Finding Out

For the last week, we've suspected that I might be pregnant--fatigue, an achy back, sore breasts. David was more convinced that these were imagined symptoms, and the tests that I took at 8 and 11 dpo were both negative. (Once you enter the world of ovulation charting, you are introduced to a frightening number of abreviations and acronyms--I could have an entire conversation with someone "ttc" only using letters. So, for those not in the know, dpo stands for days post ovulation.) At day 15 though, I decided it would be best to try again. I was convinced that it would negative just like the others but was keeping my fingers crossed. The test showed only a faint blue line, which normally is an accurate positive but means that there isn't a lot of hCG in your system. At 15 dpo I should definitely have a strong blue line if I am pregnant. Having used all of my tests at home, I walked to CVS to get a test with an electronic answer screen: "pregnant" or "not pregnant." (As a side note, just like the commercials state, this was indeed the most sophisticated thing I had ever peed on--it has flashing lights. In a pinch, I bet you could even turn it into a signal radio.)

These tests seem like a great idea if you are pregnant because then you aren't discerning the validity of a line, but I was dreading how I would respond to "not pregnant." This seems like a very blunt and not very nice way to break the news to someone who wanted a baby. Perhaps it would be nicer if the tests just read: "I'm very sorry," "There's always next month," or "You'll still have your figure." Luckily, these were not statments that I needed to be concerned about because my test instantly read "pregnant"!

So, at this point I am what a medical professional would refer to as four weeks pregnant, but the baby's gestational age is 16 days. At the size of a poppy seed, it isn't much to look at, but right now it looks like the posted pic.