Evan and I have always chose to tell our friends and family very early. In a previous blog, I explained our views on telling our friends and family like this:
Call me old-fashioned, but I refuse to let infertility steal away the joy of surprising my family and friends with the news that we are PREGNANT! So, I may still go a little overboard with my attempts to surprise people, despite the fact that they 100% know that some kind of news is coming. I also know that not every couple chooses to tell people as early as we do, but it comes back to Evan's and my desire to choose JOY while there is time for joy, knowing that our joy may turn into loss. We also know that we will want the support of our friends and family during loss, and I much prefer telling people the fun news first. Our close friends and family walked through every step of our IVF journey with us, and so I felt like it would be weird to try to keep our news on lockdown after they knew when we transferred our embryo! So, with all that in mind, we had to be extra sneaky if we wanted the element of surprise!
Somehow, this moment felt different -- mostly because I was not sure if I was sharing joy or sorrow. Instead, I felt like I was just sharing confusion and fear. However, we decided to go ahead and tell our families, but before we could do that I had started coughing uncontrollably. This coughing lasted for several hours, which led us to call our doctor who sent us to the Urgent Care. They were concerned that my oxygen levels could be impacted by the unrelenting coughing, and with the precariousness of my HCG levels they did not want to take any chances.
So, our super fun surprise quickly became a urgent plea for our families to pray with us for the safety of our baby before we left for the Urgent Care. Don't worry - I still made it a little fun! Evan and I had spent the previous weekend making my parents a surprise gift! We tried to convince my dad that it was a backordered Christmas gift.
They loved the gift and were super excited to become grandparents to another little one! Apparently, NO ONE was fooled, but I still enjoyed trying. Everyone was very cautiously excited and desperately hoping that this baby would be one that we would get to hold.
We hurried off the ER. Evan called his parents while I filled out paperwork in the waiting room. We quickly found out that my oxygen levels were fine, and they prescribed me an inhaler to help open my airways (which was safe for the baby). We came back home feeling relieved that things were okay for now, and praying for my HCG levels to rise by our next check in.