May 14, 2006 - The story continues....
So we are still in Denver at the airport with a two hour lay over. Ray and I are in need of food. We make our way to a little French cafe inside the airport. Yeah, I know, when you think of Denver, French food is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. But neither does Wolfgang Puck, and he has a restaurant in the airport too!
So inside the French cafe it is almost hard to believe the wonderful soft and quite atmosphere. We order our meals, a salad for me and a pasta dish for Ray. In order to calm his nerves, Ray orders an apple martini.
With our stomachs filled and two apple martinis later, we are both feeling really good. If fact we feel so good that we start giggling like little school girls. ( No, I didn't drink. Those martinis were for Ray's lips only). Then we come up with the wonderful idea of playing on the moving sidewalk. This is really fun. If you ever get the chance to play on those moving sidewalks please do. People will give you the strangest looks and little kids will give you the look of utter jealously.
We must have went around on that sidewalk at least four times before finally settling down at our gate. We still had a good 45 minutes before we started boarding the plane. So Ray and I decide to call our moms and wish them a happy Mother's Day.
Now Ray and I had already decided that we were not going to tell our parents we were pregnant until they came to visit us in July. We both felt it would be better to tell them face to face. But as Ray was calling his mom, we started giving hand singles to each other as to whether or not to tell them now or later. Finally realizing that neither of us are good at keeping secrets for very long we agreed to tell our moms.
Ray's mom was the first. She wished her a Happy Mother's Day and a Happy Grandmother's Day. Her joyful yell could be heard well beyond the cell phone. Frank was excited. Corrina screamed. Christina jumped around. Bruce was very pleased. Both grandmothers were overjoyed and when I finally got a hold of my mom, she did a little song and dance.
Next came our friends. John, (aka, our baby's god-daddy), was almost speechless and Maggie, ( our baby's god-mommy), was definitely surprised. The time went by fast with calls and text messages. Almost half of Arizona now knew we were expecting. When we landed back in Seattle the calls continued well into the evening.
We were invited over to dinner at our friends Max and Elaina's home. They were both excited for us when we told them the good news. We finished the night at home discussing who we still needed to call and email. It was a relief to finally break the news to everyone. The following week would be filled with emails and calls congratulating us and tones of questions about the details of how we found out.
Now came the next big hurdle - going in to see the doctor. Because as we all know, you're never really pregnant until the fat nurse lady says so.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
To Hell and Back Again - A Mattingly Tale
May 14, 2006
We ate, we drank, and we saw our friends get married. Now it was time for us to return home.
On our flight from Kansas City to Denver Ray and I found ourselves to be the unfortunate pair destined to spend the almost two hour flight seated in the very last seats on the plane. Right next to us was the restroom and shortly we would discover that seated before us would be a couple flying with their baby for the first time.
It was a twenty-something couple maybe only a few years younger then Ray and I. Their baby was about eight months old and very finicky. My nausea was starting again and the chemical fumes from the restroom were not helping the matter. Buckled up for take off and no barf bag in site, I practiced deep slow breathing to keep myself from adding a new color to the back of the seat in front of me.
And then it started. Just as the plane was leveling off in the air our youngest passenger started to cry. This was not the small cute whimpering that you hear before a mother sticks a pacifier in the baby's mouth. Oh no, this was the all out 'I'm-dying-a-slow-and-painful-death-academy-award-winning-scream-of-terror'. This baby cried so loud that the flight attendant had to cover her ears as she screamed into the microphone in order to explain how to use our seat cushion as a flotation device. Of course at that moment most people were thinking of using it as a suffocation device, but the worst was yet to come.
Some how through some small miracle the baby did manage to calm down and even nap for a short time. The flight attendants took this as a signal to begin serving refreshments. Ray and I started to settle in with our drinks and bags of pretzel rations. You could hear in the distance the conversations of those up front discussing the weather, the local news and their final flight destination. But alas, this simple peaceful flight was not meant to be.
