A Pregnancy Meme

I was tagged for a pregnancy meme by Marijke at Womb Within. She asks the following six questions:

1. How did you find out you were pregnant?
2. How did you tell your partner (if you have/had one)?
3. Did you secretly hope for a girl or a boy?
4. Did you feel ready to have a child?
5. What bit of advice did you get that you hated?
6. What bit of advice did you get that you appreciated?

1 and 2. The first time, I quietly crept out of bed early in the morning and took a home pregnancy test following months of infertility treatment. I could hardly believe my eyes when it turned up positive! I crawled back into bed and put my husband’s hand over my belly and “kicked” to tell him there soon would be a little one actually kicking in there! The second time, I was at the gynecologist’s office, and had asked that a pregnancy test be run on the off chance that my husband and I had conceived on our own. I burst into tears when the nurse told me I was pregnant (she thought I already knew!) The nurse went to get my husband in the waiting room, except he waited for me there and I waited for him inside, and all that time he thought I was going to tell him there was something terribly wrong! Finally we connected and he got the happy surprise too! This third time, it was Thanksgiving Day and I insisted that my husband go with me to the grocery store to buy a home pregnancy test. He didn’t think I was pregnant (even though we had been trying), so guess who got to have one of those “I told you so” moments?

3. I secretly hoped for a girl the first time, and got my wish! The second time I hoped for another girl, because I grew up with a younger sister and wanted that for my daughter too. Again, wish granted. The third time I knew the chances of having another girl were quite high, and while I would also have been happy to have a boy, I was pleased to learn we are indeed expecting a girl.

4. Even after all those months of trying for a much-desired baby, I still didn’t feel ready to have my first. Going into the second pregnancy with experience made me even more nervous to have a second child (How would the family dynamic change? Could I handle caring for two?) All the same questions have arisen this third time too, although I am not as concerned about going from two to three children as I was about going from one to two.

5. I must have blocked out all the advice that didn’t resonate with me. At every La Leche League meeting I attend, the leader always reminds the mothers to “take what works for you and leave the rest.” I seem to have taken that to heart!

6. The one piece of advice I really appreciated came from a magazine. It was a tip from a mother who said to make short-term goals about breastfeeding. When I experienced some early problems with engorgement, oversupply, and plugged ducts, I stuck it out until the point that I could not imagine stopping. Breastfeeding quickly became my most valuable tool for parenting an infant — the bonding, the nurturing, the comforting.

Want to play along? Answer the six questions either in the comments section of this post or in your own post!