The following year, my roommate introduced us at a party (Thanks, Mar!). We were pretty much inseparable ever since. We hung out night and day. Everything about him just felt 'right.' Do you know how refreshing it is to have that feeling?? It's the best feeling in the world.
Alex proposed on Monday, November 24, 2008. Of course, I said "yes" (actually, it was more along the lines of "OMG!! Are you serious?? Really? This better not be a joke, Alex!" then I said "yes."). We were married on June 12, 2010 in a gazebo on a cliff overlooking Lake Erie and the beach. It was absolutely beautiful!! Absolutely, the happiest day of my life.
Originally, we'd planned to have children right away. However, we eventually decided to wait at least one year before trying. After a year, we decided we could re-evaluate our plan. The first year of marriage flew by! We made the decision to take one more cycle of birth control following our anniversary cruise. So, I went off of birth control at the end of July/beginning of August.
We used August as a let's-see-what-happens cycle. We just took things as they came. You know...roll with the punches. However, very quickly, I came to the realization that we would need to pull our heads out of our asses and actually TRY to get pregnant!
Why?? Because my cycles, without the help of birth control, are extremely irregular! Of course, when I was in high school, it didn't matter because I wasn't sexually active. In college, it didn't matter because I was on birth control and used condoms. But now? My irregularity was the one thing that would, potentially, prevent pregnancy.
So, we bought some OPKs (ovulation predictor kits) from Ebay. They're called Wondfu and you can get 100 sticks for about $18 (with free shipping!). I was not into temping/charting. I'd tried it the previous year for about 3 months. I just couldn't get the hang of it!
Our first cycle was unsuccessful (it lasted 38 days), which was not surprising since we weren't really trying. The second cycle (Sept, it lasted 37 days) was also unsuccessful. It was kind of hard to accept, but I didn't make too big a deal about it. The third cycle (Oct) was a doozy! It lasted a whopping 67 days! This cycle had me really depressed. How in the world was I supposed to get pregnant when my period refused to show up?? I was planning on calling my Ob/Gyn to discuss this issue. It's happened before plenty of times, but I never worried back then because I wasn't sexually active! Previously, my Ob/Gyn told me to come in if my cycle lasted 90+ days. Thankfully, on December 20th, AF finally came on her own!
I was ecstatic!! This cycle, I decided that we really needed to put more effort into this whole baby-making thing. I mean, who knew when AF would decided to go on another 60+ day vacation?? So, I researched online and found (or maybe someone suggested the website) "The Sperm Meets Egg Plan." I immediately emailed it to Alex. We were both on board. Also, during my previous super-long cycle, I decided to use digital OPKs this time around. I thought that it was possible that I was missing ovulation due to misreading the lined tests. The digitals simply have a smiley face or empty circle! Easy, easy, easy! Alex and I moved forward with our baby-making game plan.
In order to save money and conserve the digital OPKs, I continued to use the lined tests until I thought it looked positive. Then, I confirmed with a digital. I could not believe my eyes when I saw that smiley on CD17! Generally, the earliest I'd interpreted the lined tests as positive was CD26...a whole NINE days later than what the smiley face on my digital was telling me. Yup, I was definitely missing my O day!! So, anyway, Alex and I continued to follow our baby-making plan. I think that I actually ovulated (once you get a positive OPK, you O 24-72 hours later) on January 7th. So, I planned on testing at 14 days past ovulation (dpo), on January 21st.
There was something different about this cycle. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I just felt 'different.' I was extremely gassy and made frequent trips to the bathroom. I had weird cramping and twinges in my stomach, ribs and my bewbs were super sore!! Of course, I googled like crazy! I found out that a lot of the pains I was having were experienced by other women who ended up pregnant.
That night (around 9:30pm), I took a test. There was a very, very faint line! I could not believe it!! There was my 2nd line! I tried to stay calm. Alex and I went to bed pretty soon after that. I didn't mention anything to him because I wanted to be absolutely sure. I didn't want to get his hopes up only to have them crushed the next day. The following morning, I woke up around 6:30am. Luckily, I had a FRER test in the cabinent. I took that and a cheap lined test. Both were positive and the lines were much darker than last night's! I woke Alex up and simply said "you're gonna be a dad." He was half-asleep still, so I don't think he actually caught what I was saying to him. After a few seconds, it sunk in. I showed him the test. He saw the second line, too! I asked him to go to the drug store and get a digital pregnancy test just to be sure. That one was positive as well :)
That "PREGNANT" in the result box was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life!! This was it. I was going to be a mom. Alex was going to be a dad.
Oh shit!
XoXo,
Tosha
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