Wondering, watching, waiting!

February/March 2005

Well, when I gave Ben that special Valentine's gift, I had already stopped the birth control. So, we wondered could I already be pregnant? You know almost everyone would be that hopeful and optimistic. So February was exciting, promising, full of bubbly expectations! But by the end of the month, nothing new happened, so not pregnant yet.
March was a little busy. March always seems busy for us. The first March we were together, I was a junior in high school and on a three week trip to Kyrgyzstan, where I was an exchange student. I had always dreamed of doing that, and it was so great. The second March, Ben was in the hospital with a terrible staff infection. He was on IV antibiotics for about 2 days. He just thought that sore looked a little funny, and he was right!
The third March, we got married! WOOHOO! March 6, 1999. So, as of yesterday we have been married 10 years. Yipee!
The fourth March, I can't think of much that happened. The fifth March, I received a letter from Mississippi College saying I had received a Presidential Scholarship and 75% of my tuition was paid! Oh My BIG Excitement that day! I was so happy, and knew that God had everything to do with that! The sixth March, surviving college. The seventh March, surviving college. The eighth March, we visited Destin, FL, for a job interview with Ben and he got the job! We were moving to FL! How exciting!
And now the ninth March. 2005. And we are trying to have a baby. When will we know? Oh, the waiting . . . yeah, I know it has only been a few weeks since we started trying, and it takes some couples a year to conceive, but we were READY!!!!!! BABY NOW I SAY!!!!!!!!!!
My younger sister Patti had actually been the first in our family to start having children. This March (2005) she and her husband Scott came to visit, very pregnant with a little girl, due June 22. She was so excited. We had a great time. Went to eat at the Lucky Snapper, and got a great picture of Ben and me that we love so much, and is very special to us.
Well, after they left that Sunday, the next morning I woke up with that terrible feeling in the back of your throat, the one where you know you were too close to that snot nosed kid last week - yuck! I knew I was too close to that kid, but I couldn't get away from him because that was my job - preschool teacher. And guess what was going around there? Strep throat. I had never had that - ever! So Monday at work I just wasn't myself. Tuesday, I was worse - I even had a fever come up, and just felt awful. So I scrounged around for a doctor to see, got an appointment for Wednesday morning and by the time I got home was very anxious to know something.
It was almost time for my cycle, almost. I wasn't going to test until the day I expected to start. I probably was not pregnant. But what if I was? I needed to know what to tell the doctor just in case he needed to prescribe me antibiotics. So, here I go . . . POSITIVE!!!!! I can't describe how excited I was, how thrilled, how overwhelmed with joy! It was so amazing.
Ben and Sarah + baby makes three!
Wednesday morning I go to this doctor. My symptoms indicate to this far out there dude that I have strep throat - and he takes a swab of the back of my throat, and I apologize for almost throwing up on him because until that moment the only thing I have ever done at the doctors is cry at the pediatricians when I got my childhood immunizations and cry at the gynecologists when I, well, you know. He leaves to test it and doesn't even have to wait to see the strip change color. He said it was so hot for strep it changed color the instant in touched the liquid.
Well, a couple firsts for me. Strep throat and pregnant. Before he prescribed my meds, I told him the good news.
Dr. - "Excellent, that's wonderful. How long have you been trying?"
Sarah - "Six weeks."
Dr. - "Wow there, I guess you are fertile Myrtle then, aren't ya," - chuckle chuckle
Sarah - sheepish grin
The doctor gives me the low down on staying home from work (YES! Terry, if you're reading this you know I would rather have been at work than stuck at home for two days pondering this new, terrifying, scary, AAAHHH!, should I have made this decision?, God this has got to be You all the way journey) and the meds I needed to take, including hitting a high note for the prenatals. But I was covered there, I had already started that weeks ago. : )