishes! :)
Delurking to say CONGRATULATIONS!
hooray! congratulations!!! :)
Congratulations! I believe you'll find December to be an excellent time to have a baby. :-)
Wahoo and congratulations to you both! I look forward to reading about your journey into parenthood.
Congrats! Such wonderful news.
Congratulations!
And I'm a 12/12 baby. I balance the dreaded "this is a present for both!" thing with never messing up customs forms with the whole date/month, month/date thing.
Congratulations!!!!
Awwww. Yay! Sending you, Simon, and your tummy the most positive of vibes. And being preggers all summer won't be too bad - the maternity wear will be much better - flowy dresses! ;)
Congratulations!
Congratulations!! I was so not expecting this and then I saw it in my Google Reader and almost fell out of my chair. Yay!
Congrats! I've been keeping my fingers crossed for you the last couple of months! I hit 13 weeks today and I'm still going to bed every night at 9pm!
HEY! This post did not show up in my Reader yesterday for some reason! Karma for tsk-tsking you about not using a reader, perhaps? We'll never know.
More importantly: CONGRATS TO YOU AND SIMON! Wow. Excellent news!!
Wowwowwowwow! I suspected that things had been too quiet around here lately for a reason... How wonderful for you and Simon!!! I wish you all the best and can't wait to follow your embarkation on this new, wild ride.
Also, how will this fit into the musical?
Wowwowwowwow! I suspected that things had been too quiet around here lately for a reason... How wonderful for you and Simon!!! I wish you all the best and can't wait to follow your embarkation on this new, wild ride.
Also, how will this fit into the musical?
Congratulations, Leah! I had a FEELING - I haven't stopped by for a few days and just before I logged on tonight I thought...I bet Leah is pregnant - lo and behold it's true! Congrats again! And December is a fabulous month to have a baby...I'm just sayin'. ;) Enjoy! It's quite a trip!!
WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!! Also delurking to say CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Hooray for Baby Festus!
Oh, congratulations!!! This is exciting! Having only recently had my own, I feel confident saying that December/early January babies are the BEST babies! Okay, they're probably about the same best-ness as other babies, but still! A baby! EEEEE!
This post didn't show up in my reader, and trust me, it will be reprimanded.
Moving on: HOLY CRAP CONGRATULATIONS. I am doing a little dance over here for the both of you. Every new post that pops up, I've been hoping that it would be this one.
WOOOOOOOOOOO!
unlurking to say congrats!!!
Nothing but congrats from over here!!!
Congratulations! Just a lurker (and an 8-weeks pregnant one at that), but absolutely delighted for you and Simon. Delicious babies for all.
That is such wonderful news!!! Congratulations!!!!
CONGRATS CONGRATS CONGRATS!!! I am so happy for you!!
Let me join the chorus of excited, happy, joyful sounds for you! :) I hate when I am days late to the party but still sooo happy for you! I, too, have been waiting for this post. I have a friend who had a miscarriage slightly after yours so you're giving me hope that her good news is coming soon. :) Enjoy this wonderful time....
Yippeee! Best. News. Ever!
YAY!!!
OMG YAY!!!!!! Oh, I am so happy for you guys.
I was on your site this weekend, searching for the post you wrote about the bikes that Simon got you guys for Christmas that year. I was showing Mr. Right the pics because we're thinking about buying bikes like yours as well (but not in a stalky kind of way). How I missed this post on your home page is beyond me.
So, congrats!!! Bikes were a good Christmas present, but a baby is (hmm) slightly more entertaining and more than likely won't rust if bathed.
Also: I think you've inspired me!
Geez, I don't check your blog for like, a week, and I miss this post. But whatever, I'll be #116--congrats!!!
Wooooo!!! Congratulations!!! :) Wheee! Yay for a baby! Yay for your future!
Whoa, five days late to the pregnancy party, but WOOT! So happy for you two. (And now: three!)
Smiling from head to toe!
Congratulations. So happy for you and Simon.
i'm busy for a week and miss all the good news - congratulations!!!! keeping my fingers and toes all crossed and happy thoughts in my head for you. and just to even out the condolences to congratulations ratio a little bit more - congratulations, congratulations, congratulations!
I know that's a huge relief for you both -- CONGRATS!!!
Late to the party, but you don't mind, right?
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Congrats! Yay!
That being said, my girl was born in the 2nd week of
January and scheduling OBGYN appointments during the holidays= not fun. Also being sick during the hot summer months= not fun. (I live in the deep south, hot starts in march and ends in October? September? December? I don't know?)
Much luck, and also how did I miss this?