Apparently it strikes early. Just a few minutes ago in my last post I was complaining about how I couldn't find my camera's memory card transfer cable and it was preventing me from posting my pregnancy test pics, and I just now realized that I already did that (uploaded the pics, that is). OOPS. So here they are:
The bottom one, where the line is darker, is the first one I took. It was approx. 6 pm and I was on my way home from the hospital having just visited my aunt and
my newborn goddaughter. I was a few days "late" and I just stopped at Walgreen's to buy the test on a complete whim. I was certain that I wasn't pregnant...I just decided to take a test for the heck of it so that I could definitively rule that out and then try to figure out why my period wasn't showing up. I took the test, set a timer for 3 minutes, and went about my business, fully positive that it was going to be negative. Sure enough, before the 3 minutes were up, I happened to pass by the bathroom and decided to glance at the test. I seriously thought I was hallucinating when I saw the two lines. Then I thought it was defective, because clearly since I was not pregnant, only one line should have been showing up. After several seconds of confusion it finally hit me that I was pregnant.
In the past, whenever I daydreamed about getting pregnant, I always thought of these romantic and exciting ways that I would break the news to Gaby and to our parents. Then reality struck and I was so stunned that I couldn't even think straight, much less go along with an elaborate plan to surprise Gaby in a cute way. Thank God he was on his way home already, because had it been in the middle of the day, I probably would have blabbed it over the phone. The minute he walked in the door, it was written all over my face that something was up. I asked him to sit down because I needed to tell him something, and immediately he knew. 10 minutes later, I was chugging glass after glass of water so that I could take another test. That's where the top one in the above picture came from. I'm figuring the 2nd line was so much lighter because I had diluted my pee from guzzling all that water minutes before taking it.
Then it was off to Walgreens again to purchase more tests, this time in a variety of different brands, including the digital ones. Can you tell we were in disbelief? This digital one is what sealed the deal. I think when Gaby read the word "YES," it finally hit him, and that's when he gave me a big hug and got choked up. We had always said that we would wait several weeks before telling ANYONE we were pregnant, including my parents, but as those positive tests began to add up, the dad-to-be could not contain his excitement and insisted on calling his parents. I would have paid a million bucks to have seen his mom's face when she heard her first grandchild was on its way, but unfortunately I had to settle to talking to her on the phone. Later that night, we went to my parents house to tell them the news (they live 2 minutes away from us). They were beyond shocked, since no one was really expecting this, and after a few minutes of staring at us in silence, they finally cracked some big smiles and got excited :)
As I said, the 12 days since have been a whirlwind, and already things have not gone how I imagined them, from how I told my husband, to how we told my parents, to how we ended up making the news "public" to the rest of our families and friends. I guess that just goes to show you that no matter how hard you try to plan things (and I am big on future-planning), you never know when the moment strikes what you are going to be feeling or how you are going to react. I think I still would have liked to have kept this our little secret for several more weeks, but now that it's out in the open, it feels good. I love being able to talk to my mom openly about it, and talking to my cousins and friends who are new moms or currently pregnant about what their experiences have been.
One of my cousins who is due in August also broke the news of her pregnancy when she was very early along, just a day or two after her missed period and her positive pregnancy test. She told me that she's very happy she told everyone and got to share the joy as soon as possible, but she warned me that this was going to make my pregnancy feel very long, since you pretty much have your whole world waiting with you for the next nine months (versus the next 7 or so months, should you choose to wait a little while before spreading the news). I think she's right. As crazy as the last week and a half has been, April 1st feels like it was forever ago. And May 11, my first opportunity to see my little seed, feels like it'll never come.
I've been craving hot, savory, salty, starchy, carb-y comfort food. Pasta and potatoes and warm buttered bread. I've always been an ice cream and chocolate fiend, and while I wouldn't go as far as to say that I've developed an aversion to these foods, they definitely do nothing for me anymore. I'll pass.
