The surprise story.

So.  I’m finally getting around to updating, but I’m wondering how to start. 

Well, when we moved here Brett and I had a plan that we would have a baby here but not until probably the latter half of the second year.  It’s the first time we ever made such a specific plan, so you can see exactly where planning gets us.  :) 

So, we decided since we could do it so easily being this far away from family—and because we thought it would be awesome and very funny—that we would keep everything undercover and make it a surprise.  This merely meant that when I was talking to my mom or sisters (or brothers, I suppose, though that’s far more rare) I had to remember not to say, “and today I got lost while looking for a second-hand kids store so I could look for baby clothes,”  or “I threw up today after driving down a mountain road, which I normally wouldn’t have,” or the like.  Lots of people said that they couldn’t have kept the secret because they like to complain during pregnancy too much.  I hear you!  I felt sad that I couldn’t commiserate –especially with those of my sisters who were also pregnant and would be especially sympathetic.  Then again, it’s probably a good thing so the blog wasn’t filled with a lot of ‘wah wah wah’s.’ 

And of course, if the subject of having babies came up, I had to lie.  One time Andrea said, “Unless you’re pregnant.  You could just be being sly.  Are you?”  and I said, “No, no slyness here.”  I had to lie to Lindsay too, and maybe Kami one time.  Can’t remember for sure.  Some times I was sad that I couldn’t tell people, like before Megan and Lindsay Ann had their babies, and Andrea and Brooke both announced they were pregnant, and Mom was saying how she had four kids pregnant at the same time, and I was thinking—No! FIVE!  Five kids pregnant!!

And of course, NO PICTURES on the blog of me getting round.  Which was kindof easy on the one hand (I’m not very often in pictures anyway), but kindof hard too, because I thought if I didn’t post ANY pictures then people would start to get suspicious, but then if I post where I look fat, they’ll get suspicious.  Which they did.  My sisters said I started to look fat (thanks a lot!!!) and with that and just the time gone by—Talmage being two years old and all—some of them said they thought I was pregnant. 

My sister Andrea even posted a poll on our family website asking who thought I was pregnant.  So then I had to comment that I wasn’t pregnant but she could go ahead and think that if she wanted to, etc.  Then she emailed me and said sorry if I was annoyed cause I had seemed a little snippy in my comment.  So then I was like, “no, no, all in fun” when really I was like, “YES I’m annoyed!!  Your ruining my surprise!!  Leave it alone!”  hee hee.  But these suspicions only came up in the last month really, and they probably seem more conclusive than they really were just by my writing them out.  You see, in our family, we always suspect pretty much everyone to be pregnant pretty much all of the time.  :)  And no one had ANY thoughts that I was as close as I was.  By the end, I was getting a little anxious about what to post.  Could I post about my strong desire for a certain food, or would that make people wonder?  Could I even say how tired I was, or would people get suspicious?

I also had to ask the people who knew about it and knew me on Facebook not to mention it where others could see.  Like the people from church here knew of course, as well as Brett’s family, since they visited in July and saw me.  I worried about that a bit, but it was fine.

So.  Here are some pictures of me growing.  They’re not the greatest and I don’t know how many weeks I am in them (and I’m too lazy to figure it out), but they give you the gist.

 

We told the kids we were having a baby, and we told them that it was going to be a secret from all the Rasmussen family, so they couldn’t say anything about it if they talked to Grandma on the phone or anything like that, and Jethro said very concerned, “I don’t think you should have told Ethne.”  It was funny.

Most people in Switzerland only have 2 or maybe 3 kids. So we knew most people would be floored when they heard it's our fifth baby. When Brett made the first doctor's appt on the phone for me, they asked him if it was my first pregnancy and he said no, and they said, "Second?" and he said, "Fifth." and they said, "Fifth??!!!!" :)
The doctor said the nicest thing to me though. He said “I wish I could have had five children,” and he was sincere. And I thought that was the best thing anyone could have said.

Another time, when we were on the bus on our way to the Onion Market in Bern, Hazel saw a friend she knew from school, so she was pointing out all her brothers and sisters.  Then she said that another brother would be born, and her friend was just astounded.  She kept saying “Fünf??!!”  It was funny.

At the first (and every) appointment I had with my doctor, he gave me an ultrasound and when he told me it was a boy I was just so so SOOOOO excited!! 

One night I was getting Talmage into his pajamas and I said "Guess what-- there's a baby brother in mommy's tummy!" and he smiled and promptly pulled down the neck of my shirt to try to see him and he tried to stick his arm down my shirt to get him. :)

Soooo, anyhow, after Orrin was born at about 12:30 on Sunday morning, we called my mom and dad.  When my mom answered, she said, “Isn’t it a bit late for you to be up?”  and I said “I have a surprise for you.  It’s a good one, are you ready?”  and she said, “Yes.”  and I told her that I had just had a baby boy.  She kindof paused for a second, and then she started laughing and said “I’m so shocked!”  I told her more about him, and she kept laughing and said that again.  My dad was with her and she said he was sitting there grinning.  I told her we named him Orrin and she said, “Oh! Orrin Sackett—we’ll maybe get a Jubal yet!”  (It’s my dad’s great dream in life to have a grandson named Jubal.)  I thought it was pretty funny how my family thinks of Orrin Sackett before Orrin Porter Rockwell or Orrin Hatch.  :)

My mom and dad had been in the car on the way to the store—Sam’s Club, I believe—they sent a mass text to all my siblings (the ones who have a cell phone of course) telling them the news.  They said as soon as they got out of the car and walked into the store their phones just started jingling and jangling and they said it was the most excitement they’d had in ages.  All my brothers and sisters texted them and said, “Are you serious?”  “You’re messing with me!”  etc.  So they had to assure everyone that it was true.  Apparently my brother Wyatt wouldn’t believe it and then he was like, “Did you guys know about this?”  Of course, they were like, “We had no idea.”  And my brother Derek even thought it WAS a joke for a while, because of misunderstanding what my dad wrote.  Everyone demanded pictures for proof.

Later I talked to my sister Megan, and she had been on an activity with the YW in her ward, which included her daughter Danica.  They were walking around Temple Square seeing the lights when she got the text, and she said, “My sister just had a baby!!!!” and Danica said, “Which one?”  and everyone was like, “You don’t know?” and Megan was like—”NO—we didn’t know about it!!”  Similar thing with my sister Amy—she was at a family party with her boyfriend, and she was like “Oh my gosh my sister had a baby!” and when her boyfriend  figured out that she hadn’t known about it, he said “Your family is weird.”

I called my sisters Andrea and Kami and told them.  They were both like, “I KNEW you were pregnant!”  Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’re geniuses.  Especially now that I told you.  :)

When I talked to my sister Amy on the phone, as soon as she knew it was me, she said, “You’re RETARDED!”  ha ha.  She meant it in a I-wish-I-was-as-cool-as-you-you’re-retarded way.  :)  Lots of people called me a chachie, or a stinker.  But it was good times. 

Anyhow, that’s the story of our surprise.  It was pretty fun.