Matt came home from his second deployment April 21, 2011. We already knew we were going to be trying for a baby. I had been taking prenatal vitamins since August of 2010, and have been off birth control for the same amount of time. I actually started my period the day of homecoming, so day one of my cycle was April 21st. 26 days later on May 17th, I had gotten my next period, which let me know that the first month of trying wasn’t a success. It wasn’t a big surprise, because I had gotten sick and we were not sexually active the days I was ovulating. We went on post-deployment leave shortly after my period came, visited family, and relaxed at home. It was a nice break. Matt went back to work June 1st, and my period was due somewhere between Sunday, June 12 – Tuesday, June 14 (Day 27 – Day 29 is normal for me). This means my ovulation days were May 29 - May 31.
I took a test on day 25 of my cycle, Friday June 10th, and it was negative. I knew there was a possibility that it was negative because it was too early to show a positive, but I just told myself it was negative because it didn’t work this month! My cycle is normally 29 days long, but last cycle was 27. Day 27 fell on a Sunday, and my period didn’t come, but I wasn’t alarmed since 27 days wasn’t normal for me. Day 28 came, Monday June 13th, and my period still hadn’t come. I knew a test would be positive at this point if I was pregnant, so I took another one. Keep in mind Friday and today I’m using dollar store cheap-o tests. I had heard from so many people that when you’re pregnant and you take a test, the line comes up super fast, as soon as the test line is there the pregnant line would be there. So Monday morning at 9 am, I get up, have to pee and figure I might as well test again because I wasn’t sure how accurate Friday’s test was. I watched the test line come up, and nothing else came. I knew at that point that the test would’ve been positive if I was pregnant since it was day 28, and my period would probably come tomorrow. I got back in my bed, sulked, texted Matt, my mom, Lauren Guess, and Allissa Davis that this month didn’t work. I stayed in bed til noon, and then I got up to brush my teeth and get ready for the day. The test had a really really faint second line.
I called Allissa because I remembered her telling me about these crappy tests having evaporation lines (false positives), and it had been sitting for so long I thought maybe this happens over a few hours of time. That and the fact that it was so faint compared to the test line, I just didn’t think it meant I was pregnant. Allissa tells me to bring it over. I subconsciously put on a pink shirt (hopefully that means something!), did my makeup the worst I’ve ever done it, and left with the test. Allissa said it was a positive as soon as she saw it but I still didn’t buy this cheap test. I went to the C-store, bought a First Response (there were 2 in the pack), went back to Allissa’s and called her in the bathroom. I took one test and set it on the bathroom counter and we both watched it and probably held our breath the whole five seconds it took! The pregnancy line actually showed up BEFORE the test line, and it was dark and clear as day, I was pregnant! We jumped up and down hugging each other screaming! And then I told Ryleigh, she didn’t seem to care (RUDE), and then I called my mom and told her she was gonna be a grandma!
I just kept saying “this is so weird” and I must’ve said it over 100 times that day. I had zero symptoms, I felt nothing out of the ordinary, and I couldn’t believe something was growing inside me and I couldn’t even tell! I texted Matt and asked him when he was going to get off and he said around 2:30. It was 12 at this time and I had no idea what to do in the meantime because every second not telling him felt like an hour, and I just couldn’t tell him on the phone, he needed to be home. Allissa and I brainstormed on how to tell him, and we came up with putting the test in a little box and wrapping it up for him to open. I wanted Izzy to be involved, so I added putting a note on her that said “Something’s upstairs for you”, to lead him up to the box.
Allissa and I went to the commissary and I went on a fruit and vegetable binge, and then we ran to the store and got a box and some ribbon. Matt texted me that he was on his way so I dropped Allissa off, headed home, put the two tests in the box, wrapped it up in pink and blue ribbon, set it on the bed, and tied the note around Izzy’s neck. We were ready for the surprise!! I heard Matt’s truck pull up and my heart was beating a million miles a minute. I had his camera (couldn’t find mine) and hid in an upstairs closet (I don’t know why I did this looking back, I think I just panicked!). At this point everything that could go wrong did.
