Story Time

In honor of today marking the halfway point of my journey, it's only fair to tell you about the beginning. I want to tell you the story of how all this got started.

Ew, not that story. I'm going to assume we all know where babies come from.

I want to tell you the story of the morning I learned I was going to be a mama.

October was the seventh month of trying. I'm not going to go into the science behind when we thought it was best to try. If you're particularly interested (i.e. trying desperately yourself) feel free to e-mail me and I will be happy to chat about what worked for us. For the first six months I was always convinced that 'this will be the month.' I over analyzed every little abnormality - Am I gassier than normal? I did cry for no reason today. Wow, I'm tired! - only to be knocked back to reality when Aunt Flo came to town. Flo, being a cruel mistress, even had the audacity to be 8 days late one month. Drama ensued.

In October we tried again but this time I told myself not to get my hopes up. Flo was a day or so late, but I tried not to get excited - she tends to be a bit unreliable in the punctuality department. By this point I had more than given up on taking a pregnancy test early* "just in case" and was still unsure.

SIDEBAR: Even before we started trying, I had always imagined how I would give Steven the good news. Something clever and funny, for sure. However, in the interest of not jinxing things, I refused to buy any supplies to this effect until I was actually pregnant. I just assumed I would wake up one day, get a positive reading then buy what I needed on my way home from work.

Morning of November 5 - I woke up for work, still no Flo, and my first thought was "Damn my boobs are sore." Even in my still-groggy state, a light bulb went off. Even in my worst times of PMS, the girls had always stayed out of it. This just had to be a sign. As I stumbled toward the bathroom I heard Steven on the phone with AT&T customer support. It doesn't matter why he was on the phone, but it does matter that he was distracted for 3-5 minutes.

I whipped out my pregnancy test and followed the instructions. I did my business, laid it on a flat surface and just stared at it. Even though the directions said to wait 3 minutes before checking it, I could already see a faint double line starting to appear. Still not wanting to get too excited, I brushed my teeth for the full 2 minutes (thanks electric toothbrush with built-in timer!) then glanced at my phone for a time check. It had been 3 minutes. It was now safe to look at my results.

I lean over my counter, and staring back at me is a positive pregnancy result**. I put my ear to the door and heard the silence of Steven not talking to customer support. I realized, in this moment, that there was no way I could wait to tell him, clever announcement be damned. No amount of cuteness could keep me from blurting out this good news. I walked out of the bathroom with the test tucked behind my back.

Me: Are you done talking on the phone?

Steven: Yeah, why?

Me: Because I have to tell you that I'm pregnant.

Hugging, smiling, etc.

I arrived at work at 8:30, as usual. At approximately 8:31 I realized taking a home pregnancy test on a workday was not a good idea. I'm pretty sure I didn't get anything done that day because all I could think about was my exciting morning.

Jump to today and I am still just as excited to be on this journey. Did any of you readers have the patience to plan some elaborate way to spill the beans?

*I have since decided that taking the test early isn't entirely helpful. Even though the box claims a positive reading is possible 5 days before you expect your period, there's often not yet enough of the hormone for it to read. In fact, for an ideal reading some women have to wait a week after the period is expected to have produced enough of the hormone. I think the test companies just put that on the box so you will test more frequently and buy more product.

**If looking at something I peed on grosses you out, please not I didn't pee on it. I peed in a paper cup and delicately dipped the strip into my 'sample' so as to not get pee everywhere. I hope you're happy Internet.