The Third Prayer

It was Wednesday, December 1st and Frank asked if he could paint my toe nails.  You wonder, “Why in the world would he ask such a question?”   Really, what man paints his wife’s toe nails?  None that I know of it.  But Frank pulled, “Paint My Toe Nails” from my SPICE jar and so there we were.  He had never painted or even attempted to paint my fingers or toes before and warned me that it would be an awful job. 

I didn’t care how awful it would look because it honestly couldn’t look any worse then they already did.  The last time I got a real pedicure was in July and since then I have been painting my own toenails.  I painted my toe nails red the week of my sister’s wedding, which was October 10th, and that was the last time they had been touched.  So you can only imagine how discolored and un-manicured they looked.  I was ready for a mini pedicure.  Frank got started and we giggled nearly the whole time.  It was so funny to feel his soft hands against my toes.  But even more funny to feel the brush hit my skin over and over again.  So he might have painted as much of my skin as he did the nail, but it washed off easily. 

Overall, he did a pretty darn good job.  Which may have led to me saying, “spicy” in my sassy little romantic voice.  He laughed because in his eyes, painting my toenails was the least spicy thing in the world.  But to me…spicy.  We flirted and got all cozy with each other and began to kiss.

But Frank immediately stopped and asked, “Are you fertile?”

Oh, a question I haven’t heard in nearly two years.  It didn’t matter when I was pregnant with Mary Rene.  And it didn’t matter for the first 13 months of her life.  But now, the question had resurfaced.  That little question took me back to the beginning of our marriage when we diligently charted each day.  I would tell Frank what my results were and he would fill out the chart.  That way, he knew if I was or wasn’t fertile.  There was no question to ask. 

But now, the question was being asked.  Mainly, because he didn’t know.  Well, I didn’t know either.  I just regained fertility the week of my sister’s wedding.  The month of October was a complete wipe out because my cycle was so inconsistent that I didn’t even try to chart.  I figured it might take a few cycles to get my body back in sync after having a child.  So far, November seemed to be a normal month but I was expecting it to be inconsistent again so I didn’t bother charting.

Which left me puzzled when he asked the question.  I really didn’t know.  I should know but I didn’t.  I told him when I started my period and we both counted out the days in my head.  Before Mary Rene, I had a 31 day cycle and was consistent month after month when I was fertile.  If my body was going to go back to the way it was, we figured I could be fertile starting that day or the next day.

But we really didn’t know.  So there was a chance.

Like any good wife, I let him make the decision. 

Frank said, “Well at this rate we could have 10 kids.”

I again said, “Well, then you make the decision.”

Silence.

Frank, “Screw it.”  Yes he said, screw it.

And so, Sweet Pea was conceived.

And for Frank’s benefit, I calculated it out and let him know that at this rate we could have seven kids.  Not 10.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 11:15 am and is filed under Frank & Marriage, Natural Family Planning, Sweet Pea Pregnancy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.