The Other Daughter

My younger sister announced yesterday that she is 5 weeks pregnant.

My initial reaction--Great! Wow! So happy!

My next reaction--5 weeks? That's it? She's telling everyone? She's using the p word and the b word? She's 2 weeks behind me yet light years ahead.

She told me she was scared to tell me the news, because she didn't want to steal my thunder. Hmm. Well, I hadn't really thought about that. My first thought was that her pregnancy would take some of the focus off of mine, in a good way. Now my parents could obsess over her, rather than me. That's the way it's always worked in our family anyway. My two weeks of being the golden child to my parents was a little weird.

It is a little too weird though that my grandmother knows my sister is pregnant, but she doesn't know about me. I was waiting to tell her on Monday, when I had a better idea of whether the twins were going to stick. Now that I've had time to digest this, I can't help but think--couldn't my sister have waited until after Monday? She knew my appointment was then and that I was planning to speak more openly about "my condition" after that. I guess old family habits die hard. My sister and I have always been great rivals, though we do get along very well now.

Luckily enough, H had the same reaction as me for once. Initial joy and excitement, followed by a big--Huh? Why tell everyone this second?

My sister kept emphasizing how cool it will be for us to go through this at the same time. Yes, I agree that will be nice, and having cousins the same age will be great. But her timing just stings a little. A little sting that didn't really hurt at first but now is starting to swell. They got pregnant after just 3 months of trying. Their worryless joy just further emphasizes how different my pregnancy is. I see in her eyes what I am missing out on since I am infertile. It sucks.

Her first ultrasound is Friday. Couldn't she have waited until the first ultrasound? Am I crazy? No, just infertile. And this is how infertiles react to fertile pregnancies.

On a different note, please give a congrats to Jena, who has seen her baby's heartbeat!