How we found out

It was Sunday, January 16th when I took two tests early in the morning. At that point, my period was about 2 weeks late, but I knew that didn't necessarily mean anything. My periods have always been regular, but I was having serious cramping everyday and I sincerely thought my period was imminent. I believed this despite being late and beside being knocked out by exhaustion and nausea so bad I called in sick to work. I mean, I wore my Moon Cup everyday in preparation for my period for goodness sake! But, I was practicing the Fertility Awareness Method of birth control/family planning and I was taking my temperature ever day. And the main way of concluding you’re pregnant is recording 18 days of elevated temperatures post ovulation. So I think I waited until day 20 because I wanted to take the tests on the weekend. We were busy on the Saturday so I knew Sunday would be the day.

Some months previously, I ordered a thermometer and it came with ovulation and pregnancy tests and I had about a dozen of each. I also knew that to be able to actually believe my fate, I’d have to buy one of the big gun pregnancy tests, so I chose Clear Blue (mainly because it was on sale). So I had these weapons in my arsenal and knew I’d have conclusive evidence of my status one way or the other.

I went to bed on Saturday and tossed and turned all night. Finally, at around 7:30 Sunday morning, I went to the master bathroom and peed in a cup. First, I put the cheapo test in it and laid it on some toilet paper and did likewise with the Clear Blue test. The cheapo test changed immediately, but I wanted to give both time to marinade. So I made myself of bowl of oatmeal and went to the living room to watch early morning TV and pass the time.

After about 30 minutes (I don’t know how I held out that long), I went back the bathroom and looked at them. Holy shit.

I crawled back into bed and gently nudged Dave awake telling him he had to go to the bathroom with me to look at the tests. He rose crazy haired and blurry eyed and stumbled to the bathroom. My heart was banging in my chest. He said “I knew it” and two fat tears rolled down my cheeks as we embraced.

We were going to be parents.

We both knew instinctively that it was way too early on a Sunday morning to celebrate. So we crawled back into bed and fell into a deep slumber amidst our excitement and bewilderment.