One month ago on June 16, Annabelle Katherine Dean was born. But like any good story, there is so much more to it. In the series “A Father Recounts His Daughter’s Birth”, I (the father) will recount my daughter’s birth.
Dating all the way back to…
October 4, 2009 (wait… THAT far back? Yep).
On October 4, 2009, we were going to Las Vegas for a weekend we had previously planned with our friends, Ian & Abbi. Becky woke up early that Saturday to go teach class as usual, and, surprisingly, I was sleeping in because usually I’m up early as well.
Becky woke me up around 7:30, but not with the traditional, “I’m leaving now, have a nice day. I love you” kiss. Instead, she blurted out, “I think I’m pregnant,” and showed me the test which showed two lines instead of one.
Unsure of how accurate it was, she went ahead and took the second test that came in the box. Again, two lines.
I grabbed my iPhone and looked up the brand of pregnancy test to see how accurate they really were. 99%. So we reluctantly rejoiced at the notion that in 9-ish months we’d be parents and our lives would change forever. But that wasn’t enough for neither Becky nor I. We wanted further proof. The kind of proof that the pregnancy test would actually say, “Pregnant.” None of this two-line nonsense. We wanted it spelled out.
So I went to the grocery store later that morning and bought a digital home pregnancy test and a bag of box of donuts (because it was still breakfast-time and I was hungry).
We were to leave for the airport as soon as Becky got home from work and had enough time to change. But there was still time for a third pregnancy test, and it was, as suspected, a positive test. PREGNANT.
On the way to the airport to meet Ian and Abbi to fly away to Vegas for the weekend, we recounted the fact that these were the very friends who told us they were pregnant almost immediately after they found out two years earlier, and that is how we justified telling them that evening over dinner at The Venetian in Las Vegas.
It was the beginning of a celebration that would last until June 15…