spilling the beans about our bean

We had kept our baby a secret from our friends and family for 13 whole weeks before we spilled the beans! I don’t think I will make it nearly that long without spreading the news next time around…it was way too hard to hide! We were coming up with excuses left and right, excuses for why I was sick, excuses for why I had to go to the doctor, excuses for why I would order food when we were out with our friends and end up only eating a couple of bites before deciding I couldn’t handle it, excuses for why I wasn’t interested in certain teaching jobs my father in law wanted to hook me up with for next year…excuses, excuses, excuses! I felt like a little liar and it didn’t feel great. Especially when people would ask when we were going to start trying for a baby…I wanted to say “well actually I have had one inside of me for 3 months now” but I wanted to make sure that our family and closest friends knew before the news leaked out and got to them by some other means…and I really wanted to tell my family in person, which was difficult considering that they live in Spokane, Washington and I rarely have a break from student teaching.

When it came to telling the people who really matter (well obviously Kirby was the first I told, as explained in this post) I wanted to do it right. I guess you could say that I am a bit into the theatrics, and I wasn’t going to call up our loved ones and break the news over the phone! So as soon as I had an ultrasound picture I started creating photo books for my in laws and for my parents. These books told the story of our families. Starting with when my parents and his parents were young and dating (those were my favorite pictures) moving up to when they got married and had their own kids. I told the story of the older kids (which is just me in my family) falling in love and getting married to spouses of their own…up until I reached the point where Kirby and I got married. I went on to explain in both books that the family was still missing something…and that Kirby and I had set out on a secret mission, resulting in something magical. Then with the next turn of the page our secret was revealed!

 

As soon as I received the books in the mail it was even harder to keep to ourselves. I immediately set about planning a “Valentines Day party” at my in laws so that I had an excuse to get the whole family together, then I asked for the Friday before the long Presidents Day weekend off so that we could journey to Washington and give my dad his birthday gift (aka the book). All we had to do now was keep our antsy feelings hidden.

The Muir Valentines Day party dinner was spectacular, full of heart shapes cut into every piece of food I could find! Then was time for “Valentines gift giving” in the living room. I had made little Valentines fortune cookies for the family members so that it wouldn’t seem so odd that we had a present for Kirby’s parents and no one else…then we handed them the wrapped up book.

Kirby stood in the back of the room, recording as they read the book to the family and laughed at the silly pictures of the parents when they were young, and the baby pictures of all the siblings. As soon as the book mentioned that something was still missing Kirby’s brother kind of anticipated the surprise and let it slip that he knew what was coming, but when they got to the end it was still special to introduce their 3^rd grand-baby to the family. I was shaking the entire time… the whole room turned to us and we were flooded with love and hugs. Kirby said that he had the hardest time holding the camera still because he was shaking uncontrollably as well! That night took a huge load off my shoulders, it felt so good to share our thoughts and feelings freely with a family that we love.

 

Then the Friday morning came to drive to Spokane! Before we left I had to stop in at the doctors office for some blood work. Everything was going fine…until we got in the elevator. As soon as the door closed I started to feel very dizzy…my head was spinning and I felt all tingly, so I leaned on Kirby and he held me tight. I watched as the little number above the door changed from 2 to 1 and I let out a sigh of relief. We were there.

The next thing I remember was finding myself slumped over Kirby’s arm, confused as to why my phone, which had been in my hand seconds ago, was now on the floor. The following few minutes were a bit of a blur. I only remember watching the elevator doors open and then close again (Kirby said we were in there through 3 door cycles…oops!) and being so confused as to why we hadn’t left the elevator yet…it felt as though we had been in there for hours! He lifted me up into his arms and carried me to the car…and explained to me that I had full on passed out for a few minutes. (When he tells the story it seems to be quite the comical experience).

 I tried to open a can of almonds that were luckily sitting in the car for the long road trip that we had ahead…but I could barely lift my arms. It was so bizarre to now be fully aware but have very little control over my limbs. He fed me a few almonds and then we were off! First stop, picking up my sister Jessica. I tried to act normal but the first thing she said to me was “what is wrong with your body?” I wanted to laugh so hard but couldn’t quite get it out yet! Apparently watching me try to feed myself was evidence that I wasn’t quite working right. But after some water and an energy bowl from Jamba I was mostly back to normal and we were ready for the trek.

Long story short, we made it to Spokane and everyone was feeling great! I talked my dad into opening his present that very night because I could barely stand it! As soon as he opened the book he was emotional, so my mom read the story to us, while Kirby recorded again. My whole family was so excited to have the first grandbaby join our family! The soon to be grandparents and soon to be aunts were overjoyed. My mom immediately set about planning how she would be able to be in Texas when the baby is born. 

The next morning was Valentines day.  I brought Kirby breakfast in bed…which he ended up taking upstairs to eat with my family…and that’s about as far as our romance went for the day (we planned a late celebration for next month!) The rest of the day was spent shopping for baby clothes…we don’t even know the gender and our little nugget has already been given lots of gifts from grandma and grandpa! I take the clothes out of their box daily just to oogle at how adorable and teeny they are! Anyways. We finished shopping then went on a family Valentines date for dinner at one of Kirby’s favorite restaurants, which also happens to be next door to the mansion we had a reception in. So of course, on the day of love, we had to visit the place that holds such a special place in our hearts!

 {my parents rock...am I right?}

 {that balcony above us was the room we stayed the night in for the first time as husband and wife}

 

{my forever valentine}

(If you know my family you might have picked up on the fact that Mandy did not go home with us, so I showed her the book the night before in her bedroom where we hugged and laughed and cried…she is going to be an amazing aunt!)

The whole weekend was full of love and joy. We love our time spent in Spokane! But, as always, it had to end. So Monday morning we kissed my family good bye and set out on the long trip back to Rexburg to face our responsibilities yet again.

The next day, Tuesday, we had planned a game night with our close group of friends…a game night with a hidden agenda. We started out the night playing catch phrase. After a few rounds, and once everyone had shown up, Kirby started a new round by trying to explain a word… “this is something that happens to women, Madison is this right now, it’s when your belly gets really big…” by then several people had guessed pregnant. But it still took a while to make the connection in all the chaos that he had just said “Madison is pregnant.” After a minute or so of mumbles and quiet discussions over what had just happened it clicked all at once and the room erupted. Needless to say we did not finish the round. Instead we talked about the exciting news and shared our story from the very beginning. I am so thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful and caring friends that keep our lives entertaining!

Actually, one couple that was there for the game night had found out before we even told our family. A week before this night, we were out at McDonalds (of all places) with Ella and Dan, close to midnight (to satisfy the ever hungry husbands) when Ella was looking through pictures on my phone. I had thought that I had made sure there was nothing on there that could give us away…but apparently I had missed one little picture…and with one little swipe of her finger it was out. She asked me about it…and honestly I could have saved the situation but my immediate reaction gave it away. So we just spilled the whole thing…and I kind of love that it happened that way.

Then, of course, it was time for the social media leak!

My sister Jessica took some pictures for us while we were in Spokane to get ready for the big reveal…Kirby thinks I’m silly, but hey, this was probably the most important post of my life! The comments and texts that we received after telling the world about our growing piece of heaven still leave me baffled. I have never felt so loved and supported in my life! 

Thank you all for the kind words and for the love that has been shown to us through the beginning of this process! It feels wonderful to be able to share our joy!