Normally when Matt comes home, Izzy greets him at the door. This is when he was SUPPOSED to see the note, head upstairs, and see the box, and I would sneak out of the closet and take pictures and be there. Again, I don’t know why I was in the closet, it just happened. Well I guess Izzy was more concerned that I was in a closet. Matt comes in, says “Hello?” and no one answers, and he sees Izzy crying and scratching at a closet door. She’s sticking her paws under at, whimpering at it, looking at Matt and barking at the door. I’m in the closet pissed off. And then I hear “Jess are you in the closet?” and all I can think is how much I hate Izzy in this moment. He starts coming upstairs, and everything is going to be ruined so I open up the closet door and start screaming at her to go downstairs. Instead of doing that, she gets freaked out and won’t leave the bedroom. I’m losing my mind and yelling and Matt has no idea what’s going on but finally I get Izzy to go downstairs. Matt sees the note, and I manage to take ONE picture of him picking Izzy up to see what was on her. And then the camera dies. This is it:
I don’t know how I didn’t cry from everything going wrong, but I wouldn’t let him come upstairs and I looked for my camera. I couldn’t find it, I ended up finding it that night in our pool bag. So I just figured I’d end up taking some cell phone pictures, and I told him to go ahead and come upstairs. He comes up, sees the box, opens it, and sees the tests! We hug, and he’s completely in shock.
I don’t know what I was looking for, I think I was planning on some really happy jumping up and down hugging moment like I had with Allissa, and it just wasn’t that moment. Looking back, I’m sure he was just instantly overwhelmed and really scared and surprised and confused, especially since I had texted him this morning that it was negative. I got my feelings hurt that it wasn’t what I had planned, and told him I was going to Walmart to get Father’s Day cards. I wanted to tell our dad’s with cards that they would get that said something Grandpa related. He called me at Walmart and said he was just really overwhelmed really quickly, he was happy he was just shocked, and I told him I understood. I came back home and he had cleaned the entire house. We Googled week 4 of pregnancy and read all about our baby being the size of a poppy seed, and we Youtubed videos like this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9GE_eaMSs
At some point in this process I figured I should probably take the second First Response test from the box with Matt, so he could see it become positive and be a part of the process. I think this was the turning point of excitement for him, because as soon as I peed on the test it was positive instantly. He hugged me and we were both just really really excited! Matt was adorably nervous and scared, and said he wanted to take a shot haha. He poured me a shot of apple juice and himself a shot of Morgan’s (which my mom later made a joke of naming our child after haha). And of course I took a picture.
Matt decided he couldn’t wait til Father’s day to tell his family, so he called his mom, she didn’t answer, and then he called his dad. His dad picked up and it was just so neat hearing Matt tell his family that “we were pregnant”, which I loved because I figured he’d say I was pregnant. His mom called back and he told her next, and then his brother and sister found out from his parents and he called his stepdad (who cried!). I just loved hearing all the reactions. I still didn’t tell anyone else in my family because I didn’t know if my family could keep such a big secret from my dad until Father’s day. I checked the mail and the ovulation tests and pregnancy test that I ordered a while ago finally came (not that I need them now!), so I took another one of this brand’s test and got another positive. I’ll be giving these to a friend!
We started talking about all the ways we should document this, like doing weekly photos of my stomach and keeping a journal. Matt loved the weekly photos idea, we started talking about a fabric background, what I should wear in the picture each week, how we’ll do the number of each week in the picture, he was just all about it and it made me so excited! We took a ton of pictures that night, most are just for us to remember this is the night we found out we were pregnant, but some are making their way to the public.
This is how I’ll tell my dad:
I want to add that Izzy knew I was pregnant before I did. She is all about Matt, she does not ever care about me. For the past week or so, she has followed me from room to room, never let me leave her sight, hasn’t greeted Matt at the door, doesn’t get up in the morning with him, and just lays on me. I’ve read that dogs can sense pregnancy, and now I’m a firm believer. She has done a total switch and is weirdly protective of me, it’s pretty cute!
For the readers who might be confused at the fact that I’m 4 weeks pregnant, but I said we conceived Memorial Day weekend which was only two weeks ago, pregnancy is calculated by the first day of your last period. So even though I only ovulated two weeks ago, and it took about a week for sperm to meet egg and travel to where it needs to be, I’m calculated as being 4 weeks pregnant because the first day of my last period was May 17th, four weeks ago. I am technically only 1-2 weeks pregnant, but since everyone goes by the last period timing, I’m 4. Every Monday I will be a new week pregnant!
On a side note, if you are trying to get pregnant, use Preseed lubricant. My friend Rachael Oerther got it from her friend that successfully became pregnant, Rachael used it and became pregnant and handed it down to me, and I became pregnant and will hand it down to a friend I don’t want to call out! (Applicators are individually sealed in their own plastic if anyone is thinking this is unsanitary, it’s not!)
So there is the story of our Memorial Day weekend baby. I have a Doctor’s appointment Wednesday, June 15 to take one of their tests and move from there. My due date is sometime in mid February, if we’re going 9 months after the start of my last period it’ll be February 17th! Until then I will just pray every night for a healthy baby, and I am so excited to start this journey. I am so thrilled to make our parents grandparents, his siblings aunts and uncles, and most importantly, my husband a DAD!!!!!
