how i told my baby daddy

Andrew's been signing notes and emails as "Baby Daddy" since we got the news. How long until he grows out of it?

This is the story of how I found out I was pregnant. And how I told the father.

We'd just had a great weekend - the weather was awesome, so we spent Saturday downtown. We watched a basketball game at King Street Grill, we wandered down by the water, we did a little shopping. On the way home, we stopped at World Market and discovered a wine sale. So we stocked up. Little did I know...

That night, we were watching a movie and I just felt weird. I felt exhausted and a little nauseous and just completely drained. It wasn't the I've-had-a-long-day feeling or the I'm-coming-down-with-something feeling. It was different. But I blew it off and we went to bed.

The next morning, I still felt off. Andrew was already gone for the day so there was no one to discuss my possible diagnoses with. I decided to take a pregnancy test, just for fun, completely expecting it to be negative.

Take the test. Brush my teeth. Turn on the shower.

Wait, is that another line?

Yep. Two lines. On that test and the second and the third. And remember how Andrew was gone? Poor Rudy got an earful. An earful of "no way" and "oh my gosh" and "no way" and "Rudy!!" and on and on and on.

The thing about Andrew being gone is that he was in his super secret school building where no phones are allowed. Which meant I had to wait for him to call me. No way did I want to tell him over the phone. But no way did I want to wait until he came home.

So I waited. And when he called around 2:30 to tell me that he was going to sit in his truck for an hour to read the paper and take a break, I knew what I had to do. I got in the car, drove out there, made up some lame excuse about how I missed him and asked him to meet me for a few minutes in the parking lot across the street (where those who don't know the secret handshake for the super secret building are allowed).

He came and we chatted about our days. I told him what I had for lunch. He was adjusting the collar on my shirt.

"Guess what?" I said. I say that all the time, so I doubt he was expecting anything exciting.

"What?"

"I'm pregnant."

I wish I could have taken a picture of him at that moment. But I'll never forget the look on his face. It was a little like this...

He asked me if I was sure. I said yes. He asked again. I said yes again.

We laughed and we hugged and I got all teary at how genuine his smile was. He went from the no-way-oh-my-gosh that I had been experiencing that morning to pure joy. It was priceless.

Then I sent him on his merry way, where he had to keep it secret from his friends. He told me later that he kept catching himself smiling as he did his homework. He's cute like that.

And that is the story of how we saw our lives flash before his eyes.

In a good way, of course :)