Jalapeno

When we decided to give this whole baby thing a try, we had no idea it would happen so quickly, honestly, we both figured that it would be months of trying before it stuck. Not so much, it essentially happened immediately. There wasn't any long discussions of the pros and cons. There wasn't any real decision, there was just a "let's throw caution to the wind" and see what happens.

It was July and we were knee deep in building a deck. This deck was no small event, it was designed and built entirely by us, with some help from the Doo. Neither of us being overly constructionally inclined, this deck was a big deal, and it was hot, over 100 most days and we gave up at least three weekends to labor in the sun. No one would have thought that the two of us could have completed a project like this without tearing each other apart, just the opposite, we were an awesome deck building team, then I got sick. I started to feel terrible, I thought it was the heat or the flu, but it turns out, there was a little jalapeno in there taking all I had.

Ed finished the deck mostly on his own, and it is beautiful, at least to us it is.

On a hot August evening after Ed's golf league and after I helped Allyson pack her apartment, we decided to give a pregnancy test a try. I was about 8 days late and we had a big weekend of partying coming up. It was about 10 PM and I made Ed go in to Safeway to get the pregnancy test. He was in there so long, I was scared that he got cold feet and snuck out the back door. No, he was just in line with a bunch of drunks and old lades who insisted on correct change. The first test said "Pregnant" as clear as day within 30 seconds of exposure. It was supposed to take 3-5 minutes. I screamed, Ed came running in from outside of the bathroom door where he had been posted. I think we hugged, it is all such a blur. We were in such a shock, the shock of our lifetimes.

We had always joked that we would someday have a little Jalapeno, now it was very real. I went to the doctor to take another pregnancy test - the third one. For sure there was a baby in my belly.

It didn't take us long to start telling certain friends - and some friends, ANGELA, figured it out on her own.

We were going to be parents.

(me 4 weeks pregnant - what? you can't tell?)

Writing about it now seems very surreal. I can't put into words the feelings and emotions that had overwhelmed us at first, and how far away all of that seems right now. I can tell you this, I am pretty sure we felt like we were the first people on the planet to be pregnant and boy was it scary. We made a promise to each other to work on keeping our marriage good throughout this baby thing and I hope that we can keep that promise. So far so good. . .