37 Week Ultrasound

Babywatch 2014 has officially begun! Baby bunny could decide to come any day now and it would be "normal".  Final preparations are being made and I only have a week left at work.

At my last few checkups my belly has been measuring a few weeks larger than it should be. So Tuesday, in the middle of the storm of the century, we went for an ultrasound to check on baby bunny's growth. The doctor was nervous that we might be dealing with a  "big baby". Luckily the technician said it looked like baby was about 7 and a half pounds and perfectly normal in the 61st growth percentile.

He does have some chubby cheeks though!

The tech was also nice enough to look and see if baby bunny was still a boy since he was shy and hid at the last ultrasound I had where we checked to see if he was positioned correctly.

Survey says he is still a boy!

And now we wait....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is turkey day! It should be a time of reflection on all the things that I am grateful for. Trust me, I see what other ladies write online and Ben and I are super lucky to have the relations and friends we do. People have sent clothes and books and beautiful cards, no one has complained about name choices, or really complained about anything. But I honestly don't think you are here to read about how thrilled I am that my families are super great and supportive, I am guessing you are here for baby stuff.

Yesterday I went for the 35 week checkup with my OB Doctor H. She has been super sweet but is leaving at the end of December, so depending on when baby bunny comes she may or may not be delivering him. (Think December vibes!)

Dr. H always answers my questions and yesterday I had a really weird question for her. Tuesday my toilet seat was a normal white color and Wednesday morning there was a big blue butt-print on it. I did a quick google search and apparently this is a pregnant thing that just basically has no good explanation. I'm her first toilet seat turner!

I am sparing you a picture of my toilet, (this one is from google) so now you have something to be thankful for too...

After the toilet seat question we proceeded with the rest of the appointment.  She did an ultrasound to check the position baby bunny was in. Everything looks good including his position and heartbeat. He is head down and at the time his spine was aligned with my right side. I got to see a profile of his head, and little hands, and the spine. We could see the amniotic fluid looked good and even chunks of the vernix floating in it. We tried looking to confirm baby bunny was in fact still a boy, but he kept shoving a foot in front so we couldn't get a clear shot.

After the ultrasound they did a swab for group B strep (20% of women test positive for it). And I was free to go until next week. Dr. H is out so I will be meeting with Dr. L who will take over for Dr. H when she leaves.

Baby Bunny Loves Opera

The other day baby bunny was really excited to listen to Ben's opera. I was trying to get him on camera and I thought he might move a little more if I gave him some music to dance to.

I am trying to hold my breath for a lot of the video so almost all of that movement is actually the baby.

Predicting the Arrival of Baby Bunny

Today I discovered a new due date calculator on the internet. The data for the algorithm is based off of user-submitted birth, conception, and menstrual period information. Here are my results:

Estimated birth weight of your baby is 7 pounds, 10 ounces

True due date: Wednesday December 24th, 2014 when you are 39 weeks, 4 days pregnant

There is an 80% chance your baby's birth weight will be between 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 8 pounds, 13 ounces

Most likely week (27% chance): Monday December 22nd, 2014 to Sunday December 28th, 2014

Fifty percent chance of being born: Wednesday December 17th, 2014 to Tuesday December 30th, 2014

Eighty percent chance of being born: Tuesday December 9th, 2014 to Tuesday January 6th, 2015

Double Digits

We have reached double digits! I guess if bottles of beer are your thing you can start the countdown now, otherwise you just have to be patient like me. Keep in mind that the 29th is just a number and baby bunny will come when he decides he wants too but it feels good to be under 100! 

Viability!

Week 24 is an important week because this is the tipping point of viability, or baby bunny surviving outside the womb in some kind of emergency. Obviously I want Bunny to stay in there as long as he is safe and comfortable but sometimes things just happen. On my baby forums there are some women who are on total bed rest because their waters have broken and even some people with December due dates who have delivered already due to early labor, or issues with the placenta, low amniotic fluid, etc. Here is a little bit more about the subject from Wikipedia:

21 and less -  0%
22 - 0-10%
23 - 10-35% - We have completed here
24 - 40-70% - We are currently here
25 - 50-80%
26 - 80-90%
27 - 90%
30 - 95%
34 - 98% 

A baby's chances for survival increases 3-4% per day between 23 and 24 weeks of gestation and about 2-3% per day between 24 and 26 weeks of gestation. After 26 weeks the rate of survival increases at a much slower rate because survival is high already.