The baby had awoke with a cry that was unmistakable. His parents pulled out toys and blankets, pacifiers and bottles, but nothing seemed to work. It was a non-stop cry-a-thon! All conversations stopped as people quickly scrabbled for their headsets and blasted their ears with in-flight music in the hope of trying to drown the cries.
With the baby faced toward us as the mom tried desperately to bounce the baby silent on her knee, Ray and I received a constant full blast of the baby's lung capabilities. Several times the flight attendants came to the back to ask the couple if their was anything they could do to help. I though filling the baby's bottle with a couple of shots of Brandy would do the trick, but Ray's idea of giving the family a parachute and kicking them all off the plane was also an excellent idea.
Now this event does bring up the question of "how do you handle flying with a baby?" We would love to hear some of your suggestions as Ray and I are both clueless about this and are not afraid to admit it.
So let us get back to the story.
Just as it began to look as if Ray was going to personally kick the family off the plane without the parachute, the voice of hope could just faintly be heard over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now making our decent into Denver. " I swear I have never seen seats and trays returned to their right position so quickly. It was as if there was this collective longing to speed up our decent and get us all on the ground and away from the screaming baby as quickly as possible.
At this point the sound was deafening. The screams seemed to penetrate all bone and matter. I think at some point I started to understand all those sermons about Hell that was preached to me in Catholic school. I finally understood what Hell was. In fact, I swear I could even smell the deep disgusting stench rising from the pit of evil. But wait, I wasn't in Hell. I'm still on the plane. It was a short and simple line from Ray that brought me back to reality. "Oh, no she isn't!"
Ten minutes before the plan was to land and it was not the smell of sulfur and decaying bodies from the deep dark hole of terror that I smelled, but the full on fumes of 'baby anti-Christ' getting his diaper changed!!! "Ten minutes! You couldn't wait ten freaking minutes!", I heard Ray saying loud enough for the couple to hear. At this point our ears and now are noses had been so violated that I wondered if it was possible to press charges against a minor for ear and nose rape.
As the plane finally touched down in Denver, passengers collected their belongings and stood waiting patiently for the door to open. No one seemed to look back at the baby that was still screeching his heart out. But then I understood why. To look upon the face of this baby would be like touching the very bones of Cain himself- such pure evil was sure to bring sudden death.
A brave attendant came back to ask if this was the couple's final flight. They replied, no, we have a connecting flight, and Ray responded with, "It better not be our flight." The mother turned around having obviously heard Ray, but there was nothing she could say. Our unborn child had just been subjected to almost two hours of noise pollution and if our child is born with any ear problems I was determined to find this couple and sue them for all medical expenses.
We got off the plane as quickly as we could and breathed deep the fresh air of freedom. As we strolled through the terminal I began to realize that Hell is not a place you go to, but a moment, an experience, that can forever change you. It is in those moments of darkness, in this moments of deep despair that your start to realize the hope and strength found in faith. It is that kind of faith that keeps us holding on. The kind of faith that speaks to us within the darkness and says, "Do not fear, for I am with you. I will comfort and protect you. And I will make sure you don't kill that crying baby because I heard that prison food really suck!"
We ate, we drank, and we saw our friends get married. Now it was time for us to return home.
On our flight from Kansas City to Denver Ray and I found ourselves to be the unfortunate pair destined to spend the almost two hour flight seated in the very last seats on the plane. Right next to us was the restroom and shortly we would discover that seated before us would be a couple flying with their baby for the first time.
It was a twenty-something couple maybe only a few years younger then Ray and I. Their baby was about eight months old and very finicky. My nausea was starting again and the chemical fumes from the restroom were not helping the matter. Buckled up for take off and no barf bag in site, I practiced deep slow breathing to keep myself from adding a new color to the back of the seat in front of me.
And then it started. Just as the plane was leveling off in the air our youngest passenger started to cry. This was not the small cute whimpering that you hear before a mother sticks a pacifier in the baby's mouth. Oh no, this was the all out 'I'm-dying-a-slow-and-painful-death-academy-award-winning-scream-of-terror'. This baby cried so loud that the flight attendant had to cover her ears as she screamed into the microphone in order to explain how to use our seat cushion as a flotation device. Of course at that moment most people were thinking of using it as a suffocation device, but the worst was yet to come.
