Chris has been really cute throughout the pregnancy.  He has wanted to start a family since back when we were in Massachusetts.  The first time he suggested it {on the drive home from grocery shopping one night}, I kinda/sorta/maybe/totally flipped out.  We knew that we were moving to South Bend in a few months and that there was a more than good chance that we’d be moving to New Zealand a year after that.  His thinking was, “OK – so, you get pregnant, we’ll have the baby about a month before we move to New Zealand, and then you’ll have a few weeks to visit family and let them see the baby before we go overseas.  Great plan, huh?!”

Chris is not an only child, but he’s not familiar with pregnant women or babies.  I wish that I could say that I calmly and rationally explained to him why this wasn’t the best option, but it was more like 25 minutes of me loudly telling Chris why that wasn’t a good idea: (a) I needed to get a job in South Bend, and I didn’t want to start a new job when I was pregnant, (b) pregnancy isn’t a cut-and-dried deal: there are complications that warrant things such as bed-rest and you don’t always get pregnant snap, just like that, (c) I didn’t want to plan a cross-global move while pregnant, then effect it with a newborn in my arms, and (d) it was important to me to be able to work in New Zealand and form friendships before staying home with a baby.  Chris quietly and patiently listened to my ranting, then in a calm voice told me that I could have explained all of that without yelling.  Oops.

Once we moved to New Zealand and took some time to get settled in, it was time to start trying for a family.  When Chris found out that I was pregnant {me showing him the positive test, him saying, “What’s that?! Oh!”} he approached it with his typical analytic style: lots of research!  I bought “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” on Kindle and read a few chapters, then quickly grew bored.  It was like a refresher of my Labor & Delivery and Maternal Child Health nursing classes.  Chris, on the other hand, has been reading it for weeks.  He’ll suddenly ask me questions about my DHA intake, what kind of acne medication I’m using, {scandalized gasp, followed by, “None, darling, of course!  I have a perfectly clear peaches-and-cream complexion…!”}, how much water I’m drinking, if I’m getting enough iron… it’s quite cute, really.  I’ve signed up for those, “Your Pregnancy This Week” emails, and Chris was so interested that I started forwarding them to him as well.  He loves to think about the fact that our baby is the size of a lentil or a blueberry or a kidney bean.  The one he’s really looking forward to is week 13, when the baby is supposedly the size of a medium shrimp.  Each week we refer to the baby by that week’s fruit: baby blueberry, baby bean, etc.

My husband is adorable and a sweetheart.  If we’re lucky, the baby will have more of his personality than mine, but he says that he’s just hoping it doesn’t come out looking like him.  This always makes me laugh, which is his intention, and is a further reminder of the fact that I’m married to an amazing man.  A man who, when I’m throwing up for the 5th time will carefully, slowly poke his head into the bathroom and ask if I’m OK {he hates being around that sort of thing, but he’ll do it for me}.  A man who asks how his “babies” are doing, who tells me every day that I’m beautiful and lovely even when I haven’t showered in almost 48 hours because of exhaustion.  This is the kind of man who, if I nearly burst into tears because the stupid blender isn’t working will come up and ask, “What can I do for you, baby?”  He rubs my feet without me asking, he cleans without too much hinting, and lets me sleep for 12 hours straight.  I am so blessed.  I know without a doubt that Chris is going to be an amazing, patient, loving father who teaches his children all about good chocolate, SEC football, that you should always root for South Carolina and always root against Clemson, to listen to your mother and call women “ma’am”, and to love God.

And with that knowledge, I breathe a contented sigh and smile 🙂