A moment to remember

Today was the day we finally broke the seal on our big news. After going to the doctor this afternoon for our first ultrasound*, we went over to Hannah and Will's for dinner, with the plan of telling them our big news and then proceeding to tell our families from there. 

*I think that's what we had done, but maybe it was a sonogram? Whatever it was, it was the first appointment when we saw the baby.

Now. We all know I like the Big Reveal. I'd been thinking on how we'd play this out, and as of yesterday I had decided on a course of action. Plan A would be tough to pull off, but would be really fun if we could do it. Last time I had a Plan A, I ended up having to go to Plan B.

Plan A this time wasn't particularly elaborate, but it did have a lot of moving parts. The idea was to Skype with Leah and Lev (and, with luck, Eric) in Boston while having Hannah and Will (and Jessel) sitting with us together in Atlanta.

When we first got on with Leah, it was like a version of the improv game "Sit Stand Lean"; at first we had Leah and Lev, but Will and Hannah were in the other room. Then Will and Hannah came in, but Leah and Lev ran off to greet Eric walking in. Then all four adults were there, but Lev suddenly ran to his room and shut the door because, well, he's two, and that's what two-year olds do sometimes.

I began to feel like the moment was going to pass, but then Lev came back in, and finally, everyone was in place. I squeezed Hilary's thigh to let her know it was on, and then I began:

"Lev, guess what?"

(No response)

"Hey Lev, guess what?"

(silence)

At this point, Lev and I apparently swapped places, because our conversation continued in this manner for about 30 seconds:

"Lev! Lev! Guess what Lev! Lev! LEV! LEEEEEEEV! GUESS WHAT LEV! LEV LEV LEV!"

Finally everyone was like, "Micah, just spit it out!"

So I said: "Hey Lev, is Jessel your baby cousin? Do you want another one?"

Beat.

Then.

PANDEMONIUM!

Hannah freaked out (nearly squishing Jessel in the process), Leah freaked out, we all freaked out. Pretty sweet right? If that were the end of the story, I think we'd feel pretty happy and have a pretty nice little moment for the memory bank.

Then Leah said, "How about room for one more!"

OMG. Leah is pregnant too???

MIND EXPLOSION.

That's right. Hilary is having a baby in November, and Leah is having a baby in November, and my parents are really going to have a dilemma on their hands* about how to spend their time.

*not really, I'm the favorite

It really is hard to put into words how incredible the moment was - I only wish we had been recording the Skype video for posterity** so we could show just what a complete mindfuck it truly was.

**Big brother, are you listening? If you have the tape, I'd love to have it.

So we are thrilled as can be, obviously. In fact, there is only one true downside. Instead of having to keep one secret now, we have to keep two.

Keeping a secret is really hard

We are two days away from being able to tell the first people that we are pregnant.

I don't really know any rhyme or reason for the timing on pregnancy secrecy, but it seems like the general standard (at least amongst the Jews) is you tell family after a couple months, once you've had your first doctor's appointment, and then you really go public* after three months. Supposedly if anything is really going to go wrong, it will go wrong in the first 12 weeks, so in that sense I understand it, but it still seems somewhat arbitrary.

*and of course by public, I mean post on Facebook


God help the person who tells people they are pregnant before that 12th week. I have seen this happen on occasion, and you'd think they'd just copped to running a meth lab or putting a Sarah Palin for President sign in their yard. It almost seems like people think you can literally affect the health of the baby by revealing the fact that there is one.

We've known Hilary is pregnant for nearly a month now, and we've done our best to keep a tight lid on that information. It is harder than it seems. For some reason, every conversation I find myself in seems to somehow relate to pregnancy.

Like this conversation last week:

Hannah (my sister): We took Jessel to day care for the first time today.

Me: Oh yeah, we looked at that place last week. Oh, I hope it wasn't too hard.

Or:

Me: Hey Hannah, what are yall doing for dinner next Wednesday?

Hannah: Nothing much.

Me: Cool, we haven't seen yall in awhile, maybe we can come over after our doctor's appointment maybe we can come over for dinner.

Or even this:

Will: Man, Anne Hathaway gets really naked in that movie Love and Other Drugs.

Me: Hilary's having a baby.

All I know is, I am ready to unburden myself of this happy news, so I can stop having to run every sentence through an internal censor before I say anything to anyone.