Some how through some small miracle the baby did manage to calm down and even nap for a short time. The flight attendants took this as a signal to begin serving refreshments. Ray and I started to settle in with our drinks and bags of pretzel rations. You could hear in the distance the conversations of those up front discussing the weather, the local news and their final flight destination. But alas, this simple peaceful flight was not meant to be.
The baby had awoke with a cry that was unmistakable. His parents pulled out toys and blankets, pacifiers and bottles, but nothing seemed to work. It was a non-stop cry-a-thon! All conversations stopped as people quickly scrabbled for their headsets and blasted their ears with in-flight music in the hope of trying to drown the cries.
With the baby faced toward us as the mom tried desperately to bounce the baby silent on her knee, Ray and I received a constant full blast of the baby's lung capabilities. Several times the flight attendants came to the back to ask the couple if their was anything they could do to help. I though filling the baby's bottle with a couple of shots of Brandy would do the trick, but Ray's idea of giving the family a parachute and kicking them all off the plane was also an excellent idea.
Now this event does bring up the question of "how do you handle flying with a baby?" We would love to hear some of your suggestions as Ray and I are both clueless about this and are not afraid to admit it.
So let us get back to the story.
Just as it began to look as if Ray was going to personally kick the family off the plane without the parachute, the voice of hope could just faintly be heard over the intercom. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now making our decent into Denver. " I swear I have never seen seats and trays returned to their right position so quickly. It was as if there was this collective longing to speed up our decent and get us all on the ground and away from the screaming baby as quickly as possible.
At this point the sound was deafening. The screams seemed to penetrate all bone and matter. I think at some point I started to understand all those sermons about Hell that was preached to me in Catholic school. I finally understood what Hell was. In fact, I swear I could even smell the deep disgusting stench rising from the pit of evil. But wait, I wasn't in Hell. I'm still on the plane. It was a short and simple line from Ray that brought me back to reality. "Oh, no she isn't!"
Ten minutes before the plan was to land and it was not the smell of sulfur and decaying bodies from the deep dark hole of terror that I smelled, but the full on fumes of 'baby anti-Christ' getting his diaper changed!!! "Ten minutes! You couldn't wait ten freaking minutes!", I heard Ray saying loud enough for the couple to hear. At this point our ears and now are noses had been so violated that I wondered if it was possible to press charges against a minor for ear and nose rape.
As the plane finally touched down in Denver, passengers collected their belongings and stood waiting patiently for the door to open. No one seemed to look back at the baby that was still screeching his heart out. But then I understood why. To look upon the face of this baby would be like touching the very bones of Cain himself- such pure evil was sure to bring sudden death.
A brave attendant came back to ask if this was the couple's final flight. They replied, no, we have a connecting flight, and Ray responded with, "It better not be our flight." The mother turned around having obviously heard Ray, but there was nothing she could say. Our unborn child had just been subjected to almost two hours of noise pollution and if our child is born with any ear problems I was determined to find this couple and sue them for all medical expenses.
We got off the plane as quickly as we could and breathed deep the fresh air of freedom. As we strolled through the terminal I began to realize that Hell is not a place you go to, but a moment, an experience, that can forever change you. It is in those moments of darkness, in this moments of deep despair that your start to realize the hope and strength found in faith. It is that kind of faith that keeps us holding on. The kind of faith that speaks to us within the darkness and says, "Do not fear, for I am with you. I will comfort and protect you. And I will make sure you don't kill that crying baby because I heard that prison food really suck!"
Thursday, May 25, 2006
The Discovery
For the past few weeks I have been feeling nauseous off and on at work. I really didn't think much of it. My body usually has an allergic reaction to working. But seriously, I just though I was catching a cold.
