As I write this post, I realize that it will be kept private until which time we are ready to share the news.
I sit here still in disbelief. Staring at 5 "first signal" pregnancy tests bought from walmart for 88 cents each. The first one was taken on a whim at 10 DPO (known because of using NFP albeit, obviously, unsuccessfully) due to a strange feeling in my nipples. And the faintest of faint Positive line showed up within the 3 minute time limit:
So, in disbelief, I showed the test to Jereme, who quickly and most assuredly declared the line an "evap line" and denied it's true existence.
The next day, paranoid as I am about getting pregnant on a month that we hadn't mutually agreed to, and before the wedding none the less, I POAS (Peed On A Stick for those of you new to the TTC (Trying To Conceive) lingo) once again.....
The 10 Days Past Ovulation test is on top, the 11 days is on the bottom. As you can see, it was faintly darker. I quickly showed these to Jereme, who shrugged and said "well maybe....." and even though my period was not yet due for three more days, I still had this persistent feeling something was up, not to mention I was ravenous with hunger!
Well, something that many of you don't know, is that we recently experienced two miscarriages, in a row, back to back, last year. They were both unplanned (and the second one was *very* unexpected!) but we were going to go with the flow, you know? So we would get married while I was 8 months pregnant. Other people do it right? Both of these miscarriages started early (5 weeks 1 day and 5 weeks 6 days respectively) and I have a history of two other early miscarriages when I was younger, as well as two complicated pregnancies due to implantation issues (with living children from those). As a result of doing some research, I opted to start taking a baby aspirin every day from the end of my January menstruation on with a suspicion that I had what is called "Hughes syndrome" or sticky blood. We knew we wanted to start trying to make a baby right around our wedding day or the month after, so I wanted to be prepared...
Being a bit paranoid due to the recent early losses, I then became obsessed with taking Home Pregnancy Tests to see if the line would continue to get darker, knowing it was the only gauge right now that I have in assuring everything is moving along okay. So...with Jereme yet unconvinced I am even pregnant, and myself even doubting it a bit, I took another at 12 DPO....
and as you can see, the line was still faint, but definitely becoming darker. At this point I was convinced, two days before my period was due, that I was pregnant. Jereme was mostly convinced. My only symptoms? Ravenous hunger, really tender breasts and extremely sensitive nipples. and at 12 DPO I was at a mere 4 weeks pregnant.
And the next day....
As you can see, the line is still faint, though getting darker. You can imagine how, midwife that I am, I was truly sick of seeing these faint lines. I wanted a good solid dark line darn it! Going with the reasoning that the hCG in my blood had to be at least 25mIU at 10 DPO to get a positive line...and *hopefully* would be at least 50mIU by 12 DPO (as it should double every 48 h in a healthy pregnancy)...I was really hoping for dark lines by 13DPO...but alas, still light. So, being the obsessive person that I am, I did an internet image search for HPT at 13DPO and found that many people still had faint lines at this point. What do you expect after all, not even yet expecting your period? For Pete's sake Misty, lets not freak too much. Jereme and I both accepted the fact at this point that I am definitely pregnant (for now).
So this morning.....
my line was much darker! yay! Going with my reasoning, my hCG should be at least 100mIU at this point, which is just a little less than my highest quantitative hCG test with the other two ever came back as. However, Jereme pointed out to me that these tests are only .88 each at wal mart and if it truly makes me feel better to POAS every morning and see if its continuing to get darker, so be it. I know I will feel better once we get an ultrasound with a heartbeat present, but who knows when that will be. I may have to just wait until we can hear the heart beat by doppler, probably around 10 weeks.
10 weeks?!?!?!?!
That seems like an eternity. the next week or two will be truly telling however. This post probably wont go public until at least 10 weeks, if ever, though.
So I finally broke down and got a serum hCG test to measure the hormone in my blood. The average for 21 Days Past Ovulation is around 1200 mIU. My hormone level was 6561 mIU!!!
Today we entered into week 6 of this pregnancy, and morning sickness has taken full effect. Mind you, it is cruel and unusual punishment to make someone ravenously hungry AND disgustingly nauseous all at the same time....
