In the winter of 2006, I had been working as a veterinary technician for just over a year, around 7 months at a bustling 24-hour animal hospital. I was working 40-50 hour weeks (only 4 days, but long ones), assisting with everything from appointments to labwork to surgery. I was part of a 3 person team including another more experienced tech and our doctor, who specialized in orthepedic surgery. It was busy and stressful and exhausting but fulfilling and interesting too. Children were always something we said we would think about someday, but certainly not looming on the horizon. That was all about to change.
Brian was out of town and I was due to start my period. When I mentioned I hadn't, he thought I might be pregnant right away. I've never been terribly timely, even on the pill, so I laughed and said he was crazy. The following weekend I got sick. Violently, horridly ill with stomach symptoms that wouldn't quit for 2 days. On Saturday I weighed 128 lbs, by Tuesday I was down to 122. It was awful and I took a few days off of work. I still hadn't started that all important monthly cycle, but I figured the sickness had something to do with it. I went back to work but I was still sick to my stomach, not vomiting but just sort of nauseated and not able to eat much or anything too strong. Tortilla chips and water were my friend!
When I hit a full week late on my period I went off the pill, just in case... I was starting to wonder. When that next weekend came I was past wondering and into nervous, but for whatever reason I put off getting a test. Denial! Finally on Wednesday on my way home I called my husband and told him I was going to stop by Walgreen's. Matter of factly he said, "Oh, I was going to do that on my way home." Huh? I clarified why I was going to stop and he agreed that yes, that was why he was going to stop too. Now, Brian is wonderful and all I could ever ask for, but I couldn't quite picture him standing there trying to choose a pregnancy test! I laughed, then stopped and picked up two (just in case).
I took the first one, the type that shows a plus sign if it is positive. Brian was calling from the other room, wondering how it was going, and I told him it was supposed to take 3 minutes. Well, there was already a dark line and another, fainter line. I thought maybe the faint one was the 'important' one and... maybe it was faint because it was wrong? I came scampering out to look at the package and no luck. That faint line was the control line, and the dark one was the one that proclaimed the existence of PeaBaby! It still hadn't been 3 minutes but I beamed up and told Brian it was positive. It was a crazy, giddy, gut wrenching moment for me. There was instant excitement but I was also frankly petrified. At that time Brian was nothing but happy. He made a comment about "slipping one past the goalie" and proceeded to grin like a little boy for the next... well, he still does a lot of the time. According to him he already knew. I was a lot less sure of it then he was. I drank a ton of water and finally was able to take the second one. By the time I set it down to wash my hands, it too was positive. I guess there's no denying it at that point! Brian still read the directions thoroughly, looking for a way for there to be a false positive - there really isn't one if you were wondering.
I looked online to figure out how far along I was and came up with about 6 weeks. According to everything we've seen so far that was spot on. The next day I told the vet I work with so I could stop taking X-rays. Wevweredriving out to Colorado where my family lives for Christmas that weekend, so we didn't tell anyone else. The next post is a reproduction of my journaling from that very night!
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