Little Bean

We've taken to calling you Bean, even though you're not even the size of a piece of rice yet. But Pilaf just doesn't sound as cute. We found out about you on September 3, 2009. I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and remembered that it was test-taking day.

I know you're going to be a good baby because you made your presence known on that stick well before the time stated in the directions. This makes you a good baby because your parents don't like to wait for anything. Hopefully, we've managed to keep this little fact from you because it's not really a good quality, and we hope it doesn't rub off on you. But we really do prefer immediate gratification. For example, we totally plan to make you wait for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to open up presents, but we'll be opening ours upstairs in our bedroom one to two weeks before Christmas.

Anyway, I ran up the stairs (none too quietly) to tell your dad. "It said yes," I told him, while jumping into bed. He said, "What?" "The test said yes!" I put the pregnancy test on his belly. He fumbled for the light and his glasses, and the test fell. He finally found the light and his glasses. I found the test. He looked at it and, if I remember right, your dad said, "We did it!" We hugged and kissed and he said quietly, "We have so much to do."

We got up and tried to take a picture of the pregnancy test because the directions said that the "YES+" would go away in 30 minutes. While your dad tried to take pictures with my cell phone, his cell phone, and the digital camera, I called your Grama Schulz. It was 2:30 a.m. in Wisconsin, and she didn't mind a bit. (I think your grama has been waiting for you since I got my period.) She called me later that morning from work to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Sadly, none of the pictures turned out, but that stick must be full of pregnant, because it still says yes today.

I told two of my good friends at work that day, Jackie Brown and Lynn Pendergast. Most people wait a while before they make their pregnancy public, but I don't know how. Driving to work, I wondered how the people in the other cars didn't notice I was pregnant. I texted Sandy Zane, who told Debi Edwardson. And they were the only ones I told for a while.

I peed in another cup at Dr. Toohey's office around 2:30 p.m., and she confirmed that there was a bean in my belly.