Finding Out

I remember the first few days when Shannon knew that she was pregnant, I was helping three guys set up one of the biggest clinics in Ireland so I was out and about quite a bit and not as home as much as I should have been! We weren’t trying for kids as we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to have to go to an IVF clinic, we had even had meetings and were actively putting together a plan, so when my darling wife was grilling me about baby names (with the full knowledge that she was pregnant, by the way) my answers didn’t exactly put me in a good light!!

   

When we joked about it I instantly came up with names such as “Inconvenient” and “Ill-timed” Leonard - but I could see I was impressing no-one with my attitude!

It was right around the time we were due (pun intended, thank you very much!) to celebrate one of our many wedding anniversaries, this particular one was our Irish Wedding ceremony (We've had 3 but no divorce) which we were just about the have (we actively celebrate all three weddings, its great fun and I’d have another one but people are tired of my speeches at this point!) We were heading out to a nice restaurant to celebrate but for the days leading up to the milestone Shannon was constantly telling me how much she was looking forward to dinner – which left me thinking that I was severely letting myself down and not giving my wife enough attention! The day before the anniversary she told me that she had a surprise for me, and I LOVE surprises. So of course, I start asking questions… Can I eat it? Definitely not Can we enjoy it together? Yes, for sure. Can I drink it? Nope. Can I eat it? No… that really wouldn’t be good. Do I have to travel to get it? Yes, in a way you do… Is it expensive? More than you will even realise! Can I wear it? Mmm… I suppose you might? Do I need to pack a bag? Yes, you do. You need to pack one for me too! Will I get a tan?  That would be highly unusual. Will I be tired? Probably for a very long time! Will it make me happy? I hope so because I didn’t get a receipt… Do I need to buy special clothes? Em... yeah I don't think you have the right clothes for this If I throw it against a wall will it stick to it? Em... no and that was a terrible present! (First thing I ever bought my darling wife was a 10p Spiderman that you throw at a wall and it slowly falls over itself to the bottom... she says it was terrible, but secretly I think she had great fun with it! hahaha) Are you sure I can't I eat it? You CANNOT eat it! Seriously!   I was all set for a skiing holiday, in fact I had booked lessons on a dry slope so that we could hit the ground running (they got cancelled I'm afraid), I had snow boots in my amazon basket, I even organised cover for work. So, was I surprised when I opened the box, ready to see my skiing tickets?  ABSOLUTELY!!! I hadn't seen a pregnancy test before I don't think... well not one that is packaged in a €20 piece of plastic - the Chinese ones are like a litmus test and they're only 20c!! She was going to tell me in the restaurant... thankfully she didn't we were so close together that the American tourists at the next table may have gotten the surprise quicker than I did! I remember telling a friend the good news actually & he said “It’s all downhill from here mate!” Now that I think of it, that ‘downhill’ quip was as close to the skiing holiday as we ever got…!