From the moment you find out you're pregnant...

Okay. I found out I was pregnant on June 16th because I had a funny feeling, which was agitated when I walked upstairs in the beach house we were renting to see a giant pregnancy test stretched across a 50 inch flat screen with the word PREGNANT emblazoned across. Friends who were watching Army Wives had paused the show in that fortuitous position and left for dinner. That little sign from above urged me to take a test (or three) and before I knew it I was staring at a series of digital readings telling me my life was about to change. 

It wasn't what we planned. My husband and I were going to start adoption paperwork this year with hopes of bringing a little one home from some foreign shore in 2010. We'd have our own at some point later. Only, God didn't care so much about our schemes and this surprise awaited us on vacation this summer. Time to reconfigure!

Both Doug (my fabulous husband) and I handled it much more calmly than I would have imagined! I pictured panic attacks, "what are we going to do????" conversations, etc. Rather we both just kind of laughed, said, "okay!" and started preparing for this little course correction. Time to find an obgyn, buy some prenatal vitamins and break myself of an intense caffeine addiction. The obvious physical symptoms followed (nausea, dizzyness, sleepiness, etc.) and we're on the road to parenthood.

Now, we're excited. Just started telling people this week (2 1/2 months in) and picturing life a little differently than we did before. Enthusiasm is contagious. People love babies it turns out and are filled with helpful tips and tricks that I just know are going to make sense one day when I meet the little one. 

That said, I've seen a few commercials of late saying things like, "from the moment you know you're pregnant," which make it seem like that digital "pregnant" stick should have some with a USB port I could plug into my head for a download of motherly feelings and insta-knowledge about all things kids. I'm not quite sure that's been my experience. And I work in advertising. In fact, ironically, I work on an advertising account that markets to moms. So, I intend to chronicle this experience, these feelings, lessons learned, etc. so that I can look back later and remember what it was really like before I put on the mom pants. 

I'll be honest, on the plane this morning I put in my noise canceling head phones to avoid the screaming kids across the aisle (there were three all in full melt down) and watched Season 3 of Weeds (a show about a drug dealing suburban soccer mom). I had this image in my head for a moment of being on a plane with my own screaming kids and getting dirty looks from the fellow passengers because I had those same noise canceling headphones on to avoid the screams of my own offspring. Plus, surely that's not the kind of programming cookie-baking mothers watch. Mom guilt set in and I'm not even a mom! 

Needless to say this should be an interesting ride. Stay tuned...