Back when Ryan and I were dating and dreaming about things we'd love to do in our life, I'd casually mentioned I'd love to go on a Mediterranean cruise. Fast forward almost a decade and living in Europe has made that a realistic option with Ryan watching for deals since we arrived.
So Christmas held big surprises this year! Ryan had excitedly planned a late August Disney cruise for our family. And last fall he'd secured another great deal for him and I on a Mediterranean cruise for this May. 2011 was looking pretty untoppable!
And so it should come as no surprise that it actually could be.
December 23. A positive pregnancy test!!! I was so excited and figured it'd be fun to surprise Ryan with the news on Christmas Day if I could keep the secret three whole days. It seemed like forever!
Ryan shared his Disney surprise with us on Christmas Eve - he was too excited to wait for the boys' reactions on Christmas Day. They delivered with squeals of joy and we spent the evening watching all the fun online videos. Cruise date, Aug 27.
My guestimated due date, Aug 18. Hmm . . .
I could barely stand waiting for Ryan to open my surprise gift for him. I even caught it on video!
{Sorry for my nervous excited laughter, I couldn't help it!}
It was great fun to watch him work through the flood of emotions. Speechless, excited, overwhelmed, even some happy tears from us both.
The due date. I know it registered initially to him, but ten minutes later or so I had to remind him of the due date again and then he was laughing in shocked disbelief, "You trumped my gift!"
Later that day in Skype sessions with family we shared our news. Ryan got great laughs from them about how he'd love to go ahead as planned with the cruise and when the crews protested my boarding of the boat, he'd act outraged and holler, "How dare you say my wife is pregnant!" Jokes about our baby being born out on international waters, acting surprised going into labor . . . it went on and on with all his inherited theatricality!
In reality, I told him not to change plans until after I'd had my first appointment and gotten past the first trimester since I've miscarried twice before. This week, he came to the first appointment so now everything looks official! I'm 12 1/2 weeks pregnant and the ultrasound showed that thrilling evidence of our little baby.
Ryan really wants to know what we're having and I was pretty close to saying I wanted to be surprised when the doctor said he thinks it's a boy, but it's really too early to tell for sure. If you ask Ryan, he'd love to have another girl. He's always been like that - his sister's five girls were pretty little when he got to spend time with them and they sucked him in! Boys are great fun, but there's something about little girls to their daddies!
And the cruise in May? Not going to happen either because I'll be past the 20 weeks allowed. All Ryan's hard research and patience! I felt so bad but what do you do?!
Be thrilled and feel so blessed for our coming addition!
