Two weeks is a LONG time!

Well, as our excitement was just starting Amanda was also feeling some strong cramping. We had not even known for two days before we needed to run to the Emergency Room at Northwestern. Amanda's OBGYN had told us to contact them if she felt any strong cramps and of course she did on a Sunday. But they got us right in and after a few exams, some blood work and a ultra sound everything looked good. Monday we went to our real OBGYN and got a real Ultra Sound. They could see the sack and the yolk but no "stem" which for the men out there is code for "BABY". This was the first time I heard the term "Empty Sack" pregnancy. This means that Amanda's body was doing everything as if it was making a baby just without the baby. They told us to hold tight since we were not totally sure of Amanda's cycle and to come back in two weeks.

Well, that put the breaks on any planning or talking to anyone. Meanwhile poor Amanda is going through all the fun of being preggers but none of the assurance that everything was fine. We stopped talking about names and only lightly talked about having a baby in fear that we would jinx ourselves.

Tick, tock... Tick, tock...

Finally! The Friday comes for another Ultrasound. The lady comes in and goes to work in a "I do this ALL damn day" kind of attitude. "OK! There is the fetus, and here is the heart beat... Do you want a print out of the scan?" DUH! No lady, I want to wait until it can wave at me and toss up a ROCK HAND. Can I have the scan please???

And as soon as it was printed out we were done! Two weeks of stress wiped away in minutes. We were back on track.

So here's the plan...

My wife and I decided we should start the "thinking about, maybe someday birthing a baby." Amanda told me that it may take a few years since she had been on birth control for so long. Our idea was that she would go off of "The pill" and we would go into the mode of "Not trying but not, not trying" If it happened sooner than later then great but if it took longer than a year we might have to start looking for some help.

Swing the calendar around three times to one night where I come home from my bass guitar practice and I find her standing in the hallway. "I think I am going to use one of these pregnancy test." Oh! "OK" So she goes through the process of peeing on a stick and I ask how long does it take to get a result? "Two and a half minutes... Oh crap!" Yep, took thirty seconds to get a positive! "OK, not to worry. I will get a new one tomorrow night and we will double check" the next night she tries two at the same time. And again, 30 seconds is all it takes.

We spend the whole night not sleeping but trying to sleep. Occasionally we say things like -

"I guess we need to buy a second car."
"We can turn the office into the nursery"
"Remember when we thought it would take a year?"