I realized that I never really addressed how/when Thomas and I found out I was pregnant. It's not an especially unique story, but it does explain how someone could miss their period and not "know" they were pregnant... luckily for me, it didn't turn into a health documentary that ends with me giving birth on the bathroom floor.
It was a random Sunday at La Madeleine (yeah, married people go on dates to La Madeleine) when I told Thomas that my period was slightly late. We both were kind of like uhhhhhhh what do we do? So we stopped at CVS on the way home and bought a pregnancy test. CVS brand, of course. Anyway, I took the test and it came back distinctly negative. At the time, I was radically changing my health routine with crossfit and the paleo diet, so I asked one of my crossfit trainers if the workouts can mess up your cycle. She confirmed that when she started, she didn't have a period for like three months. This was enough for me to just shrug it off, especially since we weren't doing anything to try to get pregnant at the time. And again, negative pregnancy test.
So I went about my life for another two weeks or so until we arrived at superbowl weekend. All weekend I had intermittently felt kind of sick/tired, but I thought nothing of it. Until the next day, Monday, I felt AWFUL, and it clicked that something more might be going on. So back to CVS I went and bought a 3 pack of a non off-brand pregnancy test, and I got home and did my thing. Two lines means pregnant one line means not pregnant. I only saw one line at first and just thought "negative." Then I realized while there was only one line, and it was the test line not the control line. So I googled it and it basically means that your pregnancy hormone is so strong that the test line develops with no ink left for the control line. I was pregnant. WHAT?
I don't really remember what I thought at that moment. It wasn't panic or elation, just shock, I think. As the rest of the day went on and I thought about telling Thomas, some of the shock turned into excitement. Excitement to tell Thomas, excitement that this happened by surprise, and excitement at me actually having a baby. Truthfully, the women in my family don't have great track records for getting pregnant, so I always assumed that it would be difficult to get pregnant, let alone that it would happen on accident. (No, baby, you're were not an accident - you're a blessing!)
Thomas came from work, and before he got five steps through the door I just blurted out "sooooo I took a pregnancy test today, and I am probably pregnant." Thomas immediately smiled and gave me a hug. I don't really remember much of the night after that, but I am sure I kept repeating how insane it all was. I took another test in the morning and got the same super-pregnant result so we discussed getting a doctor's appointment that week.
Two days later, we were at the doctor, and he showed us a tiny black circle on a screen that was our little baby. For some reason, a big part of me was expecting him to tell me that I wasn't actually pregnant... probably just because I hadn't yet even considered when Thomas and I would start trying for a baby. The doctor's ultrasound machine is kind of old school, and couldn't pick up the heartbeat that early on, so he sent us next door to the hospital for a "fetal viability" ultrasound. We heard the nurse calling the hospital to set up the appointment and it called for an abdominal ultrasound as well as a "trans-vag." Thomas and I just looked at each other and raised our eyebrows when we heard "trans-vag." I've seen enough movies to assume what that meant.
We had some time before the appointment so we went to this slightly ghetto Italian restaurant, and I ate about two baskets of garlic bread. My first bread in about siz weeks. At the hospital, the tech called me in first, and pulled out the "trans-vag" wand. It's about 18 inches long. She looked at me and just said, "don't worry, most of this is just for me to hold onto." I laughed, of course, and appreciated her attempt to inject some humor into the situation. After she called Thomas in, she showed us the black sac again and confirmed that there was a heartbeat, and I was indeed pregnant.
Thomas and I just kept smiling at each other. She left so that I could get my pants back on (had to take them off for the trans-vag). I rolled off the table to go grab my pants, and Thomas stopped me and told me to come give him a hug. This incredibly sweet moment was made even better by the fact that I was pantless. So there we were... hugging about the joy of having a baby together, with me completely nude from the waist down, wearing nothing but my tweed jacket and ankle socks. And then began the sickest, most disguisting two months of my life.
It was a random Sunday at La Madeleine (yeah, married people go on dates to La Madeleine) when I told Thomas that my period was slightly late. We both were kind of like uhhhhhhh what do we do? So we stopped at CVS on the way home and bought a pregnancy test. CVS brand, of course. Anyway, I took the test and it came back distinctly negative. At the time, I was radically changing my health routine with crossfit and the paleo diet, so I asked one of my crossfit trainers if the workouts can mess up your cycle. She confirmed that when she started, she didn't have a period for like three months. This was enough for me to just shrug it off, especially since we weren't doing anything to try to get pregnant at the time. And again, negative pregnancy test.
So I went about my life for another two weeks or so until we arrived at superbowl weekend. All weekend I had intermittently felt kind of sick/tired, but I thought nothing of it. Until the next day, Monday, I felt AWFUL, and it clicked that something more might be going on. So back to CVS I went and bought a 3 pack of a non off-brand pregnancy test, and I got home and did my thing. Two lines means pregnant one line means not pregnant. I only saw one line at first and just thought "negative." Then I realized while there was only one line, and it was the test line not the control line. So I googled it and it basically means that your pregnancy hormone is so strong that the test line develops with no ink left for the control line. I was pregnant. WHAT?
I don't really remember what I thought at that moment. It wasn't panic or elation, just shock, I think. As the rest of the day went on and I thought about telling Thomas, some of the shock turned into excitement. Excitement to tell Thomas, excitement that this happened by surprise, and excitement at me actually having a baby. Truthfully, the women in my family don't have great track records for getting pregnant, so I always assumed that it would be difficult to get pregnant, let alone that it would happen on accident. (No, baby, you're were not an accident - you're a blessing!)
Thomas came from work, and before he got five steps through the door I just blurted out "sooooo I took a pregnancy test today, and I am probably pregnant." Thomas immediately smiled and gave me a hug. I don't really remember much of the night after that, but I am sure I kept repeating how insane it all was. I took another test in the morning and got the same super-pregnant result so we discussed getting a doctor's appointment that week.
Two days later, we were at the doctor, and he showed us a tiny black circle on a screen that was our little baby. For some reason, a big part of me was expecting him to tell me that I wasn't actually pregnant... probably just because I hadn't yet even considered when Thomas and I would start trying for a baby. The doctor's ultrasound machine is kind of old school, and couldn't pick up the heartbeat that early on, so he sent us next door to the hospital for a "fetal viability" ultrasound. We heard the nurse calling the hospital to set up the appointment and it called for an abdominal ultrasound as well as a "trans-vag." Thomas and I just looked at each other and raised our eyebrows when we heard "trans-vag." I've seen enough movies to assume what that meant.
We had some time before the appointment so we went to this slightly ghetto Italian restaurant, and I ate about two baskets of garlic bread. My first bread in about siz weeks. At the hospital, the tech called me in first, and pulled out the "trans-vag" wand. It's about 18 inches long. She looked at me and just said, "don't worry, most of this is just for me to hold onto." I laughed, of course, and appreciated her attempt to inject some humor into the situation. After she called Thomas in, she showed us the black sac again and confirmed that there was a heartbeat, and I was indeed pregnant.
Thomas and I just kept smiling at each other. She left so that I could get my pants back on (had to take them off for the trans-vag). I rolled off the table to go grab my pants, and Thomas stopped me and told me to come give him a hug. This incredibly sweet moment was made even better by the fact that I was pantless. So there we were... hugging about the joy of having a baby together, with me completely nude from the waist down, wearing nothing but my tweed jacket and ankle socks. And then began the sickest, most disguisting two months of my life.
Just another routine appointment...
Love,
Lauren
PS - This post is brought to you by the Roman Catholic Church in partnership with the natural family planning method of birth control. Without which, this blog, and our baby, would not exist.
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