4 Weeks
As promised, I'll start publishing some of the posts that I wrote a while ago but haven't shared because the news wasn't out yet. I'll warn people in advance that some of these posts might be a bit TMI for some people. It's not really, but I will discuss things like peeing on a stick, periods, and other baby related things haha.
If you've been on pinterest (or anywhere on the internet pretty much) lately, you know that finding a unique and special way to tell your husband you're pregnant is very much a thing. However, it always struck me as odd. Wouldn't you find out together? How could you keep a secret like that from your husband? I pretty much knew I wouldn't be able to pull something like that off.
Plus in my mind, it would go something like this: One day we'd be talking and maybe I'd notice I missed a period, or I'd throw up randomly, or otherwise feel off. And we'd both look at each other and go, "Oh my gosh! Could you/I be pregnant!?" and we'd run off, buy a test, and wait for the results together. As a totally unrelated comment, I think I watch too much TV and movies haha.
In reality, there's no way I wouldn't notice if I missed a period. Plus we both know how babies are made, so we knew there was a possibility each month. The excitement and potential in the air was way too electrified to be anything near casual. And if you know me at all, nothing in my life is ever spontaneous. There was charting and ovulation tests and we were always both very aware of where we were in my cycle each month. (Is that weird? haha). A normal person would probably find out they're pregnant around 12 days post-ovulation (assuming you know when that was). Tom would start asking me at like 7 DPO if I was pregnant yet. "Are you pregnant? Can we test yet? How many days left until we know!?" So even if I wanted to surprise him in some elaborate way, it wouldn't have been easy.
And of course we quickly learned that nothing is quite like it is in the movies. The first test may be exciting, but after a bunch of negative ones in a row, it quickly becomes very boring. Most months I couldn't stand the suspense, so I would start testing way before I knew I was supposed to, and end up with a bunch of negative tests. In fact, it almost became more of a thing to tell Tom when I wasn't pregnant. I'd text him a picture of a coffee with the caption "consolation prize" or something. (I was trying to cut back on caffeine while we were trying). And then we'd repeat the process the next month. Although in reality it didn't take very long, it felt like it, probably just because of the number of tests and charts and things you're doing each month to make sure you're healthy and ready for a potential baby.
When it actually happened though, it was different because that month I hadn't started testing early. I might have even been a day or two late for my period, but in my mind I wasn't. Mostly because that month I was taking something that was supposed to lengthen my cycles (since mine are a bit short) so I had told myself that this one would be WAY longer than I'm used to. I'm not sure if it actually would have been or not, but that's the way it was in my mind. So I had given myself a test date of Friday, which I think would have been 14 DPO and is much later than I had normally started testing. However, I woke up on Thursday and decided I didn't want to wait any more. I actually had the day off to get some things done around the house, so in my mind it felt like a good day to test.
I didn't really put a ton of thought into it though. If I had, I might have told Tom I was testing, or been a little nervous. Instead I just woke up and did it. And then before I could even put the test down, I felt like I could see a slight line. My heart started pounding and I quickly threw the test down and ignored it for the next 3 minutes, since you're supposed to wait before you look anyway. So I finished getting ready, and then looked at it again. One test line, and then one faint, but definitely there, second line. Holy cow. Now what?
See this is the part I hadn't counted on. I assumed Tom would be here looking at this with me, but he was downstairs, eating breakfast. It seemed a little dramatic to yell for him to come upstairs, so I took the stick with me and walked down to him. He was standing at the kitchen counter, and I kind of held the stick out to him (okay kind of gross I know).
"How many lines do you see?"
"What? Are you pregnant?!"
"I don't know, you tell me"
"Um, I see one and a half."
I swear I gave him an evil eye at this point. There were only two possible answers: One or Two. One and a half wasn't an option!
"Ohhkayy... but one and a half is more than one right?"
"So what does that mean?"
"I guess I could be pregnant? But we shouldn't get excited. I could totally miscarry because it happens all the time to people and who knows. It's probably not real."
Yup, I'm so romantic haha. So neither of us really got that excited that morning. I think inwardly we might have been (I know my heart was beating hard all day at the what ifs) but outwardly we acted kind of like any other day. Until of course about lunch time when I decided to take three more tests because I'm crazy. (And apparently I think it's important to test multiple brands just to be safe haha). I texted Tom the picture with the caption "huh" and got back "Hmmm, well that's a little more convincing."
So definitely not like the movies. Instead it's been more like a slow build to acceptance and excitement for us. It's taken a long time for it to feel "real" even when I was experiencing pregnancy symptoms. I kept taking the cautious approach and reminding myself not to get excited until it was verified by a doctor and we confirmed there was a heartbeat.
So there's our totally uninteresting, very mundane story about how I told Tom his life would be changing forever!