I love watching pregnancy announcements on YouTube. In most of them the women surprise their partners with a gift of the pregnancy test or a piece of baby clothing. Other times the couples surprise their families in similar ways. I think it is an absolute joy to watch! Before getting pregnant I was thinking I wanted to do something similar to David, but it didn’t quite work out that way, mostly because I am rubbish at keeping happy secrets.
This is instead the story of how we found out. On a Saturday morning in December David and I was at the gym, as we usually are on Saturday mornings. I had done an easy warm up and was hitting the weights area. I noticed quickly that I was sweating way more than usual and after finishing two or maybe three sets I was soaked in sweat. I mean, I was as sweaty as I would have been after running 10 km. I was thinking it was odd and I mentioned it to Kiwi. His first reply was “Maybe you are pregnant!?” and my reply was “No!! That’s not a pregnancy symptom!” but little did I know. A few days later I realised I was over due and I thought I would do a pregnancy test just to make sure. For some reason I didn’t tell Kiwi beforehand that I was doing the test, probably because I was sure it would be negative, and i didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.
In the morning, on the 14th of December, I decided it was time. As quietly as I could I grabbed the pregnancy test that I had bought and went to the bathroom. A few minutes later I could slowly but surly see the word “Pregnant” display and I froze for a second. “Oh, god! Something must surely be wrong with the test” I thought to myself, before I walked back to the bedroom. Kiwi was laying in bed and had been very sick over night. He was shivering and not in a good state.
I said – “Kiwi, I took a pregnancy test and it actually says….”
And Kiwi fills in (with his shaky, sick and vulnerable voice) “That you are pregnant….??”.
Me – “Yes!”
Kiwi – “Are you sure…??”
Me – “I don’t know, but it says “Pregnant” on it!?”
Kiwi – “Can you take another test to make sure???”
I could tell there was an excitement in his voice even though the words came from a very vulnerable voice under the duvet. It was a strange atmosphere at home that day. We both felt excitement but neither of us had the courage to really show it. The day after I took another test to reassure us both, and it was of course positive as well. After a few hours of googling around to see how accurate pregnancy tests actually are we felt pretty sure it had actually happened – I was pregnant, and no one was playing a trick on us.
In week 8 we did an early pregnancy viability scan at the private clinic The Birth Company (see picture above). This scan confirmed how many embryos there were (in our case one), the size of the embryo, which confirms the number of weeks of pregnancy, and most importantly – the presence of the heartbeat. It was not until this day that we actually allowed ourselves to feel as excited as we actually were. Hearing the baby’s heartbeat was the most amazing thing we have ever experienced, and we felt as if the “real” journey could now begin! xx