I've never tried to get pregnant before.
I've been there, several times, and even have two children to show for it. But they were always, I swear to you, the result of a conversation rather than a behind-closed-doors act. "So," one of us would say, "Do you think maybe we should try to have a baby?" And within days, I'd have a positive home pregnancy test.
This time, thanks to the delight which is grad-school widowhood, I was able to quietly stop taking the Pill and have a bit of time to prepare ahead of time. I've followed the calendars, paid attention to physical symptoms, closed the bedroom door. And now I'm waiting, and trying to suppress the urge to pee on a stick just in case my math was off.
There's a huge, intense subculture out there, around women trying to conceive. Just run a good search on "early signs of pregnancy" or "How much can I drink while pregnant?" or "Does having two revved-up, cabin-feverish children allow me to drink extra?" There are websites, message boards, tickers, embarrassing descriptions of bodily functions and an abundance of other tidbits and facts, just there for the clicking.
It's not just online, either. I'm going to Jamaica in two weeks, and went to get a few vaccinations in preparation. The Hepatitis A is one that comes in two doses: one now, and one in six months or so. I called my OB-GYN to make sure I could safely get the follow-up during pregnancy, if need be, and she asked me to stop by the office to pick up a pamphlet. So I did, and had a brief wait at the window.
The first woman in line was enormously, unreasonably pregnant. The kind of pregnant where you start to suspect she's trafficking basketballs, where you could safely hide three or four toddlers near her ankles and she would have no idea. The second woman was somewhere in her 30s, just average-looking, maintaining minimal eye contact in that doctor's-office-waiting-room sort of way.
The third was me, and here's where the weight loss pays off. After the first woman sailed majestically into the exam area - no plebian sitting and waiting for her - the other turned to me and sighed. "I'm hoping to get pregnant sometime this week," she said. "It's the right time, and I'm seeing all the right signs."
It's just such an enveloping, all-encompassing quest, once it begins. And, apparently, I'm not allowed to drink enough to just slide through the two-week window between ovulation and testing. So unfair.
Like you, we just had to say the word "pregnant" and poof! Knocked up two times. A little planning was involved, but not much!
Posted by: Chicky Chicky Baby | March 04, 2008 at 08:44 PM