To celebrate our increasing chances of survival here is a picture of my cat in baby clothes.

Guest Post - How the Times have Changed

As a soon-to-be-grandma I am very proud and excited for my Nicky. Recently visiting her and watching her makes me reminisce about my pregnancies. Seeing as how women have been giving birth to babies for a heck of a long time, you would not think much has changed in 30 years. But here are a few I  have noticed.

1. The Pregnancy Test
The pregnancy tests are so much easier today! All Nicky had to do was pee on a stick. The ones I took long ago had about 20 steps and you had to look for a circle at the bottom of a tube. If it was disturbed in the least, you had to start all over with a whole new kit. Expensive and double UGH!!!!



2. Pregnancy Math
30 years when someone asked how far along you were the response was a guess "Oh about 4 1/2 months". Now Nicky has an app on her phone that tells her she is ____weeks and ____days pregnant and counts down how many days until the due date. It also tells her the size of the baby in comparison to fruit. I doubt she is looking forward to those pineapple days.

3. Food 
I was allowed to eat whatever I wanted (that was on days I could actually get food in my mouth). Today these young ladies can not have a grocery list of foods that were just fine before, including several different types of cheese like brie, goat, or feta (listeria), hot dogs or lunchmeat (nitrates),  buffet food (listeria) hamburgers with any undercooked meat and the absolute worst.... a nice juicy STEAK!! (e-coli). No wonder Ponderosa went out of business.

4. Beware the BPA and other chemicals
I could use and microwave plastic dishes and containers, clean my oven with oven cleaner, or spray insecticide without cause to worry.

5. Maternity Clothing
We went clothes shopping at Destination Motherhood when I was visiting Nicky and I was pleasantly surprised by the maternity clothing. Today there are way more types of maternity clothes to choose from. She picked out a lot of cute things and some of them were even on sale. When I was pregnant all of the maternity tops had the same style and it was like I had to shop at Tents-R-Us.

6. Baby Showers
Our baby showers were BORING. For some reason having the men around makes them more fun. Also I think the shirt I got Ben was pretty cute.


7. A long, long wait
30 years ago we had to wait the whole long 9 months (or more!) to see what our babies looked like and you found out the sex when you gave birth. (No gender reveal cakes for me.) Now you can get an ultrasound anytime you want and see what that precious little critter looks like, pictures to take home and a DVD too. This is way cool, but I think the 3-D version is just a little creepy.


8. Rules for Sleeping?
I could sleep however I wanted (If I could lay down to begin with). Now Nicky is supposed to lay on the left side every night.

9. Sweet Dreams are Made of These
We did not have a snoogle pillow to sleep with. But it looks super comfy and I am ordering myself one even though I am not pregnant!!!!


10. Bottle vs Boob
Nobody made a real big fuss over breast feeding as formula feeding was typical. Dr Patterson mentioned breast feeding to me once and never again after the look of sheer horror came over my face the first time he mentioned it. Now there is a whole "breast is best" campaign and the doctors want you to at least try breast feeding first. Many hospitals won't even give you free formula anymore. All I can say is thank you Similac for being around!

Looking over the list it seems like a lot of change in just 30 years. I wonder how different things will be when I become a great-grandmother?

Ultrasound photos!

Ultrasound photos are pretty much one of the coolest things you get during pregnancy, and having one elective ultrasound I really understand how people justify paying for one out of pocket later in the pregnancy. 20ish weeks is a long time to go without seeing your little one again. An ultrasound is also one of the things that you can show friends and family without things being too weird. Other things like stretch marks, hernias are not so good for showing off. I also know that generally it is hard to tell what you are looking at so I tried to label things so everyone could tell exactly what is what. These are some of the better photos I have from the ultrasound we did to find out the baby bunny's gender at about 17.5 weeks.

This is a nice profile shot where I've labeled the back of the head, the nose and mouth area, and the spine. I'm pretty sure this shot was taken when the baby was eating so he was opening and closing his mouth a lot. 

