December 24th & 25th: How We Told Our Families

After learning the news, it seemed impossible to wait any longer to tell anyone, and Jeremy and I agreed that Christmas would be an amazing time for a reveal.


Since the Christmas schedule had already been determined, the announcement schedule had also been determined.


On Christmas Eve, we arrived at my parents' house right around lunch. I grabbed food and ate, and then was sitting there about to burst while my dad and brother S-L-O-W-L-Y thought about eating and then got themselves courses -- COURSES! -- when all I could think about was telling them before I slipped up and said something stupid.  I had already turned down a big bottle of Diet Coke, which made my mom look at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears, and I was afraid she might start connecting dots.


Two hours later, everyone was done eating, and my dad FINALLY stood up to get the "rest" of his lunch, and I couldn't take it anymore.  I asked if I could give mom a small present, and my dad sighed and complained and then said "Oh yes, of COURSE, we can drop everything and pay attention to YOU!" which is pretty ironic, because he was so excited to give Jeremy one of his gifts that he gave it to him AS HE WAS WALKING IN THE DOOR.  To my father, I replied, "Oh, you are going to be soooo sorry you said that," and handed my mom this:

I wasn't sure if she got it immediately, since she already IS a grandma to her stepdaughters' six children, so I lifted up my sweatshirt and showed her THIS:

And everyone jumped up and starting hugging and crying and shouting. It was great!


FAST FORWARD TO December 25th ...


We called Jeremy's parents, and they said we should just go meet the entire extended family at Gran's house instead of waiting at their house for Jeremy's mom to get off work, which is what we were kind of hoping for so we could tell them first.


So, we went to Gran's house and made chit chat, and I avoided the lunch line because I thought there might be disastrous results, and I sat, wiggling my foot, just DYING for Karri to show up and eat her lunch so we could spill our big news.


Karri finally arrived, and her and Brian ate ... and it seemed to take forever!  They ate like normal people, no doubt about it, but it felt like it took hours!  Finally, I told Jeremy that we should whisper to his parents and siblings that we had a surprise present we had to give them in Gran's bedroom.  When Jeremy told his dad ... I WISH I had a picture of the look on his face!  He looked very bewildered and weired out, but I rounded up everyone else and we hid in Gran's bedroom, where I also gave Karri this album:

(which was awesomely obvious for her, since this will be her first grandchild) and then whipped up my shirt again to reveal this:

(Sorry, I know I didn't have to repeat those pictures, but I thought you might want to full effect!  Don't worry, you'll get to see it one more time in this fun little re-cap!)

The Dimicks hooted and hollered and screamed much louder than I anticipated, and when we stepped out of the bedroom, the other 30 people in the house were staring at us and asking what was up. Originally, we were going to reveal it to the rest of the family at the beginning of present time, but I asked Jeremy if we should go for it, and we figured we might as well go with the flow.


I shouted to the house "If you want in on the secret, come to the living room!" everyone crowded around, and I handed Gran THIS:

(Later, Gran said she was looking at it and was thinking "Who are those people?" before she read what it said!)

Jeremy's Aunt Kristi was sitting right next to her while she opened it, and she started screaming something about great-grandchildren (and she does not yet have any great-grandchildren!) and the people in close vicinity started shrieking, and I lifted up my shirt, a little riled by all the excited shouting, and screamed "BAM!!!" as I revealed: 

There was shouting and screaming, and clapping, and excitement from 30+ people, and more than I expected I would ever see during an announcement like this, so ... I may have gotten a little carried away and pointed at my stomach and shouted, "There's a BABY in there!" which was met by even more excitement.

All in all, the family reveals were better than I ever could have imagined. We have great families!

December 22nd

December 22nd was the day I decided enough was enough and I should just go ahead and take a pregnancy test.  I had been having some symptoms for a few weeks, but since I had talked myself into thinking I was pregnant before, I wasn't getting my hopes up.  In fact, I took the test and, instead of hovering over it like I have in the past, I got in the shower.  When I got out, I told myself to not be upset when the test was negative like all the others.  That's when I saw this:

I cannot begin to describe how shocked I was.  My mouth dropped open and I started shaking.  But I was also scared and confused, because the line was so faint.  

I had always been under the impression that if there is any line at all, that is positive, since it is measuring the presence of hormones that you wouldn't have if you weren't pregnant.  However, I could not think in such a rational manner at that point!  

I stood in the bathroom for a long time, and then ran downstairs to take a picture of the test.  It took me 15 tries to get this picture!  I was so excited, I was shaking.

This was taking place at nine in the morning.  Jeremy was at work and our friend Jess was stopping by in a few hours to visit the museum (where Jeremy works and she used to work) and then finish up some last minute Christmas shopping with me.  But all I could think of was the possibility that we were having a BABY!!!

I immediately called my general practitioner back home in Yale (since I haven't bothered to get one here in Lansing) and set up an appointment to see her the next day.  I really needed some reassurance that I was really pregnant!

So, Jess arrived, and we went to the museum, visited for a while, and then went to lunch with Jeremy and Loel.  It was TORTURE having to spend all that time with him while keeping that huge secret.  I wanted to tell him right away, but I thought it would be much better if I could tell him in a more private and special way.  On top of that, I was feeling completely exhausted (as I had for the past few weeks) and a little queasy.  It was hard to pretend that everything was normal, and Jeremy even laughed at me when I asked I could stretch out on the benches at the museum for a little while.

When I went shopping with Jess, I felt like a total lame-o.  I was totally exhausted from all the excitement and activity (I read that just lying on the couch and making a baby is as exhausting as a normal person running a marathon -- this is EXACTLY how I felt!), and I just wanted it to be 5 o'clock so I could tell Jeremy.

When Jeremy got out of work, he called me and told me he needed to buy a few stocking stuffers for the pets and would be home in a while.  I insisted he come home immediately and go shopping later.  He was not excited about the prospect, but realized I was going to keep insisting until he gave in, so he came straight home.  When he came home, I handed him the computer and told him that I was started a new blog.  I wish I had a picture of the look he had on his face!!  He said, "You seriously made me come straight home to see a new blog??!?!" but then he looked at the screen and saw THIS blog:  The Life and Times of Baby Dimick.

Jeremy was shocked, excited, and overjoyed.  He grabbed me and held me, and then asked a million questions.  He asked for every detail, and it was the greatest moment.  I have had a lot of happy moments in my life, and my amazing wedding was less than a year ago, but nothing has compared to being able to tell Jeremy that we will soon be having a baby.

Stay tuned for details from December 23rd!

Finally!

Well, it is official.  


I am proud to announce that I am good and knocked up.  Jeremy and I will be welcoming a little one sometime near the end of August or the beginning of September.


I know it is "smart" to wait until you are farther along in your pregnancy to make such announcements, but we are just so excited that there is no way we could wait!  We found out on December 22nd and thought it would be so much fun to announce it to the whole family at Christmas.


This will be a space to document my pregnancy and keep my family and friends updated on the status of Baby Dimick!!  Please, become a follower and visit whenever possible!