This is the story of how Team Winters found out that we were adding another member to our roster.
To go way back, Jesse and I had been doing a lot of talking and praying about when was the best time for us to go off our birth control. We decided on our fourth wedding anniversary as that date. I started to make preparations: going to the doctor, dentist, starting to take prenatal vitamins, reading up on what to do/what not to do, etc. The doctor warned me that because I had been on birth control for so long (11 years!) that it would probably take a good 6 months-1 year to get pregnant and maybe even longer than that. I always wanted to have my first child by the time I turned 30, so I was feeling quite discouraged that it wasn't going to happen.
Well, long story short (for the sake of all of you and for poor Baby Winters who might be traumatized by that sort of thing) we pulled the goalie and were expecting to get a positive pregnancy test the summer of 2012.
God had other plans, and I found myself the week between Christmas and New Year's feeling a bit off. Didn't think much of it (Haley, my bestie, thought otherwise and called it from then - well played Haley) and went on with celebrating 2012 - what was already sure to be a big year for Team Winters. The night before we found out about Baby Winters, the hubby and I had a pretty heated discussion (you might even call it an argument, I blame it all on the hormones that I didn't know I had pulsing through my body) about how I thought we would never get pregnant. Long about the MLK holiday weekend I realized I hadn't had my period (sorry, no delicate way around that one) in quite some time.
Jesse was off helping his Mom, as she had just opened up her amazing new grooming salon at the beginning of December and there is literally nothing that Jesse can't fix. I was at home editing Jesse's homework and hanging out with Hunter, doing the normal Saturday chores. Awhile back I had bought some pregnancy tests, so for fun I took one, left it upstairs and went about my business. Came upstairs a bit later and found this:
To say I was surprised was an understatement. Our poor dog, Hunter, was upstairs with me and I was screaming and dancing around. He was quite perplexed to say the least and joined in with me in celebration. With Jesse not home I had time to digest the information by myself and talk to the little baby that I knew was now growing inside of me. This was a really special moment that I will never forget little one, when I knew that all my prayers were being answered and I would finally get to be a mommy.
I had dropped Jesse off that morning, and was picking him up because we had a comedy show to go to with our friends that night. I was so distracted getting ready to leave the house, I'm not quite sure how I made it there on time. I somehow got myself together, gathered up all of Jesse's clothes and things he wanted me to bring him, threw the pregnancy test in my purse and headed out the door. As I was leaving, it started to snow (and wouldn't stop for a week - a pretty epic snowstorm by Seattle standards) making traffic pretty gnarly, but even that couldn't get me down.
When I got there, I had the chance to visit with my Mother-in-law while Jesse was getting ready. I was bursting at the seams to tell them, but wanted to have that special moment with Jesse all to myself (very selfishly I might add). We said our goodbyes and got to the car to head over to the Comedy Club to meet our friends for dinner before the show. Once inside the car, we got to chit chat while we waited for the car to warm up. I forget my delivery, but I'm pretty sure I talked about our argument and apologized for being so silly and then pulled out the positive test. His eyes got all big, and he asked if it was for real. He then got VERY excited, and I thought he was going to have a hard time keeping it a secret from all our friends at the show.
We were very distracted at the show and the main comic mainly talked about babies and parenting, I thought it was amazing comic timing on his part! Before we went over to our friend Winston's house to hang out after the show, we went home and Jesse wanted me to take another test. When that one came back positive, he could hardly contain himself! We did go to Winston's, but didn't stay for long.
Unfortunately my doctor's office was closed on Sunday and on Monday for the holiday. I took that Tuesday off and we went in to take the pregnancy test. That's a whole other funny story, but the technician came back very quickly with the results, we were definitely pregnant. I talked to the nurse to set up my appointments with the midwives and she determined that my due date would be late August and I was already about 7 weeks along.
I was lucky enough to have the next three days off due to snow closing down Seattle. I got to sleep a lot, be uncomfortable and nauseous all in the comfort of my own home and in my sweats. Very lucky! Those next days are a blur of excitement, both Jesse and I were thrilled about Baby Winters and we looked forward to hearing the heartbeat of our little boy or girl!!
