Well, I'm pregnant!
Dallin and I decided to wait to have children until after I was fully licensed as an SLP. We married partway through my undergraduate, but with grad school, we knew we had couple years before we would be ready for kids. We could start trying nine months before I finished my clinical fellowship. That meant August 2022 was the month! I was excited but also nervous because it took my mom years to get pregnant with me. I knew statistically it takes most couples a few months, but as autumn rolled by and winter began with no positive test, I couldn't stop myself from worrying. What if my history of anorexia in my early 20s had messed me up? What if my mom's initial infertility was genetic, and we would need to spend lots of money on fertility treatment? I tortured myself watching embryology videos and tried hard to avoid consuming anything potentially harmful for a new pregnancy, such as cold medications, during the half of the month when I "could be pregnant." Of course that was fun, being sick on a cruise and dispensing all sorts of cold medications to my sick sisters without being able to take anything myself--good thing the illness resolved quickly on its own! I tried hard to "eat well" (i.e. not cut calories) on the cruise as I had in Europe the month before.
The day after the cruise ended was Christmas Eve. First thing in the morning I took an early-results pregnancy test and was so bummed when it was again negative. The little woven newborn shoes I had bought just in case I was able to wrap them for mine and Dallin's parents as a Christmas surprise were now unnecessary, so I stuffed them deeper into my suitcase and tried hard to not think about it as the holiday festivities began. But gosh, my little baby niece was so cute. And on Christmas night my cousin Paige came over with her husband Nguyen to announce they were pregnant. They had started trying only this last month. Don't be jealous, I chided myself. She, like my sister-in-law Danielle, informed me that those early pregnancy tests had given her false negatives.
December 26 we met up with some friends for Indian food and bowling. After returning home I threw up everything I had eaten. We asked our friends if they felt sick at all, since they had the same dish as I did, but they did not. So food poisoning was ruled out. Perhaps I was turning into my mother, who is easily sickened by spices.
Dallin and I returned home to Utah the evening of the 27th. The 28th was the day my period was due, and I decided to just take another test. It would probably be negative, and my period would probably start in a few hours like it had every other time I had taken a pregnancy test the day my period was due. I waited a few minutes as the instructions directed, and then picked it up.
Two pink lines. They were faint, but oh my gosh, they were there! My face broke out in a smile, and I couldn't stop smiling as I stared at the test. What?! How was this real?! Dallin was on the phone for an interview, so I waited patiently by myself in the bathroom until he was off the phone.
"Dallin?" I said, hiding the test behind my back. I held it up. He stared in shock and said, "Wait...is that...? Katherine, what did you eat?!" He embraced me.
That afternoon Rachel asked if I wanted to run errands with her. Dallin didn't want us to tell anybody yet, so I was sneaky as I bought another pregnancy test to confirm what I had seen this morning. It was agony not telling anyone, especially Rachel. Four days was a long time to keep my mouth shut, and it would have been longer had my friend Chantel not guessed it. Then I had to tell Rachel, and she hugged me. In the days following we video called all of our immediate family members and revealed with the baby shoes.
Parents:
My parents plus Eric:
My cat Atticus kept getting in front of the camera, so they were giggling about that. When I finally shoed him away, I said, "Soooo I got a present for you for Christmas. A late one." I held the shoes up.
"What is it?" my mom asked.
"Atticus is in the way," I replied. "Atticus, move!" He moved his head away from the camera, and my parents got a clear view of the shoes.
"Are those for babies?" Dad asked.
"Yes," I answered.
"Are you expecting?" he asked.
"Yes," I answered.
Mom "wooed" in excitement, and Dad started chuckling. "No way. No way! That's amazing.
Eric took the phone. "THERE'S NO WAY!"
"That's awesome!" Dad said. "When did you find out?"
"Uhh, like five days ago."
"No way! That's awesome. That's incredible," Dad said, grinning from ear to ear as Eric shouted "Congrats!" and mom couldn't stop smiling.
Dallin's mom (Jordie) plus sister Hannah:
Jordie was driving when I called her. I held up the shoes and waited a second until she asked, "What are we looking at?" Both hers and Hannah's jaws dropped simultaneously as she began to shout, "Oh my gosh!"