This picture is of the other end and is looking up from underneath. If it helps you can imagine you sat the baby on a photocopier and made a copy and are looking out at the picture that came out of the copier. The photo shows both legs, an umbilical cord, and boy bits. If you look closely near the arrow, you can even see the balls. This picture is one of the ones I got as proof of the gender.

The last photo is similar to the first where is it a profile of the baby, but he is turned a little so you can see his ribs and even an eyelid, though it is still fused shut for the time being. This picture is a little creepier, as he seems to  have a very large smile.

Guest Post - Bunny in the Attic

The pastel bunny you see was Ben's when he was a baby. This lonely rabbit has been living in our attic for almost 30 years (!) and has no mouth or nose because they had been attached in an unsafe way for a baby, so I had to remove them. Nevertheless, he was one of Ben's favorite animals and I couldn't part with him. 

Now maybe he'll have a new life with a new baby, a real thrill for Joe and me. Don't think, though, that more animals aren't waiting their turn both in the attic and elsewhere, depending upon Bunny's interests as he grows and develops his own enthusiasms.

Nina, Ben's Mom

Diaper Art

Instead of doing a lot of the traditional games at the shower, we had a trivia game, a raffle, and I asked people to decorate or write messages on diapers while we opened gifts. Our friends went above and beyond and decorated about a fourth of a big box of newborn diapers. 

Here is a picture of some of the diapers I thought were really cool. I must admit we have some really creative friends! The learn to love bugs diaper even has a guide to flying insect antenna on the other side (not pictured).  But I think I must admit my favorite may be BEWARE: Tiny Penis Inside.

Baby Shower Gender Reveal

Sweet Baby Shower Preparations

My mom always makes chocolates for special occasions and my baby shower is a super special occasion. We spent several hours online looking to find just the right chocolate molds and containers. Mom worked on making the chocolates several days before the party and of course the weather was not cooperating but the chocolates still came out cute and I even unpacked and charged my good camera to take some photos.

These baby blocks are actually designed to hold chocolate covered double stuff oreos. As I heard someone at the party say, "oooh, there is a surprise inside!" What can I say, they are cute and delicious! And since we didn't know bunny's gender yet we tried to make an even number of pink and blue things.

If my mom spent a lot of time making candy, Nina spent as much time putting everything together and making it look nice. Here are the baby bottle party favors that every guest got. They are stuffed with chocolate covered almonds and custom m&m's that were printed for the shower. The fuzzy bunnies attached were a big hit.

These little chocolate animals were used to stuff some adorable gift bags. Sadly, I did not get a good picture of those, but I promise they came out super cute.

I'm very grateful that I have such wonderful family that was here to help prep for the party. It turns out everyone had a great time and I have my moms and sister to thank for that. More about the party and possibly a gender revealing cake next time. 

Gender Predictions

Everyone is asking if baby bunny is a boy or a girl. I don't know yet, and I have not had any strong feelings or convincing dreams either way. Oddly enough some of the ladies I know told me they "just know" or "have had a feeling" about what the baby will be. While I am okay not knowing until the gender reveal at my shower (if possible) there are a lot of "gender prediction tests" out there that will supposedly tell me early.

Now honestly there is no scientific evidence that any of these actually work but I thought it would be fun to go through some of the most common ones and see if they have similar or different results.

1. The Chinese Gender Prediction
Legend says that the gender chart is more than 700 years old and was discovered in a royal tomb. It predicts your baby's sex based on the mother's Chinese lunar age at the time of conception and the Chinese lunar month in when the baby was conceived. I used a website to calculate my numbers and got a GIRL result.

2. The Baking Soda Test
Put enough baking soda into a cup to cover the bottom, then pee into the cup. If the baking soda fizzes or foams like beer, the mothers is having a boy, if it doesn’t react, a girl. I figured I had a box of baking soda sitting around so this would be an easy test to do. The result was fizzy indicating a BOY.

