Over the last six months or so, I was starting to feel the desire to give parenthood a try. Every time I saw a little chubby baby - I wanted one. This was surprising to me because, in the past, I had never really felt the maternal need to be a mother. I had never really experienced baby hunger. But sure enough, I turned 30 and found myself in a marriage with a wonderful man who wanted to be a father. So little by little, the baby hunger came. My only hesitations were- 1. I could not handle having a baby while I was still working full time and going to school at night. So I knew that I wanted to at least wait until I was done with that. 2. Depending on where Sean and I were posted, I might not be able to stay at post to have the baby and that would mean I would have to be med-evac'd out six weeks before the due date and wait for another six weeks to travel back to post with the baby. That would be four months without Sean when I would need him the most. No thank you.
Now that my masters is near it's completion and Dubai is a post where I can stay to have my baby, all hesitation was gone. Shortly thereafter we had this happy outcome!
I didn't think I was pregnant the day we took this test. But Sean was leaving for Dubai the next day and so we decided to take one, just in case. We were both definitely shocked and excited. I am so glad we took the test and that we got to find out the happy news together. We also had the entire day together the next day to take it in and to just be happy.
The freshness of this happy news made it all the more devastating for me to drop Sean off at the airport. I hated that I wouldn't see him for almost four months. I had to keep reminding myself that I really did want to finish my masters - which is why I stayed. I ugly cried in the car all the way home.
My new temporary home, by the way, is at my sister Serena's. She was good enough to take me in and let me stay in her newly completed basement while I finished my degree. I was still puffy eyed weepy as I arrived for my first night. It was hard to comprehend that Sean and I would be apart for so long. However, I knew immediately that I would be in good and loving hands.
I love the Cherry family very much.
One night I was feeling a bit sad with Sean gone and was watching TV in bed. One by one the Cherry kids came down, asked me to scoot over and joined me. They have done such a good job at keeping me company. It really has been so good to be in this home! Serena and Chris are great parents and it has been a privilege to observe their approaches to parenting. I have learned a lot!
I am missing Sean so much. I am so glad that we live in an era of Skype and wifi.
We are sure to talk to each other every day for at least an hour.
I don't know what I would do without being to see this face every day.
At six weeks I went to go and do the confirmation ultrasound. I have to admit I kinda felt like Rachel Green in friends when she felt like a bad mother for not being able to recognize the baby. I put a shirt on the baby to help make it clear where baby was. So it was still exciting to see concrete evidence that there was a baby! Up to this point, I hadn't really felt like I was pregnant and felt uneasy about it. So having a Dr. confirmation definitely put me at ease.
Here is baby at 12 weeks. It was such a neat experience because baby was moving around a ton. Sean was able to Skype in and listen to the heart beat. It was so neat and left us both on a high all day. We are so happy and excited for this little one to join our family.