"OK, don't crash, please pull over!" I said, laughing.
"Ohh Katie, I'm gonna start crying!" Jordie said, her hand coming to her face. "I'm so excited! Hang on, wait wait wait wait wait! I have to pull over!" She put on her glasses to see the shoes better. "Ok, show me again!"
"Congratulations!" Hannah said.
"I'm so excited!" Jordie said again. "Thomas, are you nervous? Are you excited?"
"Sure," Dallin said, smiling sheepishly.
"Don't worry," Jordie said. "Just wait till he gets there, wait till he sees everything. Oh my gosh, Katie, I just wanna hug you! Congratulations honey!"
"Thanks!" I giggled. "I'm so happy."
Dallin's stepdad Jim:
Jordie, who already knew instantly started giggling. "Very nice!" Jim said. I called Dallin over to show his face to the camera, and Jim said, "Well congratulations, this is very exciting."
Later on Jordie started arguing with me about my due date and Jim butted in with a comment that was very funny but inappropriate to record on the Internet about how the due date is determined.
Dallin's dad and stepmom Rachelle:
The camera had frozen so I said, "Tell me when you see."
Rachelle asked excitedly, "Are those little baby booties?"
"Yeah!"
"Oh that's so exciting!" she said. "Are you guys pregnant?"
"Yep!"
Dallin said, "No, just Katie."
His dad said, "What? Oh my gosh you guys, that's great!"
My 92-year-old Grandma Lundgreen plus Aunt Susan:
"Hi, Grandma, it's Katie. I have some news for you!"
"How are you?"
"I'm good. I'm having a baby!"
Grandma gasped. "You are too?!"
"Yep! I'm due two weeks after Paige."
"Y-y-you're, oh my goodness!" Grandma was at a complete loss for words as she tried to get out her question, "How far are along are you?
"I'm only seven weeks, so it's still very new."
"Now let's see now..."
"I'm due 9/6."
Grandma got confused for a moment and asked, "Who is it?"
Aunt Susan said, "It's Katie. It's John's daughter. She's expecting!"
"Oh yes!" Grandma said.
"Isn't that great?" my aunt asked.
"Oh, it is!"
"Right around your birthday!" Aunt Susan added.
"Oooohhh!" Grandma said excitedly. "How wonderful! That'll be two of em!"
"Uh-huh! Paige is due mid-August, and I'm due two weeks later," I explained.
"Uh-huh." Grandma replied. "And how do you feel?"
"I've been pretty sick," I admitted.
"Yes well you know. Well you can have a little bit of that in the beginning, but then I had pretty good things and I think you can too."
"That's what I'm hoping," I said.
"Yes, and fast deliveries! Well, I wonder if it will be a boy or a girl? We'll find out, won't we?
I answered, "My very first ultrasound is next week, so I'll have to send you a picture."
"You're up in Utah aren't you. Well, that is just wonderful. Ooohhhh. I bet you're happy."
"Yes, I'm very happy," I said.
"Yes, because that's the best thing of all. Yes all. Oh I'm so happy! Oh, that's so wonderful."
Siblings:
Olivia with her new fiancé Tanner:
Olivia's jaw dropped when she saw the baby shoes. She gasped and her voice shot up a couple octaves as she asked, "Are you having a baby?!"
"Yes!" I squealed.
"Awwww!"
"Yay!" she said, jumping up and down. "Are you so happy?!"
Danielle:
Jordie had called her earlier that day asking if she knew if my period had started or not. Given this, the second I video-chatted her she asked, "Are you pregnant?" I held up the shoes and she stuck out her tongue and laughed, "Heh-heh-heh. I knew it! Aww, you guys are gonna be a mommy and a daddy! Oh my goodness, congratulations!" She was rocking her baby Ellie.
Cooper and Kaeli:
I told Cooper to be in the room with Kaeli, who was in the shower. I held up the shoes, and he gasped and said in a deep voice, "NO WAYYYY! OK I totally guessed it when you said you needed Kaeli in the room. WHOOO! Kaeli, she's holding up little baby booties!"
From the shower, Kaeli shouted, "I KNEW IT!"
