How We Found Out

(written on June 25)

Finding out you’re pregnant is a funny thing. Okay not funny, “ha ha,” but funny like, “Oh. My. God.” When I saw that second line pop up on the test it literally took my breath away. The feelings that followed were intense: I was shocked, excited, relieved, panicked, joyous, thankful, anxious, and most of all, scared out of my freaking mind. Oh, and those are all thoughts from someone who has been actively trying, praying, and hoping to get pregnant for the past nine months!

We started trying for a baby in September—scratch that—we ditched protection in September and just had fun with it, allowing “whatever happens” to happen. Back in January I wrote a guest post about the military meddling in our plans and only giving us a certain window of opportunity to actively try for a baby. A few months ago we got a little more serious about “trying” and I started tracking my temperature, keeping tabs on different symptoms, and we loosely started using ovulation strips. I also used a kick-ass app on my phone called iPeriod that kept all the info in one place.

Then, in April I missed my period. My periods are like clockwork, so I knew something was up. I took test after test after test (times 10) and they all came back negative. Not a single faint line in sight, and trust me, I squinted. One time I even made myself believe I saw a line—Kenny saw it too, just for the record. We were completely baffled. I always thought that a missed period = pregnant. That’s just all there was to it!

I saw a (male) doctor on base who told me to just relax and that I’d either test positive eventually, or my period would show up. Gee…thanks, doc. I was so confused, but he chalked it up just missing that period. He explained that there’s something called an anovulatory cycle where women just don’t ovulate for one month and it’s totally normal. Normal, eh? Yeah, tell that to the woman who’s actively trying for a baby and has had normal cycles up until that one, only to discover she’s NOT pregnant. I was an emotional ball of stress, not to mention, the stress brought on pregnancy symptoms: I was nauseous all the time and all I wanted to do was sleep. FORTY-SIX days later, my period arrived in the form of light spotting. I was both relieved and disappointed.

Once my period arrived I plugged it into the app on my phone and went on with life. I kinda put the whole “trying” to conceive on hold—meaning we roughly stopped checking for ovulation and I tried to let go of all the symptoms. My husband was deploying the next month and I really wanted to enjoy our last month together without getting all worked up over trying for a baby.

According to the app, my next period was supposed to arrive on Friday, June 22. I already decided that if it didn’t show up by Monday I would go see about having some hormone tests done to see what’s going on with my body. Being regular then missing a cycle out of nowhere really freaked me out. Aunt Flo was a no-show on Friday, so on Saturday morning, when my period was still MIA, I decided to test…just for fun.

The directions for my test strip said to wait 5 minutes, but after I dipped it in the cup, a second line popped up within seconds. I literally stood there just staring at it. The house was completely silent—except for my husband snoring in the next room and the sound of my heart practically beating out of my chest. 

What the what?!

I let the strip sit there for it’s allotted five minutes while I paced back and forth in the bathroom, basically repeating, “I’m pregnant? I’m pregnant!” to myself more times than I can remember.

I had so many cute and creative ways I wanted to tell my husband, but I threw them all out the window. Instead, I crawled back into bed, nudged him, and told him I peed on another stick and that he had to see something. I’ve never seen him wake up so fast! He rubbed his eyes, looked at the test, then back at me. That’s when he said what I had been saying to myself for the last several minutes: “We’re pregnant!” (I’ve heard someone women get annoyed with that phrase, but it doesn’t bother me at all. My husband is very much part of this and I love that he’s so involved.)

Clearly, that one test wasn’t good enough. I took another
of the same type and the second line popped up just as fast as the
first test. Determined to get a second opinion, we quickly got dressed
and walked to the local store where we picked up an Italian version of
First Response. Since I didn’t need the bathroom right away we also
bought a bottle of water and headed to the bar next-door for a croissant
and some coffee (don’t worry, I got decaf). After our impromptu
breakfast, I went to pee on the more high-tech stick. Seconds later, the
line popped up again. Holy cow! 

