The Good News

On October 7, 2010 I decided to take another pregnancy test before I went to work (I had taken 1 earlier in the week and it was negative).  There was a very faint positive line - so faint I wasn't sure if it was there!   When  I got home from school I took 2 more - one was definitely negative and the other had a faint positive line again.  By this point I was going crazy - was I or wasn't I?!  I started believing I was because I had taken tests in August and September and had never seen any form of positive result before.  Also, about 10 days earlier Marc said he thought I was pregnant.  If Marc said it then it had to be true, right?!  Until this point Marc had been very careful to be a realist in regards to getting pregnant - the last thing he wanted to do was encourage me to be even more impatient!  So, there we were, 2 kinda positive tests, 1 negative test, and Marc's intuition.
There was 1 more piece of evidence that was really convincing me I was indeed pregnant - I had to pee all the time!  Normally I am like a camel but during the month of September I was waking up during the night to go and I had to take a couple of bathroom breaks at work each day which was very unusual.  That was it - I was either pregnant or I had a UTI.  I made an appointment to see the doctor on Friday to get a "definitive" answer as to what was going on.
As soon as I got to the doctor they collected my urine.  A few minutes later the nurse took me back to a room and said - you don't have a UTI, and you are not pregnant.  Now I was disappointed and confused.  I waited for the doctor to come in while I ferociously text messaged Becca.  Becca and Marc were the only people who knew what was going on.  As I typed my messages to Becca, knowing they didn't make sense because I didn't really understand what was going on, I decided the doctor's office was wrong.  I knew I was pregnant.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the doctor came into my room.  She said that she checked my pregnancy test again just to see, and that it had turned positive!  The tests are supposed to be read within a couple of minutes for the most accurate result.  Mine didn't turn positive until after 10 minutes so she said she couldn't officially tell me I was pregnant, but that tests don't usually turn positive so she thought I was pregnant - just too early to have an official positive result.
Now my heart was racing.  I called Becca freaking out - "I'm kind of pregnant!"  After I requested/demanded it, the doctor took blood to test my hCG levels (pregnancy hormones).  These results would be back on Monday - anything above 50 means you are pregnant.  Now what was I to do?  Becca and I agreed I shouldn't tell anyone until I got the blood results on Monday to be sure I was in fact pregnant.  So I went home and let everything sink in.  By the time Marc got home and I told him everything, I convinced myself that I was 100% pregnant and we would tell our parents the next day.  I couldn't wait 2 whole days to tell my mom and dad!  The next morning Marc and I called my parents very early - it's not often that Marc and I are both home at the same time as my mom and dad.  I told my mom to wake my dad because Marc needed to show him something on Skype.  So once we had them both on camera, Marc, Suki, and I shared the good news.  I started crying as I think that was the first time it really sunk in -we were having a baby!  After our Skype conversation I composed myself and we called Estee and Bob, Jessica, Jared, and Keli.  Our families knew they were all going to be grandmas, grandpas, aunts and uncles.
Monday afternoon finally came and I spoke to the doctor.  My hCG levels were around 100 so they could "officially" tell me I was pregnant.  I was only 4 1/2 weeks along but I could already feel changes in my body.  Marc and I were so excited we went out and bought 10 books!  The beginning of pregnancy is very strange because you can't really talk about it with anyone and nobody tells you what to do.  The only thing the doctor says is take prenatal vitamins and don't drink/smoke.  It seemed like some sort of instructions should have been given but there was nothing!  It's up to you to figure out what you need to do to make yourself feel good.  As soon as I knew I was pregnant I became much calmer and more laid back - everything now is about the baby and making sure it is safe and comfortable.  All the things that usually stress me out don't matter anymore....I want to stay relaxed and happy throughout pregnancy because I'm sure once the baby comes and the sleep goes the stress returns!