Finding Out or "How Did that Happen?!"

When we announced our pregnancy to our parents, one of the first questions my mother-in-law asked was "How did that happen?" We all laughed; a few inappropriate jokes were made; I blushed; and we moved on to discussing ridiculous baby names. You know, as you do.

We all know "how" it happens, (if you don't, please email me and I will explain the birds and the bees to you). I don't need to go into any explanation there. But I think the better question is "How and when did we come to the decision to start a family?" I think that's a fair and important question.

For the past year we've both known we were getting closer and closer to wanting a baby. I'm the first to admit that we basically treat our dog like a human child, and working together to "raise" Zoey was a real great lesson for us in parenting and cooperation between each other. With the idea that we'd start trying around the end of 2012, I stopped taking my birth control pill in October. I wanted to be off any and all birth control for at least three months before trying.

Bye-Bye BC

At first we thought we'd start trying at the end of December, but we were in Disney World sharing a room with my sister that week (hi sis!!) so that turned into January. Which was fine, because I had to wait until after my scheduled Lasik surgery anyway, so that became end of January. Then end of January/early February ended up being exactly 9 months away from one of my best friend's weddings and so before we knew it, it was March. It was one of those things that seemed so exciting, and we seemed so ready, but when the time actually came it was so easy to say "let's just wait one more month." But by the end of February, we were sick of putting it off. Those few months of waiting gave both of us a lot of time to think about it, and come to terms with the fact that we were ready for this next phase of our lives. We had our lives to live! There will always be weddings, there will always be trips and life events, and always "something" for us to wait just "one more month". We were ready, and we'd have to just deal with it as it came.

I tracked my cycles through the Ladytimer and Fertility Friend Mobile apps. We started trying the beginning of March with the thought that it would probably take 3 or 4 months before I'd get pregnant. 20 days later, I stood in our bathroom with a positive pregnancy test. I was happy, and shocked. Wow - that happened fast.

The crazy thing about discovering your pregnant is that, if you're patient enough to wait until a day or two after your missed period, you're already considered 4 weeks pregnant! You've already knocked one month off of the 9 (really 10) month process and you didn't even know!

I always imagined the moment I'd see my positive pregnancy test would be a joyous, jump-up-and-down "OMG!" exciting moment. But for us, that's not how it went. Of course we were excited but, for one: I already knew I was pregnant before taking the test. I could just tell that I was from various symptoms and so the test was just this confirmation for me, rather than this big shocking, revealing moment. Second: Our approach to this news was described best by Chris as "cautious". At only 4 weeks, we knew that anything could happen at any moment and while we were both excited, we didn't allow ourselves to get too caught up in anything before things were confirmed fine for us by a doctor. A bit anti-climatic, but that's how it went. We kind of walked around in a stupefied haze for a week, knowing it was true, but yet still so skeptical.

Chris asked me to take another test one week later. He wanted to be doubly sure and I don't blame him. I had all these symptoms that I was feeling, it was happening to me...but for the guy? He has nothing to go off of but a wife that says she feels tired, or hungry, and honestly is that really all that different from everyday life?! At least, not really for us, haha! I tested again a week later, this time with the ClearBlue digital test. There's something about seeing the word "pregnant" very clearly on a test that seems so much more definite than two pink, barely visible lines.

At eight weeks, we showed up to my doctor together for my first sonogram. It was just a little speck, but it was all the confirmation we needed to know that yes...the tests were right, and this was indeed happening.

And so that's "how it happened" without going too far into detail on the "how it happened" ;)