I finally get to share the news that I’ve had to hold so close to my heart for months. My oldest daughter and her husband are expecting their first baby, and we couldn’t be more excited. You guys, I’m going to be a grandma and G is going to be a great-aunt. I mean, personally, great aunt sounds older to me, but that’s her issue, and I will let her discuss it in a subsequent blog. And yes, you’d better believe there will be more blogs on this very topic because there is so much to tell, and let’s face it, it’s something we can all agree is happy news.

Let’s go back to the beginning when we first found out, shall we?

It was Memorial Day, and we had family in town for the weekend. After they left, we decided to FaceTime Alex and Drew. I don’t know why. She had called once or twice, and we had been busy. I felt the need to catch up, or maybe it was a sixth sense.

They were stone-cold normal. They gave nothing away. Not the hint of a secret brewing under her sweatshirt. Nope. She shared that she had gone boating with friends over the long weekend while Drew was working, and had done a Mud-Girl race the day before. Don’t even get me started on the fact that she crawled through mud on her belly with my grandchild in there. 

Then, they let us ramble on for approximately 20 minutes about basically nothing when I said, Well, that’s about all we have. Anything else happening with you two? And she just casually mentions that she is PREGNANT!

What? 

First, why would she have let me talk about my plantar fasciitis for even 5 seconds when she knew she was growing a baby? Seriously, there is nothing that could have happened over the weekend that warranted any conversation or banter of any kind compared to the fact that she was and is growing a human. 

Second, tears. Because one of my beautiful girls was having a baby, I could no longer think or speak in coherent sentences. 

Andy and I just kept looking at one another in shock. This little nugget was in its early days, and it was good that we were speechless because we would not be permitted to speak of this enormously joyful news for weeks to come. They wanted to wait until they had seen the doctor and had their first ultrasound before they shared the news with their siblings or anyone else. 

Understandable, of course, but still so hard. Thank goodness I had Drew’s mom to text about how excited we were.

Andy and I barely spoke of the amazing news because we were afraid we might say something. I was so guarded and reminded myself often not to speak of anything in regard to Alex and Drew.. Of course, I was talking to Alex daily about how she was feeling, so that made it more difficult.

As we edged closer to the magical day in which they were going to share their news, we hatched a plan. Andy was going to call a family FaceTime meeting stating he had something important to discuss, which never happens, so we knew everyone would join without question. 

I strategically set my phone up so I could record the reactions of everyone. I will cherish this video of our family finding out forever. Watching all of their individual emotions as they processed what had just been announced by Alex versus what they were expecting to hear from their dad was priceless.  There were tears of joy and so many questions. Getting to watch my girls support and celebrate one another will always be my greatest privilege.

I know you have more questions, and we will get to all of them. I promise. Go ahead, and buckle up your car seat,  because you are about to embark on a journey, and it’s called, Lowi is going to be a grandma, and G is going to be a great-aunt.  I am here for all of it, which means so are you.  There will be weeks upon weeks of us discussing our joy, and if you don’t want to hear about it, I’m sorry.  There are no other channels.  From now on, this is a baby blog.  I guess I should inform the great-aunt of our new mission.

I hope she isn’t napping.  You know how old people are about their naps.