Friday, January 11, 2008

Clueless

Alright, let's see if I can tell you all this story without making it the Neverending Blogpost. The two times I've planned it out in my head it's turned into ten other stories. Swistle requested How You Found Out You Were Pregnant Stories, so here's one of mine.

Our story opens in what we call the Lean Years. I had just been laid off from a job and Rock was still in grad school. We had moved in together about a month before I lost my job (whew!) and knew we wanted to start a family pretty soon. Children were something Rock had always wanted and dreamed about and as he's 8 years older than I am, needed to get going on sooner rather than later. I had been on Depo Provera for a couple of years, and the literature I had on it said that on average it took about a year to get pregnant after coming off of Depo. So when my Depo shot was scheduled in October of 2000, I made an appointment to see my gyno. I asked her what she had seen as an average of time to get pregnant after being on Depo and if she thought a year was a reasonable estimate. She said sure, it takes 4-5 months for your cycle to get back to normal, then for most couples it takes 6-8 months of trying to actually get pregnant, so a year is a pretty reasonable estimate. We talked it over and decided that surely in a year we would be in a more stable place and ready to have a baby, so I would go ahead and get off of Depo so that we would be ready to get pregnant in a year. Oh! And we called our parents and told them that we were hoping to start a family, and that I was getting off birth control, but that it would probably be a year before I got pregnant. In November, I had a small, spotty period. In December, I had a regular period.

Fast forward to Christmas night. Rock, his mother and step dad, and I went to my mother's house for dinner. After eating way too much, I was telling a funny story, got to laughing and all of a sudden, threw up all over my mother's living room floor. (Rock later fell asleep while we opening gifts. Aren't we the best party guests EVAH?! Rock and Shelly, sexiest couple of 2000! I told Mother she had been visited by Santa's least favorite elves, Barfy and Snoozy.) Then, in early January, a big stretch mark appears down the side of my belly, right beside my belly button. Rock looks at me one day, and says, "What is that?" And I reply, somewhat testily, "That is a damn stretch mark. Which I don't know why I have. I mean, yes, I have gained some weight, but not that much weight and not that fast. I really don't think it warrants a stretch mark!" And he wisely drops the topic. Of course, I did not get my period in January. After about a week or so of the day I was supposed to get it, Rock was all, "Or could you be PREGNANT?" And I was like, "oh. well. I suppose that is a possibility." So we went to Wa!-Mart and bought a test, and brought it home and of course it was positive. And we were thrilled. I mean, yeah, it was *way* earlier than we were planning and we were flat freakin broke, but it was our baby. And that was Supergirl, who has been a joy and light in our lives for 5 years now.

10 comments:

Swistle said...

That is a GREAT story. Barfy and Snoozy! Ha ha ha!

email said...

Sexiest couple of 2000! HA!

Anonymous said...

Did you get your mother a carpet cleaning gift certificate for Xmas? HA! What a great story.

Be Inspired Always said...

Wonderful story :)




Jillian

Tess said...

"I don't think it warrants a stretch mark!" Heh!

Great story!

Shelly said...

Thanks, Swistle! Yeah, we were delightful guests that night. We're housebroken now. : )

Shelly said...

Hey jmc! Yep, you totally want us to visit, don't you?!

Shelly said...

Shelly, I totally should have! She handled it really well, especially considering how particular she is about her house. I was mortified.

Shelly said...

Thanks Jillian and welcome!

Shelly said...

Tessie, I was *pissed* that I had a stretch mark. I thought it was massively unfair. I mean, we were not talking about a huge weight gain here. Thanks!