My husband and I decided we would try for kids after we got married, I think it was a conversation we had very early on in our relationship because I always thought hopefully, one day, I would be ready for kids. Whether he was 100% into having kids or just wanted another date, who knows! But here we are!
Straight after our wedding, we went away for 2 and a half weeks on an amazing honeymoon and when we got back, that was it, off the pill, get on Natural Cycles (I signed up whilst on honeymoon...) and time to start trying. Due to having some health/weight issues when I was a teenager (and generally being a bit pessimistic), I was convinced it was going to take years, if it happened at all, I even started researching what the process was behind adoption! I should probably mention at this point that I am a massive worrier... I know a lot of people say planned sex won’t work and just do it when you feel like it but I planned, I couldn’t help it, I was determined we were going to do it by the book to have the best chances of getting pregnant.
How can you be expected to wait for a missed period when you’re so desperate to get pregnant! I took 3 tests too early, knowing full well I was being and idiot and it doesn’t work like that, each time being super disheartened that it was (obviously) negative and reinforcing that we would be trying for years. The app predicted the date I was due to start my period, but given I had been on the pill for half my life, I thought it would take a while to sort itself out so when my period was late, I just thought my body was being rubbish and the fact my boobs were a bit sore was just down to my period coming. Still disheartened and generally being a grumpy bastard, I did another test when my period was 3 days late because we had book to go out for a nice meal that evening and I didn’t want to drink if I was potentially pregnant. That morning, I got up early to let out the dogs, quickly did the test but didn’t look at it, fed the dogs and once again my heart sunk when I went back to look at the test and I could see a really strong control line. I looked closer at the test and there it was, a very faint test line! I ran upstairs, turned the bedroom light on (it was 6.30am and the husband was asleep) and burst into tears! The husband thought one of the dogs had died, turns out my dad crying face is exactly the same as my happy crying face, lucky me! His first response wasn’t what I expected, I thought maybe he’d cry and we’d just hug for ages, instead he said ‘I wanted to try for longer, does that mean no more sex??’, I should’ve guessed, ha! My husband is not a crier or an emotional person particularly, except maybe when watching America/Britain’s got talent or Marley and Me...
That day I had to work and on my half an hour journey to work, each time I realised, this was it, we were going to have a baby! I ugly happy cried in my car. I stopped in at Tesco needing another pregnancy test because I used up all the others testing when I obviously couldn’t get a positive result, I was now panicking about whether it could’ve been a false positive and the despair I’d go into if that was the case! Walking round Tesco, looking to make sure I didn’t bump into anyone I know, I found the pregnancy tests, could they be any more obvious?! Each test was in a huge security box which meant one of the cashier’s would have to know you were buying them so when I turned up at the till with the test and a pack of pregnancy vitamins the woman started asking questions... ‘Oh, have you already done a test?’, me: ‘umm, yes’, ’Well, was it positive?’, me thinking she’s about the be the only other person other than my husband that knows and start happy welling up again, ‘yes, but I thought I should do another to check...’,’congratulations! But wait a few days!’. Thank you cashier lady but I did 3 pregnancy tests too early, like I’m going to be able to hold on another couple of days!!
On my way back from work, I decided to call my sister and my mum, they knew I was trying and would soon be asking questions, they were both really excited and that took the number up to 4. That afternoon, we met the husband’s mother, we couldn’t really tell my family and not her so that’s 5. The next day I spoke to my Dad on the phone and we were talking about a job I had an interview booked in for, I was saying I didn’t know whether to go because we wanted to have kids and the timing could be bad if we got pregnant quickly *hint hint*, ‘Oh it could take you years to get pregnant!’ (thanks Dad), so out to comes, Dad is number 6 to know and promptly tells me not to go to the interview because I don’t need that new job stress on my body when pregnant and I won’t be there all that long when I leave for maternity. Yay! As much as I don’t like my current job, interviews scare the crap out of me and my job doesn’t seem so bad now I know I’ll be disappearing in 8 months for up to a year! But now I have to tell the recruiter why I’m not going to turn up to the interview tomorrow who then has to tell the gentlemen I was due to be interview by... and there we have 8! 5 husband and family, and 3 basically strangers!
And I did the other pregnancy test, it was positive, and then another pregnancy test (after I used up loads, I had ordered more online thinking I’d need them a lot over the next few months) and it was positive too! I know it’s a bit grim but I have all 3 tests by the bed which I look at every so often to remind myself it’s not just a dream!