The Biggest Surprise of Our Lives

Before Summer 2018 began, Henry was just turning 9 months old and beginning to be more independent. He was eating solid foods and feeding himself; and sure enough, this led to a dip in my breast milk production. No big deal, I thought. It was bound to happen.

I also noticed that I was feeling more tired than usual, but I figured it was just due to chasing a very active toddler and a crawling baby (as well as another active toddler at my home health job). But then I was also getting light-headed, and I couldn't quite figure out why. 

One night, before I was about to head upstairs for bed, I realized that it had been a while since I had my period. I looked at my phone's calendar, and I was right - it had been 4 weeks and 5 days. I thought, I'm still breastfeeding. My cycle is probably still off. I bet I'll get it tomorrow. Still, something was telling me, Take a test before you take your pill. (I always take my birth control pill before I go to bed.)

I went to the downstairs restroom and took out a leftover standard pregnancy test that I had from when we tried getting pregnant with Henry. It turned positive right away, and I just cried.

I ran upstairs and shook Ralph awake as quietly as possible (Henry was sleeping in his crib which was still in our room at the time). Ralph followed me outside to the stairwell, closed the door, and looked at the test with the sleepiest/most confused look you can imagine. I can't remember what he said. I just remember being back downstairs and crying my eyes out and saying stuff like...

"How did this happen?"

"What are we going to do?"

"Poor Henry. We didn't give him enough time to be our baby."

"My mom can't watch three kids. I won't be able to work."

"We can't live here. We need to move, but we can't afford to move."

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU JOKE ABOUT HOW YOUR SPERM IS 'SUPER' OR THAT YOUR SEMEN NEEDS TO BE DONATED FOR SCIENCE."

I really did say this while sobbing uncontrollably.

I was beside myself. After several more outbursts, Ralph just held me and assured me that everything was going to work out, that everything was going to be okay. I obviously didn't sleep right away that night, but it didn't take too long for me to realize one thing - God's timing is always perfect. A couple of hours later, I finally fell asleep.

The following morning, I did something that I hadn't done in a long time - I prayed. I felt terrible for reacting the way I did, so I prayed for God's forgiveness and guidance and thanked him for all my blessings (especially the one that was growing inside me). Shortly after, I called Kaiser to schedule my first pre-natal appointment.

Baby's first ultrasound.

The baby looked healthy and was growing on schedule with a projected due date of February 23rd, Owen's original due date. Funny, right? About 8 weeks later, we publicly announced the pregnancy. 2 weeks after that, right at 14 weeks, we scheduled an ultrasound to find out the gender.

During the ultrasound, the baby did not want to cooperate at first. I actually had to drink some soda AND use the restroom before the ultrasound tech was able to tell us the results; but before she even said what we were having, I knew. I have two boys, so I can spot boy parts in an ultrasound right away. This time, I saw nothing.

Technician: So...guess what?

Me: It's a girl? Are you sure? (Ultrasound techs must HATE this question.)

Technician: Yup! You're having a girl!

Excited that they don't have to share their toy cars with another boy. HA. So they think...

Honestly, we couldn't believe it, and I STILL didn't believe the other ultrasound technician who performed the 20-week anatomy scan 6 weeks later; however, we prepared for a girl, though I didn't really start doing anything until way into the 3rd trimester.

Preparing for a girl was super strange but super fun!

On February 18th, we welcomed Grace Celeste - our first and only daughter, our smallest and last baby.

Photo courtesy of Christina Cho Photography

Up next...her birth story!