And So It Begins...

Dear Pickles,

On Oct. 21, 2010, just after midnight, your daddy and I took a pregnancy test.

We had been trying for over a year to have a baby... We even saw a fertility doctor who tested your father and I over the course of a few months and reported that nothing was wrong with either one of us. There was simply no explanation for our inability to get pregnant except timing. As you can imagine, this was both a relief and a frustration. (I had almost gotten to the point of giving up and getting a dog instead.) But something about this time was different. It just seemed to click that this time, the results would be different.

We waited three minutes for the results to appear on the pregnancy test. I made your father go in to the bathroom and check the results.

"What do the lines mean again?" he asked, toying with me.

"One line means you're not pregnant; two lines mean you are pregnant," I said excitedly.

"Hmm, you better check it," he said.



I walked into the bathroom and saw two pink lines. "Oh my god!!! We're going to be somebody's parents!!!" I yelled.

"Hold on, hold on," your daddy said. "Take the test again in the morning just to be sure."

First thing in the morning, I took the test again. Lo and behold, two more pink lines.

"Face it, Patten. You're my baby's daddy," I joked with your father.

On Oct. 25, 2010, I scheduled a blood test with the hospital. By 3 o'clock that afternoon, I got the following message from the nurse on my cellphone:

"Hello Diana... I wanted to let you know that the pregnancy test was definitely positive. The beta Hcg number was 8,746..." (The nurse had told me that morning that it needed to be at least a 5 to be considered pregnant.)

I was on cloud nine. I burst through the door and told your father, "It's official. I'm pregnant. I just got the news from the nurse."

"Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?!" your father said excitedly.

We couldn't believe it. You were real. You were our baby. We called our family and closest friends to let them know the news. Little Pickles Patten would be changing our lives forever.

Love,

Mommy