3. The Wedding Ring Test
Take a wedding ring and attach it to a thread or strand of hair. Hold the dangling item over mom to be's belly while she is lying down. If the wedding ring swings in a strong circular motion, she will be having a girl. If it moves in a to and fro motion like a pendulum, she will be having a boy. There is no absence of yarn in my house, but I did need to get my wedding ring since it doesn't fit anymore. 20 seconds later I watched the ring swing back and forth suggesting a BOY.

4. Genital Tubercle Angle Theory
Based on a 12-14 week ultrasound, a profile view of the genital region is needed. A horizontal line can then be drawn along the lower portion of the spine and then another one through the genital tubercle. Based on the angle of intersection between those lines, you can determine the gender.
Boy = greater than 30 degrees. Girl = less than 10 degrees. I was lazy and didn't try to figure this out myself but showed someone else my scans and they are claiming it is a GIRL.

5. Ramzi/Skull Theory
Rumor has it that you can determine the gender of your baby based on an early ultrasound by studying the shape of their skull. Baby girls are thought to have a more rounded forehead while baby boys will look more flat or slightly slope backwards. Looking at my last scan it looks like a BOY to me.

6. Mayan Number Theory 
I've never heard of this one before. Supposedly the Mayans combine the mother's age at conception, and the year of conception. If the result is a even number, it's a girl. If the result is an odd number, a little boy is on the way. (29+ 2014= 2043) or a BOY.

7. The Heartbeat Test
If the baby's heartbeat is 140 beats-per-minute or above, it's a girl. Below 140, a boy. At my 12 week ultrasound the heartbeat was 161 leading me to say GIRL for this test.

As you can see I got a pretty even split of 3 girl results and 4 boy results, which is not super surprising since there is a 50/50 chance of predicting correctly.  Though I suppose if all of the tests pointed one way or another I might find it a little creepy.  I guess only time (and fingers crossed - my next ultrasound) will tell.

Heartbeat & Hello Second Trimester

Last week I had a quick OB checkup where I got to hear the baby's heartbeat. I guess some people think it sounds like galloping horses, but I didn't think of that. It was more like listening to the heartbeat of the ocean. The doctor actually had a harder time finding the heartbeat so I didn't think to pull out my phone and try to record it. Overall it was a pretty quick checkup and I now have appointments for more blood work and an anatomy scan in early August. She said I wouldn't know the gender before my shower so I made an appointment with a private place to have a 2D scan when people are visiting next month so they can see the baby in person.

Tomorrow baby bunny is 14 weeks old and the size of a peach! Some calculations count week 13 as the beginning of the second trimester and others wait until week 14. Either way hello second trimester!

I'm supposed to have more energy now, but we will see. Since my first trimester was really tame, I don't think I will feel that much difference. The one pregnancy symptom I actually have been dealing with and wasn't expecting is a very dry nose. I've got a humidifier running to try and minimize the symptoms but I am hoping I won't get a bloody nose, as I've never had one before.

12 Week Scan - Attack of the Vampire

Thursday I went for a nuchal tube exam. It is a two part exam where they look at blood work and do an ultrasound where they take measurements of the baby's size, the fluid behind the neck, and check to see if there is a visible nasal done. This is a non-invasive exam that is pretty good at assessing the risk for downs syndrome and other birth defects. This was also done by the state instead of my normal doctor so I was at a different facility. I didn't know if they would give me any pictures of the baby (they did) but they are not very exciting pictures.

The top picture is a closeup of the head. You can see a marker and a number where they were measuring the fluid under the neck. The bottom picture is the baby getting squished while doing the ultrasound. Bunny didn't like it much and kept kicking and squirming to get away. This ultrasound was a belly ultrasound instead of transvaginal, but overall I found it more uncomfortable than my first exam.

After the actual exam I went and talked to a doctor who was looking for donations of blood from normal pregnancies for a research study. The idea is to do blood tests that are around 10 weeks where you identify baby cells in the mother's blood and they can use it as a predictor for sex, downs syndrome, and other defects. Currently the tests are covered by insurance and cost about $1000. The idea is to get more data and make it standard, cheaper and available to everyone.

