It’s official. B. is pregnant with our baby. We are expectant (not just intended) fathers.

I got the call from the IVF clinic yesterday. I was at my department’s annual “End of Audit” party (I work for a non-profit and we are audited every year). I checked my phone just before I sat down for dinner and saw that I had a missed call from the IVF clinic.

I left my drink and my coat at the dinner table and ran (as casually as possible) outside. I tried calling the clinic and got a “This number is no longer in service” message. (I don’t know what that was about. Can a business have an outgoing-calls-only line?) I hung up and didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to go back into the party without knowing what the clinic had to tell me.

I decided to stay outside for five minutes and wait for them to call back. I thought they also might have tried our home phone, in which case they would have gotten a hold of Alberto. But in less than a minute they called again.

The nurse on the other end of the phone played it cool, like an American Idol judge telling a contestant he’s made the Top Twelve. She had a somber tone as if she was going to deliver bad news. But she got to the point faster than Randy Jackson. She started talking more quickly and raised her vocal pitch until she finally said, “B. is pregnant!”

I resisted the urge to shout or cry or whoop out there in front of the restaurant (I may have performed a little hoping dance) but obviously I was excited. I may have said that over and over to the clinician on the line. I got all the relevant details from her and then called Alberto with the news. It's cliche to say that we "breathed a sigh of relief", but that is what we actually, audibly did.

Now, it’s not like we can quit worrying. Realistically, I probably won’t quit worrying for the rest of my life about this child. The pregnancy isn’t considered “viable” until six weeks has passed from the day of conception. But we’ve cleared the biggest hurdle in the process. As time goes on, the risk of miscarriage will rapidly decrease.

The next milestone is in three weeks when an ultrasound can detect a heartbeat. Keep us in your prayers!