Two (okay, three) tests still weren’t good enough. I convinced my husband to drive to base so we could get a super fancy digital test—the kind that literally spells it out for you. Thirty minutes later we were on our way back home with yet another test and another bottle of water. When we got back home I did my thing (peed on the stick) and waited for it to do its thing. This one, since it’s all fancy schmancy, took a little more time. A little hourglass kept spinning around while we waited. And then, just like the others, “PREGNANT” popped up. Third time was a charm.

We spent the rest of the weekend freaking out and being an overly giddy couple who just found out their family is growing. 🙂

20 Comments

  1. I feel like we just had coffee! LOVE this post! I didn't even know parts of it. So excited for you and your growing family. I will enjoy when you can eat whatever you want again, though. 😉 XO

    Reply

  4. Yay what an exciting time for you!!! And I will be using "we are pregnant" as well – even though my husband might not physically be carrying our child he helped put it there and will be serving to my every need. Okay, just kidding about that last part 😉

    Reply

  6. I love this story!! It's so similar to ours… With the exception of peeing on multiple sticks and trying for so long. =P I took a test at 5am (that's when I woke up with the insane urge to pee, lol), crawled back in bed and told Joe I took a test, if he wanted to see. Needless to say we didn't get anymore sleep. =)

    SO happy for you guys!! =D And I think the "we're pregnant" thing is cute, not annoying. Although, having a guy say it when you're 9 months pregnant, waddling and uncomfortable *does* get on the nerves a little…

    Reply

  9. Yay, I love hearing how people find out they're pregnant!!! I will always remember our Saturday morning 'surprise' =) it's a day that sticks with you!!!

    Reply

  11. You know, I love this. I love that you got to experience the joy of it and couldn't wait to tell your husband. I think especially trying for those 9 months, and the annovulary cycle really make the excitement unable to contain and do that "special" wait-to-tell.

    I tried 3 years. We were diagnosed unexplained infertility, did multiple clomid/IUI cycles and then finally 2 IVF cycles (1st ended in miscarriage) before we got our beautiful Elyana. There wasn't much "surprise" about it because we were testing every day after embryo transfer.

    Then my pregnancy with Jace was unexpected and totally a surprise. (We'd even called the infertility center to sign up for IVF again.) I was sick and finally just took one of the many $1 bulk tests I'd bought that was still lying around…. When it turned positive I freaked and called Jonathan (who was headed to Lowe's) and told him to come home… and I spilled the beans. It was not unique, but I was too excited to do anything rational.

    Love that you also TOOK CONTROL of your body with the temp charting (must have read TCOYF!) and OPKs. Many women just by learning about their bodies increase their chances by actually knowing WHAT'S going on!

    Big hugs and excitement to you two/three!

    Reply

  14. LOVE IT!!!! SO excited for you two and LOVE to hear about ya'lls story. Miss like crazy though. So Enjoy Garmisch and hopefully we'll come get to visit you soon. xoxo

    Reply

  15. Awww, you will be so glad you wrote this story down while it was still so new :)Congratulations again, can't wait to read more about your pregnancy 🙂

    Reply

  16. I'm so happy for you. I peed on about 3 tests myself but I didn't finally believe it till I the clinic told me that indeed was pregnant. We weren't trying we gave up on the notion of having kids..and well like i told you i was 4 month along lol.

    But any who back to your story. I loved reading it. Thanks so much for sharing. And I can't wait for you to keep blogging about your pregnancy.

    Congrats again. =)

    Reply

  19. Haha, I laugh because the first time I took a test the line was so faint that I seriously stared at it for hours. After trying for 7 months, all I could do was stare at it. He came home the next day and I was like DO YOU SEE IT?! When he found out the blood test on base came back positive, he pretty much told the planet. He's still so excited and we're 21.5 weeks in (coupled with shear terror occasionally). Yay for the story!

    Reply

  20. CONGRATULATIONS!! Isn't it exciting?

    When I found out I was pregnant, I didn't even tell the hubby I was testing. It was weird, I thought man I think I should have had my period, so immediately I looked at the calendar and saw I was a week late. Hubby was already driving his hr commute to work when I got the results. Called him up right away. It was a very happy moment!!

    Good luck!

    Reply

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