And so it begins

New Life!  Quite literally

I got the call from your mother yesterday around lunch time while daydreaming in the office. What it was that she said to me exactly I can’t remember now but it was some smartass remark, you know what she’s like. Bottom line, well in fact, the bottom line was that there was a bottom line. Faint, but definitely there. Google* says, faint or not, it is a positive, no doubt about it.

I’m not sure how I felt at that moment. Don’t get me wrong, it was mostly excitement mixed with joy all with a hint of sheer terror. An emotional overload but disappointment, I promise you, was not part of the cocktail. I calculated your estimated birthday but later realized I had got it wrong by a month or so. I couldn’t even add ‘9’ to July.

Forty minutes later we are in the car, in the mid-summer’s midday heat heading to the clinic for verification. Not that I needed it by that point but it seemed an important milestone to be completed, a sort of officiality to it. A simple blood test the results of which would come 3-4 hours later, not instantly as we thought/hoped.

Six in the evening I am back at home staring at your mum staring at the phone. Three hours pass, four hours pass, the phone ringing a few times in between and anxiety is rising exponentially. I am smoking and drinking cold rose wine. I am trying to convince your mum to have a small glass -surely she would have joined me if we hadn’t found out today- but no. No way. Five hours pass and it is now time to act. Your mother has just obtained the doctor’s mobile, a desperate text, a reply that he will shortly be in touch, another hour’s wait, smoking, drinking, ordering Chinese takeaway and then the call comes through. Brief and to the point:

You’re on your way kid and things are about to get interesting

Your dad
15 July 2014

(ETA 8,5 months)

 

* a popular internet search engine we use in 2014. Google it, or whatever the equivalent is these days