When I realized I might be pregnant, I took five pregnancy tests in the week after the first positive result. I needed confirmation it was real. The strips piled up in our bathroom trash, blue line after blue line.
Just 2 weeks earlier, I had taken a test before our vacation to Mexico. When it came up negative, I took that as license to enjoy myself. My husband and I drank daiquiris and ate ceviche.
But when we got home, I realized the test I’d taken before the trip was actually an ovulation test. It was negative, of course, because I wasn’t ovulating—I was already pregnant!
I was a bundle of nerves until my first ultrasound. At the first whooshing sound from the monitor my husband and I burst into wet, happy tears. I’m not sure I truly relaxed until we did an amnio later on.
A pregnancy misstep
Like many women, I broke the rules without knowing it but my baby, fortunately, ended up just fine. The body’s ability to successfully craft another human being is a miraculous thing. We all misstep every once in a while, but it’s more important than ever to watch what you eat and drink and start to take care of the little one inside you.
Now that my baby is here, I can sit back and wonder what I’d do differently during pregnancy. Looking back, I wish I’d taken more moments with my husband to enjoy “our little secret.” Sure, there are friends and coworkers who may suspect even before you start showing, but with a good poker face, you can deflect their advances.
My advice to you, first trimester mom-to-be? Enjoy the calm before the storm of excitement that will come when you share the news with family. Sooner than you think, your life will be utterly upside down – for the better.
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