Good news travels fast

Yesterday we flew in to Minneapolis airport and as soon as Char, Erin's mum, turned up we were whisked away to see Erin's grandparents.

As usual Grandma Jane had some supper ready for us and was all ears at our foreign adventure stories. When Erin said she wanted to show her some photos she didn't really know what to do with some black and white and not very clear seeming polaroids.  She looked at them, then again, then turned them upside down, looked at them again the right way up and with a little help from Erin's smile realised what they were.  She turned round and automatically gave Erin a huge hug as she asked: 'Are you pregnant?' She knew the answer.

Two minutes later Erin's cousin, Cory, turned up with his wife as did one of her aunts.  It's fair to say that most of Erin's family, and there's a lot of them, will now know, 24 hours later.

Life and death - a tribute to eight o clock

On Wednesday and Thursday night we called, sent emails and texts to people to let them know our news.

We talked about the scan, how it's been very difficult to keep the secret, when the due date is, where we're going to live in the future, if the baby will be English and the death of Eight O Clock and her chicken friends.

I'll explain.

Our friends Johnny and Jo and their two adorable children live in Cardiff in a beautiful cottage with everyone's dream garden.  In it is a tree house, adventure climbing frame, a never ending shed, and a chicken coup which houses four hens and three ducks.

Our conversation went something like:

Me: Hi Jo, it's Jason.

Jo: Oh hi Jase how are you?

Me: Very well thanks, you?

Jo: Er, not so great really.

Me: Why not?

Jo: Well, it's a bit superficial really, I'm all right I suppose.

Me:  No, go on. What's wrong?

Jo:  Well, a fox has killed all our animals.

Me:  What?

Jo: Yeah, it must have been last night and our garden just looks like a greek tragedy now.

Silence

Jo: So, no more Eight O Clock.

To explain, You couldn't have made up Eight O Clock.  He was the runt of the litter. A weird looking, bedraggled duck which strangely bossed all the animals around while simultaneously making humans fall in love with him. Nobody even thought, let alone mentioned orange sauce around him. 

Me: How have the kids taken it?

Jo:  Well, the eldest (who's 7) seems to be taking it in his stride and I'm sure will want to talk about it more in the next few days while the youngest(who's 3) keeps walking around shouting duck dead. Chicken dead. Duck dead, without any idea of what she's saying at all.  

She giggled then asked how I was.  I said something like, well from death to er, life.  Erin's expecting and she shrieked with Joy. 

Is this life going full circle? 

  

 

Miss communication or boys will be boys

On Friday, Erin went to our friend Caroline's for a girls' slumber party and I organised to go out with a few boys to eat Thai and watch comedy in Balham. We arranged the night a few months ago long before we knew Erin was pregnant but we decided to tell those who were with us about what's going on.

JB arrived at mine just as I got home from work, and Michael and Dewi, who had come from Wales, arrived at mine a few minutes later than when we wanted to leave, so we got to the restaurant a little late. This was noted by Fred, Chris and David who were sat down having a drink.

The conversation ran from the Three Peaks Climb to the London Marathon to how many units of alcohol there are in a pint - 2, thanks PC Foster, what one of Britain's leading broadcasters is like to work with and the usual thread which is a constant to most of our conversations, music. I was sitting next Chris who likes to ask controversial questions in a very understated way. He asked if work was OK, if Erin was OK, then if Erin is pregnant. And, oh boy, was he not ready for the answer.

I answered as matter as factly as I could, affirming that she is. Fred was also listening opposite us, as was David, who I told a few days before at work.

'Really?' Said Fred.

I nodded 'Yes.'

Chris looked at me.

I looked at David.

David smiled.

Chris didn't. He didn't seem to believe me and looked a little stunned.

I looked over to David and said that I'd told him a few days earlier and he nodded.

It was now Chris's turn to say 'really?' and I said that Erin was 10 weeks gone.

Fred congratulated me.

Chris finally came round from his daze and congratulated me too.

The boys on the opposite side of the table had sussed that something was going and I announced it officially. There were a lot of 'wows' and 'congratulations'.

On the other side of the city Erin was in her PJs eating pizza, vanilla custard, and strawberries - for nutrients - dipped in chocolate. When she got home and we talked about the evening she said that there were a few times when she thought about telling the girls but nothing seemed the right time.

