Dropping the bomb

Today's weigh-in: 208.4

Well, after steak and potatoes on Saturday night and sour cream chicken enchiladas last night, I'm not surprised to be up a few pounds. What I need to do tonight is be a little prudent with what I eat, so hopefully I won't be a chunk when I go into my appointment tomorrow afternoon. I have an ultrasound and blood screen scheduled for tomorrow, to check for possible genetic abnormalities. It's something they recommend for "advanced maternal age" folks like myself (women 35 or older at the time they deliver). I'm so pleased to be of "advanced maternal age". Hooray.

We got to drop the bomb on some family members over the weekend. We were originally intending to start notifying people AFTER tomorrow's appointment, in case there were any problems discovered. But my mother- and father-in-law came in to own on Friday evening and spent all day Saturday with us. My father-in-law is a real DIY kind of person, and he wanted to know what projects we needed to work on around the house. Obviously, with the pregnancy, our priorities have changed, and some of the things we've been planning on doing (putting in a sprinkler system, fencing the yard, finishing the basement) have been pushed back a bit. We figured it would be easier to admit to them the truth, rather than fib to them about why we weren't working on certain projects. So we told them the news on Saturday morning. (They were rather excited, to say the least. I think we'd been voted "least likely to have kids" in some family poll at some point.)

Anyway, after telling my husband's parents, I felt like I should let me immediate family members know. Both my dad and brother are out of the country right now, working as independent contractors overseas. Almost all our communication is electronic, through e-mail and instant messaging. This wasn't the kind of news I felt should be delivered through such impersonal means. But it meant I had to figure out some way to talk with them over the phone. My dad was first. He and I have used Skype several times, but the connection is poor. Instead, we instant message on it. So I hinted (strenuously) that my dad should call me on his office phone if he got the chance. I didn't know if he'd pick up on the hint or not. But he did give me a call, as we were all headed to run some errands. He seemed a bit flummoxed when I told him he was going to be a grandpa. But then he recovered well and said several times what wonderful news it was (and how much he wished my mom could be here for it). This morning (which is evening for him) he instant-messaged me to say that he was still feeling the celebratory "upness". So I'm glad he's excited about it. I just never know how my dad will react to such things. Not that he wouldn't be happy, but when my husband asked my parents for permission to ask me to marry him, my dad's response was "Sure. How's the weather been?" Not the enthusiastic response my husband had expected. So we just didn't know what we were going to get out of my dad. My brother's response was more what I expected, from him. I got my phone set up (after hours of annoyance from Verizon) for international calling, and called his Afghan cell phone, on the pretext of calling him for his 39th birthday. After a few minutes of chatting, I asked him how he felt, being an uncle-to-be. His exact response was: *pause* "Holy f*ucking sh*t. Are you serious?" At which point I responded, "Of course I'm serious, and don't call me Shirley." He was very happy after that, albeit extremely surprised. I mean, I am his little sister. He's had to deal with me having more college degrees than him, getting married before him (he's been dating the same person for like 8 years, but I still don't know how likely they are to get married), and now having a baby before him. He handles it all with good nature and humor, but I do wonder if it bothers him a bit. However, I think he'll be really happy to be an uncle.

We haven't told anyone else yet, not my husband's two siblings. We'll let them know, and probably my husband's grandparents too, after tomorrow's appointment. I hope they aren't miffed (particularly my sister-in-law, who tends to take things rather personally) that they weren't among the first to find out the news. I would guess aunts and uncles and cousins will come after that. We won't make it completely public (no Facebook or anything like that) until the end of April/beginning of May. That will be when I'm out of my first trimester, and out of the time period where most miscarriages occur. I don't want everyone to know we're pregnant and then have to go back and tell everyone that something terrible happened.

So, cross your fingers for my ultrascreen tomorrow, that everything looks OK!