The week before New Years (2017), you could find me sleeping just about everywhere, at any given time. My entire family was wondering what was happening. Why couldn’t I stay awake? My cousin’s immediate theory was I was pregnant, but I swore that I wasn’t. Not that I was opposed to being pregnant, I just didn’t feel pregnant in any way -I didn’t even have any of the symptoms. Still, I couldn’t explain the intense drowsiness and I wasn’t not not trying to have a baby. My cousin had gotten in my head. So the week prior, I confided to my sister that I wanted to take a pregnancy test and she covered for me to do so while visiting my mom. Ultimately, that test provided negative. Yet I couldn’t stop thinking what if?
Fast forward to the Thursday before the New Year. I was still feeling so sleepy and unconvinced by the first test, I headed to the nearest pharmacy and bought a new pregnancy test. I went home and immediately to the bathroom. My husband was at work and I was too anxious to wait, besides, it was all still a what if. Two minutes after peeing on the stick, there they were, two thick lines. I was speechless, I didn’t really know what to think. I was excited but nervous and honestly, just in shock.
The first one to find out was our cat. I opened the bathroom door and he was just sitting there looking up at me, in his quizzical and arrogant way. I remember grabbing him and telling him out loud “Okie, you’re going to be a big brother!”. Saying those words out loud made it more real and a lot more nerve wracking.
My husband wouldn’t be home for several more hours and I knew I wanted to tell him that night, I just didn’t know how. I just knew I didn’t want it to be weird or cheesy. So I went to the nearest store to see if I could find something unique and cute to tell him the big news. If you know me, you know I hate shopping because I’m super indecisive. How was I supposed to pick something small to reveal something so big? So, I kept it simple and picked out a pair of unisex baby shoes. By the time I got home, the shoes felt wholly underwhelming. I wanted something more personal and intimate to us. So I dove into my artistic side and drew a couple of pics to go with the shoes. My husband is a huge Marvel fan and two of his favorite superheroes are Hope Summers and Captain America. So I drew each of those characters with a question mark in between them.
When my husband got home, I tried to act calm and collected. I gave him time to settle in and get comfy. Afterwards, I asked him to come upstairs because I had something for him. I gave him the first picture I drew and then the second. I used the pics as hints before giving him the shoes. He, like me, was in shock. He said “Really?”and I nodded. This was the moment that changed our lives. This was when it hit us, we were going to be parents.
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