On Saturday, November 4, 2006, Kim and I found out that she was pregnant. This didn't come as a complete surprise as "we were not preventing it from happening." The next few days and weeks were filled with a variety of feelings. We told a handful of people of our news immediately, but decided to hold off on breaking the news to our families. With the holiday season quickly approaching, we thought it would be nice to tell our families when we were all together.

With both of our families living out of town, we would be hard pressed to find another excuse to bring everyone together to share our exciting news. So, we waited a bit longer than usual, until Christmas, to let them in on our little secret. Both families were elated by the announcement, and shocked that we had been able to keep it under wraps for so long. The news brought on tears of joy, huge smiles, and lots of hugs. Within all this joy and celebration, someone, after a little quick calendar math, realized that the time frame for our child's arrival coincided with another event in Kim's family.

Kim's sister Kristin got engaged to Don Cropenbaker on Sunday, November 5, 2006 at a Tampa Bay Buccaneer's football game. Kristin and Don decided on an early May wedding, but the place they wanted to hold their wedding was not available until early June. So, after we found out about our pregnancy, Kim's sister got engaged, and before we told them about our baby, Kristin and Don set their wedding date for June 2, exactly one month before our due date, July 2.

The first thirty-five weeks of Kim's pregnancy went by without much ado. Mommy's tummy grew, the baby's heartbeat was always strong, the ultrasound did not reveal any abnormalities. Everything was as expected. At our thirty-five week check-up, the nurse even told Kim that we were "boring". At this same appointment, we reminded the doctor that we were scheduled to leave for Tallahassee, Florida that weekend. The doctor said that she wouldn't tell us that we could not go to Florida. She recognized the importance of Kim being at her sisters wedding. Kim was the Matron of Honor. The doctor did say however, that she would suggest we not go.

We listened to her advice, but decided not to follow it. Having had no complications to that point in the pregnancy, Kim and I decided to take the risk, and go to the wedding. So, on Thursday May 31, Kim and I packed up the Escape and headed down I-95 South toward I-10 and Tallahassee, Florida.

Labels: baby, birthStory