6 Weeks
For another post about how life is different from movies, let's explore what we did after finding out I was pregnant.
In the movies, this is a huge turning point! Lots of things happen very quickly! Symptoms start immediately. A visit to the doctor is planned for the next day. Funny things happen. People are told. In reality, none of this happens.
First off when you call your doctor all excited, they basically tell you "oh that's nice, we'll see you in two months." SERIOUSLY? You want me to wait two months before I find out if this is real or not!? Shouldn't I be doing something? Or not doing something? The nurse on the phone told me "don't eat sushi, and make sure you wear gloves if you garden." And then she hung up. I'm not sure why, but it struck me as hilarious. It was like the most obvious piece of advice that everyone in the world knows pregnant woman shouldn't do, paired with the most random thing that I've never even heard of.
And why are they so concerned with gardening? Should they be more concerned with things that I'm more likely to come in contact with? Like cleaning supplies.. or deli meat - I keep hearing that I can't eat sandwiches, but is that really so bad? I felt like I should be learning all of these things immediately, and not in two months when I would look back and go "Oh darn, I did literally everything wrong in some of the most important development months. Wonderful, this kid is going to have 18 toes and 3 ears..."
And I totally did do things I wasn't supposed to in that time. Two days after we found out I was pregnant, my parents came to visit. It was the most surreal thing ever. We had just got this life changing news that my parents would also be super excited about, but since we weren't really believing it ourselves, we didn't tell them. I'm not sure if they thought we were acting weird or not, but I totally thought we were. We kept whispering things and showing each other stuff on our phones. It was so hard to act like everything was normal. Especially after I ate a hot dog and then immediately found out from one of the 10 apps I downloaded that hot dogs were strictly off limits for pregnant women. Whelp, we all knew I would mess it up some time, might as well do it on day 3 of knowing? Plus we convinced ourselves that it was a special high quality hot dog, and so I'd be fine haha.
It is seriously the oddest time. I was constantly internally conflicted. I felt completely normal, but everything had the potential to completely change. Everyone I talked to, I had to act like everything was fine, even though in my head I was going "HOLY COW I MIGHT BE PREGNANT! But I don't really know! How accurate are those tests really? PREGNANT PREGNANT!!" And life totally goes on. You go to work, you go to church, you hang out with friends and family, and the whole time you feel like you're lying to everyone.
Although since I didn't feel any different either, sometimes I convinced myself that it wasn't really happening. Maybe it was a dream? Or maybe I'd just be one of those super lucky women who experienced absolutely no pregnancy symptoms... (You see where this is going, right?)
Speaking of odd - did you know that when you go to a maternity store, they have a 'fake belly' you can try on with the clothes? It's the lumpiest back pillow looking thing, and you feel ridiculous, but I suppose it works?