An Anniversary of Sorts

It is one year to the date that Sean and I discovered we were expecting a baby! Amazing the difference a year can make. I remember vividly the entire weekend. We had no reason to think I would be pregnant as I had been told by my OB that I wasn't ovulating. I had been seeing her off and on and my period hadn't come so I figured I was going to have to call her to figure out what was wrong. I was feeling quite angry at my body and not looking forward to going back to the doctor. It was a Saturday and I figured I would call and set something up on Monday. I had gone into school to get some work done and I am still not sure what made me do it, but on the way home I decided to pick up a home pregnancy test. I think I figured we would have to rule that out to get to the bottom of what was going on, but I was certain it would be negative. I got home and Sean had gone to the store and he was so excited to have found a really good deal on a nice bottle of wine and a very good bottle of champagne. I LOVE champagne and we were making cheese fondue that night for dinner. I said great, I am going to take this test so we can rule that out before I call the doctor, whatever, no big deal. I went and tested and the instructions said to wait 2 minutes for the result. I remember I was staring at the word "pregnant" within 30 seconds. It was one of those digital tests that it will either read "pregnant" or "not pregnant." I sat for the remaining minute and a half waiting to see if the "not" was going to pop up after the fact. When it didn't, I went to the kitchen where Sean was doing dishes and said, "Sean, please stop doing the dishes and look at this." We both must have looked like deer in headlights, although I still remember the warm feeling of surprise and excitement spreading through me. Of course, next thing you know, we are on Google looking up false positive rates for home pregnancy tests (<3%). We seriously couldn't believe it, but I didn't drink any champagne that night (or for another many months! we actually saved that bottle until after Finn's birth).

The next day, we were scheduled to take a ride in the Goodyear blimp (foreshadowing of pregnancy!). It is actually about as rare as a false positive HPT to get a ride in the blimp. It is a symbol in Akron as Goodyear houses 3 of their blimps there. They do not sell tickets, but only give them to charities. I actually won 2 in a raffle at the Akron marathon. It is really a phenomenal experience. It really is simply a balloon and as it comes in for a landing, the ground crew runs up to grab lines coming off it to slow it down as passengers are loaded and unloaded:


This is where the house the blimps. A view as we took off. The pitch of take off and landing is really steep:

We had to wear headphones to block the engine noise and speak to each other. The blimp gondola only houses the pilot and 6 passengers. We had a blast. The whole time in the back of my head, I kept thinking, "Oh my gosh, I am pregnant! I can't believe it, I am pregnant! Wow, the view is beautiful, and I am pregnant!"

Sean remained very serious:

Yes, there are three people in this picture:

It is so fun to remember how giddy we were that weekend and to look at the beautiful son we have now!