When she arrived she was asked if she wanted wine, she thought that was the opportune time to say something but wanted to get her feet in the door before she said anything. There were also times while they were chomping through their pizza and watching Sex And The City DVDs, but she didn't say anything.

Chris - you know the one - sent a text to his girlfriend, Blathnaid, asking if there was much squealing at Caroline's tonight. Blathnaid hadn't got a clue what that meant. Then she asked the girls, and Erin knew it was the right time to tell them.

Well done Chris - I think - for getting both the north and south of London talking.

A little or a lot

You may or may not know this, but we're pregnant.

That's right, the perpetual kids, Erin and Jay, who love traveling all over, being independent and generally having a laugh without any cares in the world are going to be bringing into this world and caring for another, probably, before the end of the year.

With a bit of encouragement from Erin and my American family over the pond, who won't get to witness our highs and lows first hand, I've decided to write about what we're about to go through in the next 7 months... and maybe more.

Now, even I know pregnancy takes nine months, or ten if you're Chinese.  But our journey has already begun.  Apparently two months ago.

We're now in our ninth week and as gurgle says: 'This week the baby has grown to the size of a grape, the back is straightening and webbed fingers and toes are developing.'  Don't worry, those toes should fully develop in time and I'll let you know when they do.

We found out that we were expecting a couple of weeks ago and have spent the last few days away in Portugal talking about everything future, such as where we're going to live, names, and if it could be twins.  Not necessarily in that order.   

Today, we told my parents, Erin's mum, dad and siblings with a few different reactions.

We predicted that my mum would say how lovely it was, Erin's mum would say 'I knew it' and Matt - Erin's older brother - would say 'oh wow'.  We got it wrong.

Well, my parents called this morning to see how the holiday went and after I had gone through the motions of mentioning the weather, how much we went swimming and the markets we went to, I decided to tell them. But there didn't seem to be the right moment.  My dad got on to talking about problems with his car and mum moved on to church things.  I just uh-huh-ed while wanting to shout we're pregnant, you're going to be grandparents and I'm going to tell you now. No now. No, hold on, wait until mum's stopped talking about what she had for dinner last night. 

I eventually spotted a pause in conversation and asked if dad was near the phone.  Mum said yes, but they didn't have a speakerphone and they would have to call us back on the mobile. They did straight away. And then I said it, we're pregnant to hurrays and clapping. The next words were wow and congratulations.  My mum asked if Erin was all right and then we talked babies for the next 5 minutes -  probably a sign of things to come.

This afternoon we waited for the US to wake up and called Erin's mum.  Erin, like me, went through the usual conversation but as she talked about our recent adventures she neatly moved on to telling her mum that we were about to embark on the biggest adventure of all as we're pregnant. The reaction?  A scream.

Erin's dad has chronic back pain and not only has to deal with this, but because of his medication he finds it difficult waking sometimes.  Erin talked to him but didn't think it was a good time to tell him our news.  

We then called Erin's older brother and his wife, Matt and Liz.  No answer.

Then we tried Seth, Erin's younger brother.  We thought we'd get some witty comment from her youngest sibling.  Erin told him and his fiancee Alissa and they woo-hooed.   

Matt and Liz eventually answered and Erin told Liz first.  Liz screamed - as she did when she called Erin's younger sister Robyn a  bit later.  Matt thought we were teasing and his initial reaction was 'you're kidding'.  Even after he said congratulations he asked 'you're  kidding though aren't you?'

This is no joke.

I did say that this was the first time we told someone but we had already told Robyn, Erin's sister.  Well, Erin did.  She just couldn't keep it to herself.  Robyn is the best secret keeper ever. It's now official.  and no one had even guessed, not that really she kept her thoughts to herself as we have been inundated with daily emails from her about names and advice for pregnancy.

Oh, just one more to tell.  Erin's dad.  He wasn't in the best state again but Erin told him to the reaction of 'are you a little or a lot pregnant?', hence the title of this blog.  I guess it's both, if it can be.  We are a little of the way there but very much 'a lot' pregnant.

And Erin seems to be having her first craving, Emmerdale, the girl who doesn't watch soaps can't seem to get enough.  Although she'll deny it when you ask.