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Just a reminder that I've moved. Come see me here:

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The first trimester, part 3: Guarding the secret

I've always been a little suspicious when hearing the stories about women who never knew they were pregnant until they went to the hospital with stomach pain and delivered a healthy baby the same day.

Having watched MC progress while both our kids were in utero, I just don't buy that someone can be oblivious to the many symptoms of pregnancy.

There's fatigue, nausea, mood swings and various aches and pains. Not to mention being kicked and jabbed from the inside. That's what pregnancy looks like at our house.

All of that is to say that even pretending to not be pregnant is hard work.

For the first few weeks, we did our best to act like everything was normal. And MC's body cooperated. She didn't have many food aversions early on, so we were able to keep up some of our routines like Wednesday night supper at church.

Three or four weeks in, things started to change.

MC's energy level dropped sharply, and food aversions came roaring to life.

There were all sorts of sights, smells and consistencies that became risky.

All of a sudden, putting on a happy face for steak-and-gravy night at church became a much harder thing to fake. I haven't asked, but I wonder if my parents - who often sit with us during dinner at church - suspected anything.

I mean, what's suspicious about a green-gilled lady sleeping with her face in a plate of mashed potatoes?

We also had to work hard to guard our secret from our closest friends.

A few weeks into the pregnancy, we had a chance to have a night out with another couple at our favorite sushi place.

Neither of us are big drinkers, but it's common for us to have a beer or glass of wine with dinner on our dates. That night, we had to pull double-duty by concocting a story for why she wasn't a) having wine and b) eating sushi.

I took one for the team and ate extra sushi for us that night. Somebody has to do the dirty work, right?

Sometime around four weeks, MC shared the good news with a pair of her closest friends. They swore on their lives not to tell.

And soon after that, we brought all the grandparents over and showed them our ultrasound picture.

That was the first wave of sharing, and we've only begun to spread our news more broadly after a series of affirming visits with the OB.

And since I'm sharing this story for all the world to see, we're clearly comfortable with people knowing now.

But I treasure that first month or so when the news was just our own, because I learned a lot about the dimension of intimacy in our marriage.

It's easy to confuse intimacy with romance, or to think of intimacy as a verb (if you know what I mean).

It's more.

It's sharing something unique and personal. It's resting into the support of your relationship. It's knowing you can trust her with everything and through everything.

Now that the cat's out of the bag, our news isn't our own anymore. It's the collective news of our family and friends.

So now that we're not spending all that energy hiding MC's pregnancy, we can focus on more important things, like the quest for food.

Read more from The First Trimester:
Up next: A bun in the oven and a taco in the hand
Previous: Sworn to secrecy

The first trimester, part 2: Sworn to secrecy

The first decision we made after finding out our good news that MC is pregnant was that our good news was going to remain OUR good news for some unspecified period of time.

When MC was pregnant this summer, we found ourselves in the awkward predicament of more people knowing that we miscarried than ever knew she was pregnant in the first place.

That's a recipe for uncomfortable interactions.

Of course, it's not like we were skywriting the news this summer. We told a close circle of friends and family and trusted them to keep the news to themselves until we were ready to share it more broadly.

And for the most part, that worked.

But I knew our hopes for privacy were dashed when someone approached me at church in July and said, "Congratulations!"

"Congratulations?" I asked, playing dumb. "For what?"

"On MC's pregnancy!" this person continued.

"Is she pregnant?" I said.

"Well that's what Jane Doe (name changed to protect the gossiper) told a group of us at a 4th of July party last night," she explained.

And at that moment I found myself in the strange position of hearing news about my wife that had been told to someone we know by someone we don't know.

Eventually we traced the trail of gossip back to our dentist's office. Medical privacy and confidentiality apparently fade into shades of gray when you live in a small town and know all the folks in your doctor's office.

Anyhow, after getting burned this summer, we decided from the outset to guard our news with vigor this time.

So for a span of several weeks, we had a little secret that was truly our own.

Up next: Guarding the secret

I've moved!!

I've moved!

I'm now blogging on my own domain at:

www.mybestinvestments.net

Come see me at the new place - and don't forget to update your feed reader and bookmarks to reflect the change!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The first trimester, part 1: Finding out

So now that you know we're pregnant, let me spend a few posts getting you caught up on the first trimester.

Finding out

Back in October, I took a week off to hang with the family and get some work done around the house.

During one of those days, I stayed home with the kids while MC made a Kroger/Target run.

When she got home, I went to work unloading all the bags. She disappeared for a few minutes. I thought nothing of it.

As I was pulling a handful of Target bags out of the back of the Odyssey, she bolted from the house, and said, "I wish I could come up with a better way to tell you this, but I can't."

And she pulled a home pregnancy test out from behind her back and put it in front of my eyes.

"PREGNANT" it read.

In a rush of shock, disbelief, excitement (and maybe even a little fear) we stole a moment of celebration before the kids came looking for us.

When we went back inside, MC called her OB's office and was able to get an appointment for an official pregnancy test that same afternoon.

The OB's office confirmed what the store-bought test told us earlier - it was real.

Up next: Sworn to secrecy

MBI's 2008 year in review

I've been looking back through the archives for 2008.

If there's one thing that strikes me, it's this: I didn't post very much this year.

We'll get that worked out in 2009. As I look at some of the things going on in our family life right now, I think I'll have plenty of material.

On the whole, I think 2008 is a year that many people are eager to put in the books. A lot of people lost jobs. A lot of people lost a lot of money. A lot of people began to worry about the days ahead.

I'm glad to put the year to bed, too. We've had our share of ups and downs at the MBI Estate.

But as I look at some of the challenges we've faced in 2008, I've got to chalk the year up as a good one for this reason: My son learned how to talk.

That's a pretty good thing, right?

While you're here, take a moment and look back on the year, MBI-style. Here's a quick glance at some posts I thought were noteworthy in 2008:

We took a vacation
Actually we took two. In March, we took a sans-kids trip to Grand Cayman. About six weeks later, we took a brief trip to the Dominican Republic for a friend's wedding.

I got passed over for a job
Who's to say that I wouldn't excel in this position?

Daughter continued to amaze us with her imagination
I need to do a better job of documenting stuff like this, because the kids dazzle us with interesting stuff like this all the time.

We hit a pothole
In July, we were reminded that God is sovereign.

We had a birthday laugh
In September, a minor cake-tastrophe made for a funny birthday party. I still can't look at this without laughing.

So there's a quick sampling of the stuff that unfolded in 2008.

And even though I haven't been around here much, you have been. I'm so grateful for that. Your visits, comments and links mean more to me than you know.

Happy New Year!