Telling The Children

So, with all other pregnancies, the longest we ever waited to tell our wonderful news was three days. We aren't very good at keeping secrets. But this time, I had a bit of a harder time believing I was actually pregnant. A couple of days after the first positive test, I took another one just to be sure. Still positive. Whew! But because it had taken us longer to get pregnant this time, I still felt a little nervous about it and wanted to wait longer before announcing our news to all of our friends and family.

Keeping our news from Joshua, Noah and Veronica was more difficult. Not only was I really excited to tell them, but I also wanted to explain why Mommy had been so sick and so tired. We decided to wait until after I had been to the doctor and had everything confirmed, even though the pregnancy was being confirmed over and over again by my nausea.

I went to my appointment and was able to see the baby on screen and see the heart beat, tears welling up in my eyes. This is really happening. All I could keep saying as I watched that fast flicker on the screen was, "That is so awesome," over and over. Eventually, the nurse agreed with a smile. Yes, it really is awesome.

That night, I prepared a special dinner: Monte Cristo sandwiches, which are one of my absolute favorites. And I was actually able to eat some of them! I had also baked a cake, but couldn't eat a bite.

As we all sat down for dinner, Jason brought Veronica into the kitchen wearing her new "Big Sister" t-shirt that I had bought. We wanted to see if the boys would notice. Joshua actually stared at her the entire time we said grace, but did not notice the large bright pink letters spelling "Big Sister" across her chest. Eventually, I said something like, "I hope Veronica doesn't get her new shirt dirty." It took a couple of times, but eventually Joshua did read what her shirt said.

J: "Big sister? Veronica's not our big sister. She's our little sister!"

Me: "Right. But she could be someone's big sister. Whose big sister could she be?"

J: "Kahlua's?" (our newish puppy)

Me: "No, not Kahlua."

J: "Luna's?" (our cat)

Me: "No, not Luna."

J: "Then who?"

Me: "Well, we are having a special dinner tonight because Daddy and I have something to tell you. I went to the doctor today . . . "

Joshua's eyes then lit up knowingly.

J: "And you're pregnant?!"

Me: "Yes I am."

The room was quiet for a moment, with big smiles covering Joshua and Noah's faces. Veronica had no idea what was going on and simply continued to try and drink her jam meant to dip her Monte Cristo in.

We then spent the rest of the evening talking about a new baby joining our family, whether it would be a boy or a girl, why I had been feeling sick and tired, when the baby would be coming, how excited we all were and Jason giving the boys a short tutorial on how to treat a pregnant woman :)