Telling My Students and Getting a New Toy

14 weeks 3 days - 101 days of pregnancy!

I told the kids today. I figured if I told one class's worth (I have three), it would get around the school in about five minutes. Sure enough, that's what happened! I told my 8th graders in about the last three minutes of 6th period. At the start of my 7th period planning/meeting, I went inside to fill up my water bottle and was accosted (jokingly) by a math teacher wondering why I had to get them all "in a tizzy." Within an hour I had an email from one of the teachers who hadn't heard yet, and after school another teacher hollered to me as I passed her room in the hallway to tell me congrats.

Near the beginning of the week I'd told myself, "If it hasn't got around to the kids by Friday" (I'd told a number of teachers, and with it being on Facebook, other teachers I'm FB friends with had seen, so I figured it was only a matter of time), "I'll tell them then." Well, I couldn't wait, and I was wearing the pink dress I wore in my last belly photos so my tummy was pretty impossible to hide.

I'd toyed with the idea of using some sort of puzzle to tell the kids. At the end of 5th period, I hopped online and found a "make an anagram" site and typed in my message. When we ended up having a few extra minutes at the end of 6th period, I decided to just go for it.

"Who's really good at unscrambling words,?" I asked as the projector was warming up. A bunch of hands shot into the air. "Oh, good, because I'm really bad at them. I wondered if you guys could help me. When you figure out the whole thing, just go ahead and say it." I pulled up the page and stood listening to the kids figure it out one word at a time (pretty quickly; it's not like it was very hard).

"Mrs.... N--------.... is.... going.... to.... have a baby in October! What? Ohmygosh!" Everybody (or most of them, at least; not all 14-year-olds, especially boys, are stoked about babies) was grinning and all excited. "Really?"

"Yes, really." I put my hands on my tummy and shoved my shawl and lanyard out of the way. "I'm not just getting fat, this is all baby in here."

Three or four girls shouted, "I knew it! I knew it!" and eventually (over the general clamor) they told me that they thought I was, and they wanted to ask, but they didn't want to ask, you know.... (To someone observant, I think my tummy's been a bit obvious the last week or two. The teacher that hollered at me in the hallway said she was thinking if asking, too, because she suspected.) When I saw the aforementioned math teacher, he told me the girls were talking about it in his class yesterday, but he didn't know anything about it and didn't advise them one way or the other. It's really not something you ever want to ask a lady just in case she's only gaining weight or had a really big lunch! However, a lot of middle school kids have no filter, so I was practically just waiting for someone to blurt out the question at some point!

The bell rang, and on the way out I got a few more questions like what day I was due and if I could feel it kick yet. It's sweet that they're interested. This is, for the most part, a really good group of 8th graders this year. If they're not always super gung-ho about their school work, they're pretty good kids behaviorally and socially.

Now I'm wondering what sort of "tizzy" I can get them into when we learn if it's a boy or a girl! I think I should have each class vote for what they think it will be and see who's right.

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The Doppler arrived in the mail today! (Really fast! It was only ordered I think 4 days ago!) Of course I immediately got it out of the package, read all the instructions--which were highly amusing as they were written in Engrish because it was made in China or somewhere--and used it right away. Instead of the goo my midwife uses, I just used baby oil, which worked fine. Plus I will have a nice, hydrated tummy! It took about five minutes, but I did find the baby's heartbeat!

First there was just wooshing noises and stomach gurgling noises. Then I found my own heartbeat a couple of times. I got out the little video I took of the last time we were at the midwife's and listened to the baby's heartbeat so I could remember how fast it was and be sure when I found it that it wasn't mine. (I also put my fingers on my throat to feel my pulse in time with what I was hearing to check.) Finally, I heard that fast little wub-wub-wub-wub! As soon as Matt came over and put one of the headphones in, we lost the heartbeat. He'd leaned on the sofa and maybe moved me and/or baby. He sat down and I found it again; when he came back, he was sure not to touch the sofa. Our dog, however, jumped up to lay on my legs because when I told Matt "Come here," she thought I  was talking to her. That didn't disturb anything, though, and he got to hear it for a minute. Now I'll just have to try and not have it on every other hour when I'm home!