On my 29th birthday, I gave up the birth control pills. We had decided that it was time for us to start a family. Naively, we thought all we had to do was get rid of all contraception and "try" a few time and voila, we'd be pregnant. Ha! It apparently isn't that easy.
After a year of no birth control, I still wasn't pregnant, but I was 30 and approaching the dreaded "advanced maternal age" of 35. So, off to the GYN for a sit-down. After a few blood tests and a lovely glucose tolerance test (yeah, the one where you get to drink that nasty orange sugar water), I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). The doctor prescribed metformin, which was to help with my insulin levels and thereby help with my hormone levels as well. All this to just regulate my "cycle" so that I would actually ovulate so that I could at least have a fighting chance of getting pregnant. I was on the metformin for a few weeks, but the side effects were so bad (stomach upset, gastrointestinal issues) that I decided to stop the medicine. I had to work and this medicine just wasn't groovin' with my schedule.
At this point, the stress of not getting pregnant was really starting to mess with my head. I hated that my body wasn't doing what it was designed to do. I felt like a huge failure. So, Tim and I had a long talk about what we really wanted to do. Should we look into seeing an infertility specialist or not? It had been over a year and still no pregnancy, so I was definitely a candidate for it. But, we had watched dear friends go through all the fertility stuff...the needles, the schedules, the heartbreak of not getting pregnant on the drugs, month after month. Yes, eventually they did have their beautiful children (one friend had to go all the way to IVF), but we weren't sure if we were ready for all that.
So, we opted to just relax about it. When anyone would ask us if we were thinking of having kids, our usual response was "we're not actively trying to get pregnant, but we're not trying NOT to get pregnant either". We decided that if I wasn't pregnant by my 31st birthday (March 22, 2010), we'd go back to the GYN and start evaluating our options.
A few days before my 31st birthday, I noticed that my boobs were firmer than normal and were hurting. I couldn't sleep on my stomach anymore, which is my favorite sleeping position, and it sucked. I thought it was odd and somehow realized it could be a symptom of pregnancy. So, I went to the store and bought a package of home pregnancy tests (HPT). I opted for the ones that actually print the words "pregnant" or "not pregnant" on them so that I couldn't screw up reading the lines!
The morning of my birthday, I woke up like normal...it was a work day, and I usually get up around 6 or so. I decided to take the HPT that morning. So, into the bathroom I went and peed on the stick. In no time at all, I read the test and to my surprise it said "pregnant". I just couldn't believe it! So, I walked the test over to our bed, woke up Tim and said "does this say what I think it says". As groggy as he was, Tim was able to read it and confirmed that yes, it said "pregnant". We were both so very excited. It was the best birthday present ever!
