A Pregnancy Story

**Originally posted in September 2012


As I sit here in my 34th week of pregnancy, and the meeting of our son draws near, I can’t help but reflect back on the beginning. I know that I probably won’t, but I don’t want to chance forgetting these special moments and fine details. Along with regularly scheduled posts, I’m planning on sharing the story of how we told our family and friends and ultimately, the birth story. But, for now, here’s how it all began.


For years, people have asked Kent and me when we were having children. We would laugh and say, “Not anytime soon”. We really wanted to experience the first years of our marriage with each other. The farthest we’d have to plan was who would dog sit Heidi for us when we went out of town. Yes, we were those smug people who balked at the idea of having children “too soon”.


As the years went on, I started my business, he decided to go back to school, planned even more schooling, I took on nannying as my “day job”, and that was enough for us in that busy time. The big joke was that we would never have children since I worked with them everyday, taking care of them and photographing them. There were children aplenty!


Then, it just sort of fell into place. We were ready, the key being, we were ready at the same time. God was working in us and we felt confident that this was the time. This past January was our 6th wedding anniversary and we formally decided that this would be the year to start planning for our first child. Kent bought me a pregnancy book that day, and I devoured it immediately. We figured we may get pregnant by summer and welcome our first born sometime in early 2013… just after he would graduate from Montevallo and Lord-willing, start work on his Ph.D. I could also wrap up my nannying duties with the year ending. Oh, such nice and neat plans, huh?

Prayers were said, names were casually tossed around, the idea of us rearing a baby didn’t seem scary. But, we also knew we still had some time before it became a reality.


Then, it was different forever. It was a typical weekend in February, I was shooting and he was studying. Kent had plans to travel to Atlanta with his Dad to attend a Maryland basketball game. I got home early that evening and felt slightly…different. Something was telling me to take a pregnancy test. It’ll most likely be negative, I thought, but I was hesitant to check it when the 3 minutes were up. I walked around the house a few minutes longer, putting off the likelihood that it would come back negative. I have a tendency to get my hopes up and when things don’t work out it’s always hard for me.


Finally, I looked. Looked at the test, reread the box, looked at myself in the mirror and smiled. I get to tell Kent we’re having a baby! I grabbed my camera and snapped a quick self portrait. I want to remember what this looks like forever. I text Kent to casually ask when he’ll be home from the game. I need to know how long I’ve got to come up with a game plan. 1 hour. I raced to Mountain High Outfitters and bought the reddest, tiniest Toms ever! Grabbed some sparkling grape juice (a family tradition) on the way home and waited for the door to open.


It seemed like an eternity for him to get settled in from the game. I’ve always told Kent that I’ve dreamed of telling him in a special way and that he should practice his over excitement now (those hopes are high!). This moment was different… it all was. I handed him the wrapped box of Toms and my heart raced. His reaction was perfect. As he finished asking me, “Are you really?” I wiped my tears away, smiled and said “yes”. In 8 months, we would hold our baby and finally know what he or she looks like. But, for now, it was our little secret.