Diary of a Country Girl

Hero

8 months ago

Chapter Thirteen

Dear diary,

I have so many wonderful things to share with you. I suppose I'll start with the business stuff. I'll get to the baby news in a minute.

Our meeting a few weeks ago with Dani and Marissa went very well. They loved the nectars we shared with them.

We started out bringing them two crates a week. They proved so popular we’re up to four crates a week now. Tre’s strawberry nectar in particular is a huge hit.

We’re still working out the details for selling our produce to them as well. My pregnancy is putting a bit of a damper on things at the moment. It’s difficult for me to do all the work I’m used to. Once I have the baby then I can get busy planting more crops.

We also got great news from the county planning commission, we can go ahead with our shop. While that is great news the timing isn't. We've decided to go ahead and open it after the baby arrives. But we're just going to have a couple of tables in the barn and possibly around town for the remainder of the growing season. Over the winter we'll stop and renovate the barn and have a grand opening next spring. We've got so much going on right now that it felt like the best plan. For the time being we'll scale down our idea while we navigate parenthood.

Now that we knew our baby's gender we could have our gender reveal party. We wanted a cozy, intimate get together with our parents and closest friends. Our moms arrived a couple days early to help with the set up. It was the first time they'd been here since I really started showing. Naturally they couldn't resist feeling the baby moving.

I have to say, the first time I felt the baby moving I got a bit jumpy. On the one hand it's an amazing feeling knowing you have a little life growing inside of you. On the other hand I wondered if that guy in that old movie, 'Aliens', had the same sensation I did right before the alien thing sorta popped out of him. I admit I watched too many scary movies when I was a kid.

Our dads arrived at the same time but they made themselves scarce. They grabbed Tre and went fishing. I think having a bunch of talkative women in the house scared them off. Not that it was Tre who was skittish, it was our dads who were. They knew it was only a matter of time before we started talking about them and laughing. Funny how things like that can make them so insecure. I say that with all due love and respect. We spent an afternoon around the dining room table talking.

Consuela and my mom are a treasure trove of advice. They were both especially concerned about how much Tre and I had on our plates even without the baby. They gave me a lot to think about. Looking at my mom really made me stop and think. I've seen old pictures of her when she was my age, before I came along. She had long, gorgeous hair, she was always made up, and like me see wore contacts. That's a little fact most people don't know about me. I wore glasses until middle school. I switched to contacts hoping boys would like me more. It worked.

But as my responsibilities pile up and free time dwindles it would be nice to save all that time and effort and put it into other things. I'm starting to feel the same way about my hair. I couldn't help noticing in old pictures Consuela and my mom both went for short hair not long after becoming new moms. I've already set up an appointment to see the optometrist in a couple of weeks. My stylist is only three blocks away...

Enough yada, yada, about my looks. Now for the best news of all. As the time for my latest checkup with Dr. Bradshaw got closer Tre and I settled on names for our baby. So going into the appointment I was so excited to know which one it would be. We got right down to business. Dr. Bradshaw performed the ultrasound. We had other tests and procedures to do so I made her swear that she wouldn't reveal the baby's gender until the very end of our visit. The love I felt looking at that blurry image is beyond words.

Good news, the pregnancy is going splendidly. Everything is right on schedule and the baby is developing as well as it was possible. . Dr. Bradshaw handed me a folded piece of paper as we finished up. Written on it was our baby's gender.

Our moms were due to arrive the following day. I hurried home so I could finish getting ready for them and to start setting up decorations for the reveal party. I splurged a little and bought some baby bump headphones recently. I love spending some quiet time on the couch in the evening playing music for the baby.

As soon as our moms arrived they started trying their best to trick me into revealing the secret ahead of time. Not a chance. Dr. Bradshaw, Tre, and myself were the ones who knew. It was going to stay that way. The morning of the reveal Tre and I got busy cooking. I made my secret recipe gumbo and Tre made his lip smacking barbecued ribs. I made a honey cake and a chocolate cake as well.

I've been stalling a bit, trying to build up the suspense. I suppose it's time to just come right out and say it. But first I wanted to say I was surprised that so many guests thought our baby was going to be a girl. Only Tre's mom and my friend Juniper thought it was going to be a boy. Well I guess the majority who guessed girl were in for a surprise.