Okay, first off I must apologize for my lack of posts here. December has been the craziest, most exciting month of my life. Well, I guess this story actually begins in November when Lizzy and I went on vacation to Seattle. We had such a great trip and got to cross many first-time-ever things off our list. (Little did we know that we crossed off another first ever that we didn’t know about, but more about that later.) It was my first ever airplane ride and the first time I got to spend a lot of time in the mountains. It was also Lizzy’s first time to ever see the ocean. And of course we wandered out too far, and it was her first time to ever get hit by a (freezing) wave. The memories of that trip alone would have made 2011 such a great year. But the great things just kept on happening for us.
I had decided to take a chance with my career and write the board of directors of our company about the need for a CAD Manager in our small company. Much to my surprise, instead of getting a pink slip they decided to create the new position and appoint me the new CAD Manager. They agreed with every point I made and was very impressed that I had taken the initiative by approaching them with the idea.
So, thinking the good news was probably over for the month, I celebrated my new promotion by coming down with an ear infection... and Lizzy got the flu. And it was in this condition with my pulse thundering within my head that I found out that my life had really changed forever. I had decided it was best for me to get a lot of sleep on that wonderful night, so I took a dose of my preferred sleep aid, NyQuil, at 7:30. Now, normally I would have been out like a light at about 8 or 8:15, but Lizzy had other plans. I recall laying in bed listening to Lizzy talk about the various aches and pains of having the flu and was praying to drift of to sleep soon when she decided to call her mother. Great, I thought to myself, this could go on for a while and I won’t really get to sleep any earlier than normal... when suddenly I hear the discussion turn from "Mom, I think I have the flu" to "No, MOM, I’m NOT pregnant. There is no way. Can’t be." Well if you ever want to wake a half comatose man from a NyQuil induced slumber just mention the word pregnant on the phone to your mother. Finally the conversation ends and Lizzy tries her best to lay down and go to sleep, but of course that just can’t happen. At this point (unbeknownst to me) it is a source of pride and she has to prove her mother wrong that no, she is in fact, NOT pregnant. She shakes-nudges me with her elbow and tells me that she is going to the bathroom. Okay, thank God, I think to myself, by the time she returns I’ll be out of it. Done for the night. Oh come thou greatness that is sleep. So a few minutes passes and a strange thing happens. The fan that we run every night for white noise in our room shuts itself off for no reason. I think to myself, huh, that’s just strange. I am about to get up and investigate what is going on with the fan when I hear Lizzy call me from downstairs.
"Hey Jas," she says, "You um... want to come down here for a minute?"
"Yeah I’ll be right there," I call out, wondering what the problem is and if I’ll ever get to go back to blessed, blessed sleep. So I start the sleepy walk down the stairs. More than once I bounced from one wall only to bump into the other. I finally get through the gates set up to keep the dogs out of the upstairs and out of the kitchen and make it to the bathroom... where Lizzy is setting on the edge of the tub with a dazed look on her face. By dazed, I mean I think all the blood had left her face completely, and her eyes were the size of saucers. I started looking around for signs of a problem, but couldn’t find anything outwardly wrong. "What’s up?" I asked, and all she could do was point to the counter and the pregnancy test setting there. Slowly I pick it up and take a look at it. Two lines. Wait, we haven’t started trying yet! This was supposed to be hard for us! We’ve been preparing for the worse case scenario for the last year. And there, right in front of me, is two lines.
Well, I finally get Lizzy to come back to bed, where she proceeds to tell me (multiple times) that it HAS to be a false positive, that she can’t be pregnant. So she calls her Mom back and tells her that she thinks it is a false positive. She then proceeds to get out her iPad and frantically search for the accuracy of this particular pregnancy test. Now having been married to my wife for 5 years, I can tell you this was a complete waste of time. She had already researched this and I know she purchased the best test with the least possibility of false positives possible. Not finding any information that would support her argument of "NO FREAKING WAY AM I PREGNANT" on the web, she decides that it has to be the sleeping pills she’s taking that’s causing the false positive. So now she decides she’s going to call a pharmacist. The friendly neighborhood Walgreens pharmacist shoots down her theory that the sleeping pills she has been taking could have caused a false positive and recommends that she wait 12 hours and test again. If the test is positive again, then it is time to see the doctor. Good lord that was a long 12 hours. I don’t think she slept at all. 6:30 in the morning came and she decided that she had waited long enough and it’s time to test again. Two lines. "Okay," she says "that was only really like, 10 hours. It still has to be a false positive." So we wait another 2 hours and she takes a third test. Yup, again. Two lines. "Oh my God," she cries, "Jason... I might really be pregnant!!!" God love her, it can really take her a lot of time to come to terms with some things. We decided to call our doctor and see when they can get us in. (Lizzy, being CONVINCED this is still a false positive, decides to take another test. Two Lines.) Of course they can’t see us until 2 in the afternoon... but that is why it is good have friends in high places. The nurse at the doctor’s office is friends with Lizzy (our favorite nurse, coincidentally), and she sees the name and what Lizzy is coming in for and texts us. "Are you at home?" she asks Lizzy. "GOD YES," Lizzy replies. All I hear after that is 5 thank you’s and grab your coat Jason and put some pants on, they will see us now.
So after 3 positive pregnancy tests at home we are now on our way to see the doctor. Our favorite nurse that smuggled us in early bursts into our exam room with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen in my life. "Am I?... " Lizzy asked her. "You ARE!!" was the only reply. I grabbed Lizzy in what could only be described as a giant bear hug. I really thought she was going to pass out. I have never seen such a mixture of happiness, terror, relief, tears and smiles in my life. I held her for a good long while. She cried a bit and I cried a bit. She asked if I was scared and I replied "Huh yeah." Looking back I wish I had a better line to say then, but oh well. What is done is done and I am going to be a Daddy!
So this little story of my November and December is why you haven’t heard much from me for a while. I hope you all had a very special and wonderful holiday. I don’t think mine could have been any better than it was.
- Jason Leinberger
CAD Manager and daddy to be
PS - I am still walking on air. I did have an ear infection, but as it turns out, Lizzy didn’t have the flu. :)