I had planned on walking to BART from my appointment so I asked how much blood they needed. 1.5 oz didn't seem like a lot and last appointment they took 8 tubes so I figured I would be okay. Nope about 2 vials in (out of 6!) I got lightheaded and my vision stated getting blurry. The guy was nice and got me some water and then I texted Laura to see if she could come get me because I was too dizzy to walk. In the car I told her what happened and said I felt like I was attacked by a vampire. First he flattered me by saying my pregnancy was normal, than he stole my blood. On the other hand hooray for research studies and hopefully some good karma will come my way!

My Favorite Reaction Moments

This post is dedicated to my brother and sister who did an amazing job keeping my secret and helping me set up my special surprise. It would not have been possible without their help.

Before my first ultrasound I had been in contact with my sister about surprising my mom and dad with the news. Originally I considered flying home, but then realized a 7-9 hour flight would have been uncomfortable and if I actually came home people would have guessed the surprise right away. Instead my sister did an excellent job of wrapping presents for my mom and dad. She snuck to the bathroom and put me on speakerphone so I could hear it all and my brother recorded it for me. I think I've watched this video about 50 times and here are my favorite moments from it. I've ordered them in chronological order and tried to include the time codes where possible.





 1. Aunt Chrissy Gets It ~ 0:18
Aunt Chrissy was around for much of my childhood and I am so happy she happened to be here today. Her reaction is one of my favorite parts of this video and her gasp was the only thing I could hear on the phone. I love that she looks, she gasps because she gets it and then she is processing what that tiny shirt that says grandpa really means. I think dad gets it just a few seconds later when he says "uh-oh". But Aunt Chrissy's face is just priceless.

2. The Jaw Drop ~ 0:26
Mom's present was an frame with an ultrasound photo inside. The actual photos we got were a little small so I scanned the photo into the computer, enlarged it to the important stuff and added the due date in a cute font. Dani had to take the styrofoam parts out of the actual box because it said something about babies all over it and would be too obvious.

Watching mom's jaw drop totally made the price of overnight shipping worth it. She said later on the phone that those 12 seconds felt like forever and her brain couldn't process what she say. She knew what the photo was of, but not really what it meant. It sounded a little unreal and it is interesting to me to watch the video and see her jaw just drop. If you watch in the rest of the video she keeps coming back to the photo and just looking at it.

3. The Shirt Grab ~ 0:34
I am not quite sure why I find this as hilarious as I do, but I love that Aunt Chrissy reaches over and starts shaking my mom by the collar of her shirt. It seems like a moment of oh my god, do you believe this, do you really believe this?

4. Everyone Smile ~ 0:40
This is the brief moment when Dani who did so much to make everything happen is in the shot and you can just see a huge smile on her face. Then you see mom, dad, and Aunt Chrissy and everyone is all smiles and tears of joy. I was pretty sure my family would be happy about the news, but there is always a little bit of uncertainty there and all the smiles here just mean so much to me.

5. Who's the Mother? ~ 0:55
My ultrasound had been scheduled for several weeks so the fact that extended family was in town and there was a big outing to the restaurant was another happy coincidence. However, by necessity of being a surprise most people at the table were not in at what the presents really were. Since the presents were from me but delivered by Dani it confused my Great Aunt Connie just a bit.

6. Oh My God ~1:15
Practically the only thing mom is able to say for the length of the recording is "oh my god". It's barely audible but oh so powerful. Part of the reason this is such a big shock is that mom was talking to me on facebook the day before and she was talking about kids and I had already mailed the surprise presents but I didn't want her to suspect so I turned the conversation and basically implied that kids were something I wasn't really expecting. Apparently I did a really good job of convincing her too!

7. Mamma mamma mamma mamma mamma! ~ 1:20
So when my sister and I were little kids The Lion King came out (20 years ago today!) and dad took us to see it in the drive through, in the regular theater, in the dollar theater. I know we say it 23 times in theaters as a kid and he must have been there for a majority of them. Early in the movie there is a scene where Simba tries to wake Mufasa up and you can hear him in the background saying "dad dad dad dad dad dad dad".  I can't be certain but it seems like dad teasing and saying "momma momma momma" here is a subconscious throwback to that.

8. Wish You Were Here... ~ 1:36
It is just a coincidence that dad is wearing this shirt. It was actually the name of a concert we went to together years ago, but it is interesting he just happened to be wearing it today.

