And they'll tell two friends...and so on...and so on...

We had decided that we weren't going to tell anyone until we had our first visit to the doctor. That resolve lasted about 2 days. Sean's parents phoned us and at one point during the conversation Sean put his hand over the receiver and with this big grin on his face he whispered "should I tell them?" Personally, I'm all for telling everyone that will listen but I understand the reasons for showing some restraint until the end of the first trimester. Naturally I giggled "yes"! Soon after I heard excitement from Canada streaming through the phone lines. I told my sister Jose on her birthday (August 24th). She told our mom and everyone else in the room right away and by the end of the next day everyone in her office knew too! I told our friend Jess here in Japan and she told Kevin her boyfriend. So we told 6 people but I'm sure at least 300 know by now. People just love the news of a baby on the way and we've learned it's one of the hardest secrets to keep!

Blue yes, but sometimes not so clear or easy!

Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

So I bought the Clear Blue Easy test. Bought two in fact as I knew I would somehow bungle the testing process. Saturday ended up being too busy but I was up bright and early on Sunday morning (August 21). There I am perched on the toilet, test in one hand, instructions in the other trying to ready my swollen bladder for it's most meaningful urination! In my mind and possibly out loud I'm saying "easy does it, slow and steady". This is where I need to break in to tender some advice. The instructions give you two options. Peeing directly on the strip or peeing in a cup and then dipping the strip. Just go directly to the second option. I had the pressure of a friggin' fire hose (something I've since learned comes with pregnancy) and I basically destroyed the first test. This is when Sean stepped in. He re-read the instructions and we ended up doing the dip option with the second test which was far more civilized and a lot less messy. Most importantly though was that we had a positive result pretty much right away. Two blue lines. Wow! We did it! Such wonderful news but such a shame to get it while seated on the crapper! Ladies, we definately need to call for some sort of technological update there!

I just knew

As the week wore on I was positive that there was a bun in my oven. My bra was filling out at a rate I couldn't explain, my brain felt a little fuzzy and I started habitually waking up at 5 am. I can't remember what day I mentioned it to Sean but he either didn't believe me or didn't want to believe me (at least not just yet!). Technically we had only been trying for a little over a month so we were both looking forward to a little more "recreation" before we had to come to grips with the fact we were soon to be a mommy and daddy. Besides nobody gets pregnant after less than 5 weeks of trying! Being a little short on cash I decided I would buy a pregnancy test on payday which was Friday. We would do the test on the weekend.

Hmmm...what's that I'm feeling?

Sean...about an hour before I realized he was going to be a daddy!
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

The first day I suspected I was pregnant was August 15th, 2005. We had just spent the last night of Tom and Pat's visit in Sapporo. We got up early to drive them to the airport in Chitose and all I could think about was getting them to the airport and getting us home. I woke feeling not quite myself and really tired. We had a whirlwind visit with Tom and Pat so I figured the last 5 or so weeks were just catching up with me.

After tearful good-byes at the airport Sean and I went into Chitose to do some shopping and have lunch. We then embarked on a new route home with the idea of an adventure appealing a wee bit more to Sean than myself. I didn't reveal this to him at the time 'cause I figured I'd snap out of my funk once we hit the road. The drive was indeed lovely. The road wound thru rice paddies and over deep valleys with shallow jade rivers. We stopped in Bitori to visit the temple and take some photo's. And then the rain started. Back on the road we encountered restless, black clouds heavy with rain. The deeper we ventured into the mountains the harder the rain pelted our car. This is when I started to feel sick. I willed that car throught sheets of rain and flooding streets. The windshield wipers were wildly wiping but it seemed to do little good. Past motorcycles and cars pulled to the side of the road and through intersections under 10 cm of water I thought of nothing else but getting home. The rain stopped just before Hidaka and when we turned right onto the main drag I thought of two things. The sunshine seems so golden after all that blackness and I'm pregnant. That was Monday.