We're Pregnant!!

Yep, you read that right! We're pregnant! We're pregnant. It seems like such a strange and wild thing to say and for it to actually be real, and not pre-rehearsed. But it is official, WE. ARE. PREGNANT. There is a baby in my belly!

So, let me give you a really quick run down, from the beginning of this cycle TTC.

It all started with a false positive pregnancy test on August 1st. We were heartbroken and it spurred me to call my doctor and ask that our fertility be taken in a more advanced direction. This was the first glimmer of hope we'd had in trying on our own (without medical intervention aside from advice) in 3 years. And then it was completely dashed away in almost the same breath when a second test came up negative.

Off to the doctor I went. She (my dr) agreed it was time for some action, and after a thorough check up she decided my insulin levels were too high and it was keeping me from ovulating. And, let's face it, you gotta do that if you wanna get pregnant. She put me on Metformin to control the insulin, Provera to start my period (it just decided it wanted to go on vacation that month) and then Clomid to help me ovulate AFTER my period.

I went home, and promptly caught a cold. 

So I started my meds (all but the Metformin) a week later than she had requested. Not only did I have a cold, but I was SO SICK on Metformin that I could barely raise my head off the pillow in the mornings. 

I took the two medications like I should, and waited for a positive ovulation test. I distinctly remember texting my best friend (she lives in Alabama) and telling her I didn't think the Clomid had worked. I went days and days later than I thought I should and still no sign of a positive test. I was super bummed. The next day it showed up positive. I called her again, and she reminded me that she wasn't the person I needed to call. Her exact words were "call your husband, you goof."

We did what we needed to do.... self explainitory. I stuck my legs up in the air after each time, watched a few episodes of "I Love Lucy" upside down, and then readjusted and got on with my day. 

On October the 1st, two days before we found out for ourselves, I had my annual OB/GYN appointment. I had several questions about things that were going on. She was so unusually giddy that I left thinking she knows I'm pregnant. She has to know, otherwise why would she act that way? And why wouldn't she tell me?

My mother explained it best the night we told our families. If I hadn't been so sick on the Metofrmin, the symptoms I was clearly having would have been a huge giveaway. 

*I was super exhausted. Some days it was a stretch to get out of the bed.

*My breasts - actually it was just one breast - was super sensitive and uncomfortable to the touch.

* I was having headaches.

* This one could be a little TMI, but I'd never heard of it being a symptom until it happened to me and I started looking it up. So be warned.... I was dealing with INTENSE Vaginal Itchiness. When I asked my doctor she said she would test for a yeast infection but didn't elaborate anymore. Slick thing. And all the tests came back negative.

*I would wake up in the mornings hungry like I hadn't eaten in days, and then the thought of food was revolting.

* While I  couldn't eat most things, a trip to the Minit Mart for pizza rolls one night resulted in me eating two for myself plus half of one of Aaron's. He said he began to get suspicious then.

* Super short of breath. All the time. And not being able to string a sentence together without getting all murkey and forgetting where my comment was headed.

* I was congested late at night.

* Bloating, constipation, diarrhea, gas, some mild "period-style" cramping and the teensiest bit of bleeding where also present. And when I say teeny, I mean I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking for it.

Let me pause here and state, for the record, that you can find ANYTHING on line if you are willing to look. I googled "Implantation Bleeding," and got hundreds of thousands of pictures of women's bloody toilet paper. Some could have filled a bathtub with their bleeding and were asking if it was implantation. I'm still not sure if it was officially implantation bleeding or if my doctor doing my pap smear caused a little bleeding. Either way, I'm almost sure that she knew when I left her office that I would be back with a positive test in my hand.

So, the night of the 2nd, I felt terrible. I was aching so badly that I finally gave up and ran a warm bath. I was absolutely positive that my period was coming. I just knew it. While in the bath I decided, after texting my old faithful best friend, that I would test the next morning.

I barely slept that night, tossing and turning and flipping and flopping. But when I woke up that next morning, I snuck off to the bathroom and took a Wondfo (which is an internet cheapie brand) test. I peed in the cup, dipped the test, went about finishing up my toilet business and when I turned around I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I looked three or four times, held it up in different light, but I SAW a faint faint second line. I mean, FAINT. And then slowly it started getting darker until it was a fact that there was a second line. 

"AARON!" I shouted, a bit more aggressively than I planned. I giggled at myself silently for how stern I sounded.

"What?!" He replied, alarmed.

"Come here!" I said. "NOW!"

"Are you alright?" He said, as I heard him popping up out of bed.