9. Wah! ~ 1:45
Dad was out of camera range for a little bit, which is actually okay because he got his present open quite a bit quicker than mom. But I think it is cute that he says "Wah!" and shows off the shirt I got. It actually came in a couple of colors, but I thought the light blue was the prettiest (I can't help that I am partial to blue), but I think that led some people to think I was announcing a boy. We actually don't know yet, and everyone who has had a "feeling" thus far has said girl, but only  time will tell. Anyway my dad is a pretty tall guy and looking at the little shirt he is holding vs the shirt he is wearing just seems kind of crazy.

10. Here Have a ... Napkin ~ 2:30
Dani did a great job of prepping everything for the surprise. My appointment was late afternoon on a Thursday and I had to fedex overnight the ultrasound photo, frame, and shirt to her address for it to be there in time for her to give it to mom and dad that weekend. One thing I didn't think to tell Dani to take was kleenex. I was so concerned with scanning the photo and getting it in the mail that it didn't even cross my mind. It's silly but it makes me laugh at myself. Here is a life-changing thing and everyone is excited and mom is crying and here.... have a napkin.

Everyone Loves A Snoogle

In general I know there are some pregnancy/maternity things that are useful and some that are just not necessary. The Snoogle is a big, skinny, pillow that is also about $50 on amazon. Normally I wouldn't spend $50 on a pillow, but a lot of the women on the forums I frequent swear by the Snoogle and get angry when their husbands steal it when they get out of bed. I ordered it because I've always been a tummy sleeper and while that  is technically okay until it isn't comfortable anymore, I'm afraid I'll end up on my back during the night. The Snoogle is made  to wrap around and support your back, so you can't easily roll over. So far it's been pretty comfy and my cat, Odette was curling up with me last night because she seemed to really like the pillow. Then when I was at work Ben sent me the picture below.

It's a little silly when I have to worry about my cat stealing my fancy pillow and not my husband!

Transvaginal Ultrasound

My first appointment was at "8 weeks" and wasn't much more than answering a bunch of questions and a glorified pap smear, so it isn't worth a posting about. I did get 7 vials of blood taken so they ran a lot of tests and everything came back looking very good. No diabetes, no hormone problems, and I had all of the immunities I was supposed to have.  But I didn't get to see the baby or learn if everything was okay so that was kind of difficult. They scheduled my ultrasound for the 28th and I just had to wait until then.

Ben and I waited for a while before it was our turn for the ultrasound. I was worried about the probe hurting or being uncomfortable. I tried googling images of what went where exactly and the wand looked pretty big so I went in expecting the worst but it was not that bad at all. Pap smears are was more uncomfortable. And all of a sudden a little tiny baby was on the screen dancing all around. This was actually surprising to me because I knew babies moved and kicked later, but I thought they were pretty chill at this stage of the game. Nope, our little bunny was wiggling all over the place.

According to my last menstrual period my due date should have been 12/24, but I was pretty certain I would get bumped back a few days due to my longer than average cycles. The computer measured the baby from head to butt and came up with a new due date of 12/29. More tests and checkups are on the way but I cannot even describe the sense of relief to see bunny moving around. Oh and the doctor said everything looked great!

Waiting Waiting

Monday April 21st I  got my official positive and started looking up doctors in the area. Luckily my coworker friend, Laura,  recommended a doctor that was very close and covered by our insurance. I made an appointment the next day and found out I had to wait about a month to go to my first appointment. See, the chances of miscarriage is actually really high for those first few weeks. I guess it makes sense for them to make us wait it out at home and not bog the doctor down with appointments that aren't necessary but the waiting to hear that things are okay has by far been the most nerve-wrecking part of this experience.

In the meantime I continued to do at home pregnancy tests every day or two to see if I would have a chemical pregnancy. I never had any bleeding but some of my symptoms would fade in and out and I didn't get nauseous enough to puke so I was afraid something was wrong. This chart might seem kind of morbid, but I actually found it really comforting to see the odds "against" me steadily falling.

The following dates are based on an estimated LMP of March 19th, 2014.

