The Biggest News

Sjælør Station, 8 December 2013

On December 8, this guy found out he was going to be a dad.

We decided we'd start letting nature decide our family planning in October. I was a little neurotic the first month--following every dietary guideline, taking my nasty pre-natals religiously, spraying myself down with magnesium oil, checking my “what to expect” apps multiple times per day, penciling in my maternity leave, and planning how to tell our families. And then we didn’t get pregnant.

I'm crazy, but I'm also practical and lazy, and it seemed pointless and exhausting to repeat this every month until we did get pregnant. So the next month I was completely lax. I don't think I did one single thing to prepare or plan.

December 8 was day 31.5 of my very predictable 29-30 day cycle. I was certain the usual things were beginning... but nothing happened, so I decided to take a test after church. I wasn't neurotic or anxious about it because I felt exactly the same as always and had all month. I almost felt dumb even testing, but I was late. I set the test down in the bathroom and left to go make dinner without even setting a timer, figuring I'd come back to it whenever. But then I thought maybe I shouldn't leave it sitting out in the open and give Todd false hope, so I went back about a minute later to hide it. The result was already clear.

And how did the biggest news of my life feel? Not exactly surreal, but definitely a little strange, and happily ironic. Heavenly Father has a good sense of humor and a very kind way of teaching me to not be such a nutcase.

We had an appointment with the missionaries after dinner, so I waited about 4 hours to tell Todd. I intended to tell him when we got home. Nothing fancy, just snuggling on the sofa or something. But we had to wait 10 minutes for our train at Sjælør Station in South Copenhagen, just the two of us talking, and I just failed at small talk. I said something mundane like "I'm tired," and Todd said "Oh yeah? Why is that?"... and it just came out. "Guess who's pregnant?" (Todd said I then smiled deviously, clearly pleased with the power to break this news and my ability to hold it in for a whole 4 hours.)

He wasn't overly surprised, he being far more suspicious about my lateness than I was, and he loved the irony that I was pregnant when I was sure I wasn't. I almost immediately regretted telling him in such a dumb way at some random train station in South Copenhagen. But he said it was so me to spill the beans at some weird time/place, he was glad it happened that way. Sigh.

Baby Waddell is coming in August 2014!