"GET IN HERE!" I screamed again.

When he finally came into the bathroom, he saw me standing there, in my Murray State t-shirt and black leggings, with my morning face and wild hair, holding that positive pregnancy test. His eyes got as big as saucers. He saw the second line too. Before we did anything, we tested again, with a Rexall brand test we got from Dollar General. This was the same brand we used when we got our false positive. It showed up POSITIVE right away, too! Another Wondfo later, we were convinced I was pregnant. "You can't have 3 positives and them be wrong!" was what my husband said.

Here was the fun part. We decided not to tell anyone until after the doctor confirmed I was pregnant. I was a little terrified because of how crappy I was feeling, and I didn't want to tell and then something happen. But it was Aaron's mom's birthday party. And, oh, we were torn. It would be the best birthday present we could ever give her, and it would be so amazing.....to tell or not to tell? We ultimately decided NOT to tell that day. 

So we bit our tongues all day. Except we told our oldest nephew. He is a teenage brick wall, wouldn't say anything even under pain of death. We were even asked how things were going, and I just said "still waiting." What I didn't say was "to tell you we're pregnant!"

My sister in law and her husband put on a haunted woods every year and we are all taking part in it this year and what goes along with that is lots of fake cuts. You know, the kind you make out of latex and tissue paper.... So we practiced on each other for hours..... the night kept wearing on and the more and more we talked about the haunted woods the more I was like "they're gonna have to know I'm pregnant before we go out there and do that. For sure." It's in the woods, and I'm going to be a character who's eyes have been plucked out, so I'll basically be blind....

So we told our nephew we were going to tell, and he filmed it for us. Aaron asked his mother, who is called "Mimi" by her grandkids, if she still liked "Mimi" or if she wanted to be called something else the next time around, and he showed her the picture he'd taken of our three positive tests. Her response was "WHAT? FOR REAL?"

My sister in law screamed so loud, I think she woke the dead. My 18 year old niece, whom we had all been practicing our halloween makeup on, complete with a green glow-in-the-dark face, dark circles, a sliced and bloody cheek and wild teased hair, tackled me like she was a fullback on the football team. She is the only girl grandchild and immediately said "IT BETTER BE A GIRL!" My brother in law (Aaron's baby brother) said "I KNEW IT!" My mother in law called me a liar. because of earlier when she'd asked what the doctor had told me and how things were going.

Next we knew we had to tell my father in law. He was home sick. So we made up some excuse about him needing to see Lauren, my niece, all dressed up for the haunted woods. So we all trampsed in. He said from the second I walked in his back door he knew. I'm like the cat that ate the canary. I'm a smiler when I have a secret. I'm like Snow White on Once Upon a Time. Can't keep a secret. Oh the soon to be Queen Regina is actually in love with the stable boy? Let's tell her evil mother who hates the stable boy! Yeah. That's me.

Next we went to tell my Mom. My sister in law, who had not gotten out of her pajamas all day, decided to go home. By my mother in law came with us. 

I had suspected that my Mom saw something in me the day of my doctors appointment that lead her to believe I was pregnant, because she practically demanded the doctor do a pregnancy test, and she wouldn't do it. So I figured she already knew. 

When I showed her the photo of the tests, she was quiet. As I knew she would be. A smile peeking its way across her face. She asked me to explain what she was looking at. I told her and the tears came. 

It was a whirlwind day that will go down in the history books of this family.

Now we are on to more doctors appointments, cleaning out the second bedroom to get it ready for baby, names, maternity clothes, birth plans and all that goes along with it and I can't even express how happy I am about it.

It took us 3 years, 34 months, 1003 (exactly) to get pregnant with this child, we tried on our own for two and a half years, but our first round of Clomid paid off. But at last, here we are. 

Where does this leave "The Impossible Dream?" A name change my be in the future... i kind of like "The Possible Impossible Dream." But it's up in the air. I plan on doing weekly updates here on the blog, if I can.... cause life is about to go bananas. My husband also suggested I make a YouTube video talking about our experience with TTC and Clomid. We watched a ton of those while we were TTC.... so perhaps that is on it's way. Not now.... maybe after we have our first ultrasound.... But this will be the place where I do all my baby updating, but The Simple Life will still be going strong, and all the posts here will be linked there. 

So thank you all so much for all of your prayers, and all your kind thoughts. We honestly didn't expect it to happen this cycle. We both said it wouldn't happen this cycle. But the best part of this all is God's timing is perfect. And he still answers prayers. Thank you Lord for this miracle baby!