I may not be good at much, but I am really good at getting pregnant. Sure, I only have a 50% retention rate, but infertile, I am not. In July, Dan and I marked our four year wedding anniversary, and in that time I have been pregnant four times.
I really liked being pregnant the first time. But by the time my pregnancy with Gavin came along, I was pretty tired of the whole thing. Pregnancy is exhausting, but pregnancy while looking after a child is something else entirely. Still, pregnancy does have a few things going for it:
- No more that time of the month. Sure, pregnancy hormones can be so out of control that it feels like you’re PMSing for a full nine months, but at least my Dad isn’t asking me if I’m on my period to explain any of my entirely normal emotional responses to things.
- It is the one time in your life you actually look forward to gaining weight. Oh that little bump? It is a baby! Not that burrito I just had for lunch…
- You never need to wonder if your most recent snuggle with your husband might accidentally affect the next eighteen years of your life.
I have always been an expect the best, prepare for the worst kind of girl. During the first year of my marriage I went through a lot of home pregnancy tests. We were mostly careful, but I was raised being taught that abstinence was the only 100% effective birth control. Even though I never expected a positive test (even when I first got one!), I still needed to be sure.
It has been over a year since I last took the home pregnancy test that introduced me to my Gavin. It was nice to go so long without needing to stock up on First Response boxes to appease my crazy tendencies. I’ve tried to be good. I haven’t even let my husband’s joking convince me that I might be pregnant again. “Don’t worry. If I’m pregnant, I’ll know,” I tell him. Not crazy. Totally not home pregnancy test hoarding crazy.
That all stopped last week.
I told you I had the flu. What I didn’t tell you was that my first thought upon feeling nauseated was whether or not I might be pregnant.
My flu was extremely flu-like. Eating an apple didn’t help the nausea go away. I had a fever and aches and pains that were definitely indicative of an actual illness and not a little being using my body as a host. All signs pointed to FLU! I mean, I’m still exclusively breastfeeding. I’m pretty sure I’m not even fertile yet.
But what if?
So I went to the store. I picked up a pregnancy test. Okay. I picked up multiple pregnancy tests. Because now that we’ve let the crazy out of the bag, it won’t be contained.
And then I texted my husband a picture of the result. Because I’m cruel like that.
PS. I’m not pregnant.
How often do you take pregnancy tests? Do you take them a little too often, like I do? Or do you hold off until you probably already know the answer?
I don’t exactly hoard pregnancy tests but I do order them in bulk. We have been spending the past two in half years trying to conceive baby #2 and I have pretty much taken at least one test per month.
I’m like you. Once I let the crazy out of the bag, there’s no stopping things. Pre- Caleb, I think I took like one test a month once I was off my birth control. We didn’t have coverage to keep getting it, so I didn’t. I’m sure it annoyed my husband to no end! Of course, with the first negative, it was heartbreaking taking it from a potential “uh oh” to a “aw man!” I was hooked. Pre-Braeden, I only took one in between the two pregnancies. It was negative, the doctor’s blood test was negative.. I took none after that until I was 99.9% sure I was pregnant..and then again a few weeks after that just to confirm that I still was..
Maybe women are wired to go nuts at the thought of procreating?
I try to be good… but every month you just wonder! With this baby I kept getting negative tests even though I was late – I took one a day for a WEEK before I finally got a positive result, so frustrated and confused that I wasn’t getting that second line but then WHERE the heck was my period?! I got a positive result for both boys several days before a missed cycle so it was very different this time around.
I don’t buy drugstore pregnancy tests anymore though. I found a GREAT source for cheap ones online – CPT Worldwide [http://cheap-pregnancy-tests.com/]. They are a pro-life organization and their tests are SO much cheaper than the store that I stock up. Plus they frequently have sales on their already low prices. I can buy 20 pregnancy tests from them for the cost of ONE from the store. Satisfies my “need to know” without breaking the bank :)
If I ever hoarded pregnancy tests, i’d drive myself crazy because I’ll be using them all the time, even if I did know I wasn’t pregnant, hah!
Both times I took a test though, they were positive. Because I already knew, though my period wasn’t actually due for another day or two. I just knew.
I almost, ALMOST thought you were going to tell us you’re pregnant. :)
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Meghan did the same thing. We have spent more on false alarms than I care to think about. Though maybe I should think of it as an investment in peace of mind.
Happy testing.
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When we were trying last year to get pregnant with Jonah, I kept plenty of tests in the house. The husband works at the clinic so I can actually get as many as I want for free, but I still prefer the store bought ones. I probably had a stash of 20 almost all the time. At the first sign of missing a period I’d take a test. And then take another the next day if she still hadn’t arrived until the day that she did. It’s a crazy habit. But, don’t worry. You aren’t alone. :)
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I usually only use them when I’m pretty sure… I think I’ve only ever taken one and had it be neagative…
Ive taken 4 since I gave birth to Kai, less than 6 months ago!
Hahaha, yep! Dollarama ones are super cheap, and so far 100% accurate!
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When we were TTC I bought too many tests, even when I knew we wern’t pregnant! They’re sort of addicting. Thankfully it didn’t cost us too much money since we got pregnant within 6 weeks of trying.
Never! Guess that’s the benefit of being all the way done with that whole thing, eh?! I do think I still have some unused ones I never got around to using though (just to give you an idea of how bad I used to be!).
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