I really didn't want to think I was pregnant because I though that way last month only to take the home pregnancy test and stare at that one little pink line for a long time before accepting the fact that the second pink line was never going to show. It was not that I was expecting to get pregnant so quickly, but 15 year old girls seem to be getting pregnant just by looking at a guy too hard. So, yeah, I guess I was expecting the power of marriage to bring forth a child the moment we said we wanted one.
It wasn't easy for me to hide my disappointment from Ray. He understood, gave me a huge and commented that our previous attempts were just warm-ups. Now we would get down to some serious baby making.
Ray can read me like a book, so there was just no way of hiding my nausea from him. We both talked about me taking another pregnancy test. I decided to wait until May 11th to take the test. Ray and I were both in the wedding party of our friends David and Elisa's wedding. We would be flying out to Missouri for the wedding the afternoon of May 11th. I figured if I took the test that morning and it came back negative, I would be too excited about the wedding to get bummed out.
On May 11th, the girls ( Wylie Cat and Wylie Kit ) work me up for their usual 6 am feeding. I took the pregnancy test and my jaws just dropped. Instantly two pink lines showed up! I kept staring at it, thinking the test must be faulty and that the second line would disappear any moment now. But it didn't. I was pregnant!
I had never really planned how I was going to tell Ray. Right now he was still asleep in bed. I quickly remembered a Winnie the Pooh rattle I had in my closet. It was suppose to be a gift for someone else I knew that was expecting. I quickly came up with a plan. I would take the rattle, lay it on my pillow and when Ray rolled over and opened his eyes he would see the rattle and my smiling face. It was a perfectly sweet idea!
I walked out of the bathroom and started rambling through my closet. Obviously I made a lot of noise because when I emerged from the closet, Ray was wide awake and staring right at me. He looked at me and asked if I took the pregnancy test yet. I was frozen stiff. I didn't know what to say or do. I tried to think of something to do, but my brain is only capable of coming up with one good idea before breakfast. So, with one last mental strain and Ray looking right at me, I did the first thing that popped into my mind. I tossed the rattle at Ray's head.
Didn't I just say I can only come up with one good idea before breakfast. No, it was not romantic or cute, but it did get the point across. Ray asked why I was throwing things at his head. He looked at the rattle, I jumped on the bed saying we were pregnant and then Ray responded in the most Rayish way possible. "Cool", he said. And then he rolled over and went back to sleep.
A couple of hours later we were both up and getting packed. Ray said it took his sister Corinna five to six different pregnancy test before she was sure she was pregnant, so we shouldn't trust the results of just one test. My hubby then went to the store to get another test and a few other items we needed for the trip. He came back, I took the test, he timed it for three minutes just like the instructions said and we waited. Three minutes later it was once again confirmed that I was pregnant.
We finished packing, had lunch and took the ferry over to the airport. We dealt with ticket changes, security checkpoints, finding our way through the maze that is SeaTac airport and finally making our way to the plane just as they were starting to board. And then sometime between Seattle and Denver where we would meet our connecting flight, while I was resting on Ray's arm it finally hit him - "We're pregnant".
I really didn't want to think I was pregnant because I though that way last month only to take the home pregnancy test and stare at that one little pink line for a long time before accepting the fact that the second pink line was never going to show. It was not that I was expecting to get pregnant so quickly, but 15 year old girls seem to be getting pregnant just by looking at a guy too hard. So, yeah, I guess I was expecting the power of marriage to bring forth a child the moment we said we wanted one.
It wasn't easy for me to hide my disappointment from Ray. He understood, gave me a huge and commented that our previous attempts were just warm-ups. Now we would get down to some serious baby making.
Ray can read me like a book, so there was just no way of hiding my nausea from him. We both talked about me taking another pregnancy test. I decided to wait until May 11th to take the test. Ray and I were both in the wedding party of our friends David and Elisa's wedding. We would be flying out to Missouri for the wedding the afternoon of May 11th. I figured if I took the test that morning and it came back negative, I would be too excited about the wedding to get bummed out.