Month	Day	Year

Date	Progress	Overall odds of miscarriage
Wednesday April 9th, 2014	3W, 0D	33%
Thursday April 10th, 2014	3W, 1D	32.9%
Friday April 11th, 2014	3W, 2D	32.6%
Saturday April 12th, 2014	3W, 3D	32%
Sunday April 13th, 2014	3W, 4D	31.3%
Monday April 14th, 2014	3W, 5D	30.3%
Tuesday April 15th, 2014	3W, 6D	29.2%
Wednesday April 16th, 2014	4W, 0D	28%
Thursday April 17th, 2014	4W, 1D	26.6%
Friday April 18th, 2014	4W, 2D	25.2%
Saturday April 19th, 2014	4W, 3D	23.6%
Sunday April 20th, 2014	4W, 4D	22.1%
Monday April 21st, 2014	4W, 5D	20.5%
Tuesday April 22nd, 2014	4W, 6D	18.9%
Wednesday April 23rd, 2014	5W, 0D	17.3%
Thursday April 24th, 2014	5W, 1D	15.8%
Friday April 25th, 2014	5W, 2D	14.4%
Saturday April 26th, 2014	5W, 3D	13%
Sunday April 27th, 2014	5W, 4D	11.7%
Monday April 28th, 2014	5W, 5D	10.5%
Tuesday April 29th, 2014	5W, 6D	9.4%
Wednesday April 30th, 2014	6W, 0D	8.4%
Thursday May 1st, 2014	6W, 1D	7.5%
Friday May 2nd, 2014	6W, 2D	6.6%
Saturday May 3rd, 2014	6W, 3D	5.9%
Sunday May 4th, 2014	6W, 4D	5.3%
Monday May 5th, 2014	6W, 5D	4.7%
Tuesday May 6th, 2014	6W, 6D	4.3%
Wednesday May 7th, 2014	7W, 0D	3.9%
Thursday May 8th, 2014	7W, 1D	3.5%
Friday May 9th, 2014	7W, 2D	3.2%
Saturday May 10th, 2014	7W, 3D	3%
Sunday May 11th, 2014	7W, 4D	2.8%
Monday May 12th, 2014	7W, 5D	2.6%
Tuesday May 13th, 2014	7W, 6D	2.5%
Wednesday May 14th, 2014	8W, 0D	2.4%
Thursday May 15th, 2014	8W, 1D	2.3%
Friday May 16th, 2014	8W, 2D	2.2%
Saturday May 17th, 2014	8W, 3D	2.2%
Sunday May 18th, 2014	8W, 4D	2.1%
Monday May 19th, 2014	8W, 5D	2.1%
Tuesday May 20th, 2014	8W, 6D	2.1%
Wednesday May 21st, 2014	9W, 0D	2.1%
Thursday May 22nd, 2014	9W, 1D	2%

Am I Positive?

I don't think anyone wants to hear this story from the very beginning so let's start with the home pregnancy test. In movies and on TV the pregnancy test seems like a definitive thing. You pee on a stick (POAS) and you're either pregnant or you aren't. Well I had bought a bunch of "internet cheapies" because pregnancy tests are remarkably similar and why pay $20 for a 2 pack if you can get 50 online for $20?

Since I had a ton of pregnancy tests I started testing several days before my period because sometimes one can get a faint positive that early. I had gotten two or three negatives though and was taking one last test before I went out of town for the weekend when a very faint second line appeared. I immediately did another test with the same result but the lines were so faint I could see them but not pick them up on camera. I told Ben what was up and asked him to go to the drugstore for a first response test, which as supposed to be one of the most sensitive tests and better than my internet cheapies. Ben return several minutes later and I use this test, wait three very long minutes, and get..... nothing.

What the heck? I assumed I would get confirmation from the fancy expensive test, and here I knew less than I did before. Later I went to brush my teeth and saw the test still sitting there and there was a pretty solid line. Technically the test was negative within the window of accuracy, however it is much harder to have a false positive than a false negative. Oh well, I had to leave for BART to catch my train so I figured I would eat healthy all weekend and test again when I got home or I would get my period, either way I would know soon.

So yeah, home pregnancy tests are not as simple/easy as they appear at all.