The in-between time

By mid-February, we were past the terrible scare but were still a month away from telling people what was up. We were also a couple of weeks from the first genetic test.

We were in a no-man's (or woman's) land. No reason to be too worried about anything, reasonably hopeful that all is going well, one blurry ultrasound in our pocket, and doing whatever we could to avoid difficult social interactions where K would have to justify her apparent addiction to mineral water or orange soda.

One weekend morning we were going to meet with our friends C&C at the Beach Chalet for brunch and drinks. At the last minute we declined a ride with them - that was so K could drive and justify not drinking.

A friend of mine who I go motorcycling with had been trying to make plans to go to the MotoGP race at Laguna Seca in June. This year, he decided, we were camping. Only one problem. Since K and I were both planning on going to the race, and K would definitely not be camping at 6 months pregnant, I needed an elaborate story to explain why I couldn't commit to camping just yet. I managed to buy some time but it took a white lie to do so. I'm not a fan of lying.

Another night we were at C&C's house for a big party - they were mere weeks away from their baby being born so wanted one last shindig. K once again had to make up stories about why wasn't drinking - the usual plan of blaming all the work she had to get done for her masters degree was probably good enough, although we had a feeling someone might be onto us. The fact my parents were there didn't help the subterfuge either. Parents like to ask questions.

The biggest issue of all related to K's job. Without going into the details, we were concerned that a general agreement between her and her boss that she'd be leaving sometime in 2009 now threatened her chances of getting the benefits she deserved. Her boss tried to firm up the agreement, but K needed some time - she couldn't tell him until we were at three months. This, more than anything else, was the biggest cloud on the horizon. That is, until the genetic test...