Saturday, 20 May 2020: The BIG Announcement

The announcement of your arrival was at least as astounding as the fact that You came to us. That was well after your papa and I had been giving up hanging on some thin hope that we would get a baby one day - after all, we were neither overly keen on having some random fertility doctor messing up with the wisdom of nature, nor on a romanceless agenda of strictly planned intimacy following obsessive body temperature checks to assess the best timing.
Yet You arrived - and with what an announcement!

It was by pure chance that I was at the gynecologist for a routine check that day - Now a time that I certainly will never forget: May 20, 2020, 10.30 A.M.

Just a short while before I had received a courtesy call from one of the receptionist of the doctor’s office: the polite lady on the phone wished to let me know that, despite the ongoing covid-19 restrictions, they were open, taking all precautions as needed, and, because apparently my last check was more than a year before, I was more than welcome to make a new appointment. Fair enough then, why not? Let’s have a check.

A few days later I was there, a bit in a hurry to get on with my day. After all, I had nothing to report. All was OK. That was just a routine check.
Or so I thought… Nothing had prepared me for what came next.

While having the regular ultrasound examination, looking out of the window lost in my own thoughts and planning the day ahead already, the doctor all of a sudden brought me back to reality with words I could not quite place:
“Here is the baby!”
The way I was still processing that, he might as well had said something completely random like:
“Look at that little blue bird outside!”

For a second then, I thought a little kid must have entered the room unaccounted.
But no, no straying kid in sight.
Instead, slowly turning my head towards the doctor’s screen, still completely puzzled, I saw You for the first time. A black and white moving silhouette of a minuscule being, right there in front of me, with a tiny, super fast beating heart.

No way! Impossible! Is this really happening?
Then turning to the doctor with a mix of disbelief, surprise and exhilaration, all at once, it was my turn to revert with words none could quite place - What may one appropriately respond to a doctor, who did not see you for the past year, in such circumstances?
My words: “Oh, Wow! Thank you!”

I was already 11 weeks pregnant - and have had neither clue, nor “unequivocal signs” to account for it.

• Nope, no morning sickness!
• On the contrary, I had been more active than ever, training like crazy on my newly installed TRX (standing for “Total Body Resistance Exercise”, a hell of a workout method invented by a former Navy Seal, which utilizes body gravity as resistance to build strength, balance and flexibility). Yes, that was the first thing I duly bought and drilled to the ceiling, upon learning the gym was going to temporarily close following the first wave of Covid-19). I was even still going river surfing at the Eisbach (before that fun too was shut down for a while!).
• Well, I knew my cycles were just very irregular.
• Yes, I had gained maybe a couple of kilos… But I had found a culprit for that already - Your dad, of course! He stood “guilty as charged” of over-feeding me with good food during the last couple of months of lockdown.

I left still in a dream-like state to meet him (your still unsuspecting dad!), as he was waiting for me in the car outside and who, after the first hour, had probably been wondering why a quick, routine check would take that long. Well, I told him.
His reaction? No congratulation, no excitement, in fact… Nothing.
He thought it was a joke.

I could only convince him that I really was not making You up by showing him the irrefutable, key piece of evidence: Your ultrasound video (backed by my super weird conversation with the doctor) promptly committed to my phone for All to see and wonder.

Mission accomplished! Now both your dad and me were in a dream-like state together about You, still unable to fully process what just happened, utterly unprepared, but already entering a wholly new, frenzied state of hyperactivity and overplanning all what needed to be done, bought and even eaten over the long waiting to come.

You were on your way!