First Comes Love, Then Comes Baby…

…then comes marriage. Wait, that’s not how it goes. Whoops?

We all have a timeline plan of our lives set out for the big stuff (i.e. marriage, kids, job, etc.), whether we want to admit it or not. We want to have that adult career, then find our soulmate, marry them and then pop out a few kids. And usually there’s an age associated with each event. My (dream) timeline went like this:

⁃ Age 25: Practicing Architecture

⁃ Age 26: Married

⁃ Age 27-32: Have Children

I look back at it and laugh, shaking my head. Love doesn’t just happen in the blink of an eye. And getting pregnant is a whole other story. But hey, we can dream, right?!

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was 4 days late on my period. I wasn’t fully freaked out yet. We were, but weren’t trying to conceive and if it happened, then so be it. We’d been together almost 4 years already and knew each other was the one. I had told Matt that if my period didn’t show up the next day by the time he got off work, I would take a test. And well, he got the text saying something like “Can you buy some tests on your way home please?”

He got home and handed me the box. I put it down on the nightstand and just stared at it. I wasn’t ready. I kept putting it off. We went outside and were just hanging out, he was on the phone with his friend back home. I had to go pee, so I went inside and decided to muster up the courage to pee on the stick. I set it on the counter and blankly stared at it. The first pink line showed up. Dun dun dun. I kept staring. A faint pink second line started appearing.

I looked up at the mirror, tears filling my eyes. I said nothing. I smiled. Thirty seconds later, I wiped the tears from my eyes. “I can’t let him see my tears. Act normal.” I left the test on the bathroom counter and went back outside. We sat there a little longer, then went inside to fix dinner. I told him to go take a shower while I cooked dinner. I stood at the stove as he went into the bathroom. Quiet.

“Babe.”

“Yeah babe.”

“Is this a joke?”

He walked out and smiled at me. I smiled back. I don’t think I had ever seen him so happy and scared at the same time. Our dream of waiting to become parents finally was coming true.

Just to confirm the first test, I took the second test the next morning and even filmed it so I could send it to him at work.

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This big life changer couldn’t have come at a better (and crappy) time. We were about to go on our first real vacation (in 4 years) to Florida that Sunday (2 days after we found out). It was going to give us time to reflect and plan for the future. It also meant my dreams of piña coladas and daiquiris were now going to be virgin ones. Major bummer.

That Sunday we headed down the road for our 15-hour drive to Cape Canaveral. It was Mother’s Day, so it seemed only right that we let sisters know they were going to be aunties and moms know they were grandmas. We called each one along the way on our drive and were relieved at the sounds of joy and excitement. The babies were having a baby!

After we made all the calls, we were happy to get that out of the way so we could kick back and relax on our vacation that was soon to get even better.

To be continued…