You would have thought I'd have learned from that, but let's fast forward to Election Day (also known as Garrett and Greg's birthdays this year - 11/6). I took a pregnancy test that morning after Jeff left for work. I wanted to take it sooner, as it's supposed to be done first thing in the morning, but it's a little hard to do things in secret when Jeff and I are 5 feet away from each other at any given time while we're getting ready. We weren't actively trying, but we weren't actively preventing either, so I wanted to take the test to see if I could have wine while watching the election returns that night (I had devised my own drinking game to make this task more manageable). For some reason, I decided that my urine cup would be one that I had gotten years ago on "birthday Thursday" at Drink (which is no longer in existence). It's a small cup so it served the purpose, and it made me a little nostalgic for the smell of douchy cologne, spilled beer, and regret.
I digress.
So I'm doing a little dance to Fleet Foxes on Pandora, wearing my super patriotic voting outfit (red pants, a blue and white striped shirt, a white cardigan, and nude heels), waiting the 5 minutes for one or two lines to show up. One line shows up immediately and a super faint line shows up a bit later. I think to myself, "this cannot be..." I take a picture and send it to Maggie. She confirms that it is positive. I don't believe her (even though Maggie is a credible source, being an RN at Planned Parenthood and all) so I take another test. Same results, same text from Maggie. I still don't believe her or the test. Maggie suggests that I stop at a pharmacy and get one of the tests that actually spell it out for you. This sounds like the best idea yet so I make a mental note to stop at Walgreens on my way home from work (my brother and our friend Dan work at Target Pharmacy, so this was out for obvious reasons). Jeff and I were supposed to work at the polls that night, but he had texted me to let me know that they had enough help, so I figured that it would work perfectly for me to take the test once I got home. I would be alone and could tell Jeff if I needed to when he got home from his volunteer shift. I made a little pin at work (just in case) that said "babies for Romney" so I could give it to him as a part of the surprise. I was also planning on having the dogs run around in shirts that said "big brother" but I got iron-on transfers and we all know how terrible I am at ironing (my Grandma Doris would be upset to learn that I've let the ironing skills she worked so hard to instill in me fall by the wayside).
I didn't anticipate that Jeff would be home when I arrived. Apparently, there had been a major computer glitch at Roxborough Intermediate (our polling place) so he had to come home and enter everything. He was super stressed because he was supposed to be checking voters off of his master list but he had to enter information before he could proceed. He takes all job responsibilities very seriously, even volunteer responsibilities, so I left him hunched over the computer and making calls to the party chair. I bounded upstairs like a kid trying to hide a forty from her parents and proceed to take the "high tech" pregnancy test. Of course, it screamed "PREGNANT!" It didn't have the exclamation point, but it might as well have. As you can probably guess, I couldn't contain my excitement. The logical part of me calmly said to wait until he got home after the polls closed. The completely irrational side of me didn't even stop to argue with the logical side. I grabbed the pregnancy test and the "babies for Romney" button and ran downstairs and told Jeff that I had gotten him something and handed him the button. When he looked up at me, I showed him the pregnancy test and told him to "check it out." (keep in mind that Jeff was super insanely stressed about not getting information entered correctly and missing voters as they check in, and I had just completely derailed his train of thought. If Jeff was a computer, the words "cannot compute" would have been scrolling across his screen). All he could say was, "Oh yeah?"
Oh yeah? The phrase that my dad used to say when he wanted to ponder what you were saying for a bit before he gave a real answer. Jeff uses that phrase for the exact same reason.
Once Jeff regained his ability to make a more coherent thought, he hugged me and had me help him enter voter information. He had to go back to the polls, so we decided that we would chat about it when he got home. We were both cautiously happy - freaked out about the thought of being responsible for another human but excited about the possibilities.
We've had about a month now to let it sink in. We've seen the little guy on the ultrasound and have decided to nickname him "Bob." Both of us are enthusiastic about the future and nervous at the same time about everything. I'm sure that's to be expected :)
The moral of the story - if you want a positive reaction to awesome news, wait until the person you're telling is completely ready to hear it!
And, of course, pics. I didn't get a pic of the button I made, but I'm sure you can visualize it.
this is why I was confused. dark line and super faint line.
much better ;)
