I found out I was pregnant after the hustle and bustle of the first winter holiday. It was the week after Thanksgiving, family had left town, our apartment was clean and it was just the two of us again. And the menagerie of course.
In spring 2009 Jason and I decided over dinner at our favorite Mexican spot in the neighborhood that we would enjoy the coming summer, go away with friends in September to Puerto Rico as planned, and then get off the pill when we returned. Fit in a trip to California the following month and we hoped to be pregnant by the early part of 2010.
Feeling no pain in Napa Valley.
In October I was on high alert every time we got… well, you know. But October came and went and so did my period. As we thought: “it’s going to take some time after all.” My mom was in her late 20’s and had trouble conceiving her first. We were in our 30’s. Between our age, genetics and our excessive use of modern technology, we were convinced getting pregnant wouldn’t be easy.
But we were wrong. While conceiving was very much on my mind in October, when it didn’t happen, I had cast it aside. We went into the holiday season, lead by Jason’s birthday the week before Thanksgiving, with our usual celebratory force. We are both downright lovers of good wine, so perhaps “celebrating” is an understatement. Thanks to my sister-in-law who likes to make sure my glass is always full, I spent a good part of Thanksgiving Day hungover.
It was Wednesday, December 2nd and I was going potty when it occurred to me that I hadn’t gotten my period. I was due but wasn’t that alarmed because I was only off the pill a month at that point. But my underwear was bone dry. There was not a hint of discharge. It was for this reason alone that I knew something was different. So I shared my suspicion with Jason and he laughed it off. Mind you HE was the one who sat me down at dinner in May to ask when we would start trying.
I told him I thought I should take a pregnancy test and he told me to wait another week. Another week? “Was he nuts?” If I was pregnant I should know so that I could stop drinking. If I wasn’t pregnant I wasn’t going to marginalize myself from socializing. After all, we had plans that coming Saturday with good, wine swirling friends! He relented. I peed on a stick and sure enough it was positive. My hands were shaking and I threw it in the sink as if it possessed a magic power that would turn me into a frog. Jason was in disbelief. Literally. He made me pee on a second stick. That too, was positive.
I was in shock. I was in awe. I was out of my mind excited. I just could not believe it. I immediately called my brother on the phone and told one of my closest friends when I bumped into her on the street walking our dogs. (The same friend we went to Puerto Rico with and were due to have dinner with that coming Saturday).
When the shock and awe began to settle in, I made an appointment with an OB/GYN in the neighborhood to have it confirmed. And confirmed it was, I am due August 8th!