On May 11th, the girls ( Wylie Cat and Wylie Kit ) work me up for their usual 6 am feeding. I took the pregnancy test and my jaws just dropped. Instantly two pink lines showed up! I kept staring at it, thinking the test must be faulty and that the second line would disappear any moment now. But it didn't. I was pregnant!
I had never really planned how I was going to tell Ray. Right now he was still asleep in bed. I quickly remembered a Winnie the Pooh rattle I had in my closet. It was suppose to be a gift for someone else I knew that was expecting. I quickly came up with a plan. I would take the rattle, lay it on my pillow and when Ray rolled over and opened his eyes he would see the rattle and my smiling face. It was a perfectly sweet idea!
I walked out of the bathroom and started rambling through my closet. Obviously I made a lot of noise because when I emerged from the closet, Ray was wide awake and staring right at me. He looked at me and asked if I took the pregnancy test yet. I was frozen stiff. I didn't know what to say or do. I tried to think of something to do, but my brain is only capable of coming up with one good idea before breakfast. So, with one last mental strain and Ray looking right at me, I did the first thing that popped into my mind. I tossed the rattle at Ray's head.
Didn't I just say I can only come up with one good idea before breakfast. No, it was not romantic or cute, but it did get the point across. Ray asked why I was throwing things at his head. He looked at the rattle, I jumped on the bed saying we were pregnant and then Ray responded in the most Rayish way possible. "Cool", he said. And then he rolled over and went back to sleep.
A couple of hours later we were both up and getting packed. Ray said it took his sister Corinna five to six different pregnancy test before she was sure she was pregnant, so we shouldn't trust the results of just one test. My hubby then went to the store to get another test and a few other items we needed for the trip. He came back, I took the test, he timed it for three minutes just like the instructions said and we waited. Three minutes later it was once again confirmed that I was pregnant.
We finished packing, had lunch and took the ferry over to the airport. We dealt with ticket changes, security checkpoints, finding our way through the maze that is SeaTac airport and finally making our way to the plane just as they were starting to board. And then sometime between Seattle and Denver where we would meet our connecting flight, while I was resting on Ray's arm it finally hit him - "We're pregnant".
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
In the Beginning...
This story takes place on an ordinary evening sometime in early March.
So, I'm sitting on the couch watching television while Ray is sort of tinkering around the house. It's late and I'm starting to crave some chocolate and maybe a small glass of dessert wine as a nightcap. I notice Ray walking into the kitchen and I hear the sound of drawers opening and closing. A few minutes later I hear him hammering something. This sound really doesn't bother me. Obviously he is trying to fix something.
However, curiosity got the best of me and I just had to find out what was so important that it required such late night hammering. To my amazement, Ray was not fixing anything, but breaking something. And that "something" was my birth control pills!
Laid out on the cutting board like a sacrific on an alter, Ray hammered away at my little yellow pill case. Specks of pills and chips of the plastic case were flying everywhere. The front of Ray's shirt was covered in pill dust. It was the most cute and slightly disturbing sight I had ever seen. Leave it to a theatre student to find the most dramatic way of telling his wife he is ready to start a family.
And of course I agreed with him. You just don't argue with a man holding a hammer and covered in birth control.
So, I'm sitting on the couch watching television while Ray is sort of tinkering around the house. It's late and I'm starting to crave some chocolate and maybe a small glass of dessert wine as a nightcap. I notice Ray walking into the kitchen and I hear the sound of drawers opening and closing. A few minutes later I hear him hammering something. This sound really doesn't bother me. Obviously he is trying to fix something.
However, curiosity got the best of me and I just had to find out what was so important that it required such late night hammering. To my amazement, Ray was not fixing anything, but breaking something. And that "something" was my birth control pills!
Laid out on the cutting board like a sacrific on an alter, Ray hammered away at my little yellow pill case. Specks of pills and chips of the plastic case were flying everywhere. The front of Ray's shirt was covered in pill dust. It was the most cute and slightly disturbing sight I had ever seen. Leave it to a theatre student to find the most dramatic way of telling his wife he is ready to start a family.
And of course I agreed with him. You just don't argue with a man holding a hammer and covered in birth control.
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