We Made a Baby …and it Wasn’t That Exciting

What I mean is, nothing really changed. As in, no fireworks went off, and the birds weren’t singing a tune especially for us (as in, there was no fairy-tale type experience going on), it didn’t feel like a particularly life-changing experience.

I’m not sure exactly what we were expecting, but I’ll tell you what happened.

We were over in Melbourne for a few days visiting my sister-in-law. I’d really been looking forward to this trip, as she had moved a few months earlier, and it was the first time we were getting to visit her new place. Now it’s no secret that her and I enjoy a wine or 7 when we’re together.

It was also no secret that my husband and I had been trying to make a baby for at least 7 weeks or so (my husband was so excited he couldn’t contain himself and managed to announce it to my in-law’s at a family dinner… in explicit detail… hope that wasn’t awkward for anyone!) I had warned him though that these things don’t happen overnight, so not to get disappointed if it didn’t work straight away – haha.

So anyway, getting back to our trip to Melbourne, in preparation for an awesome night out of eating and drinking, I thought it would be sensible to take a pregnancy test… just to be on the safe side.

What do you know? There is this very, very, very faint line on the test. I’m feeling very doubtful at this point, but decide to mention to my husband, that just to be on the safe side, I’ll give the drinks a miss tonight.

I also mention it to my sister-in-law but say “let’s not get excited, it’s probably just a false reading, I’ll check again in a few days”.

So I spend the rest of the weekend in Melbourne furiously googling every food before I eat it, avoiding alcohol, and generally just feeling like a probably-not-pregnant fraud of some type.

A couple of days later, we get back to Perth and I decide to take another test.

There’s another really faint line on there.

I’m still not convinced.

I take a picture and text it to my mum to see what she thinks. She thinks it could be the real deal, but I’m not certain, so I tell her to wait until Friday and if she hasn’t heard anything it’s probably a no-go.

But you know what, I can’t wait that long, so Thursday morning I do another test. There is a fairly obvious line on there.

This time it’s got to be for real, but the thing is, I don’t really feel any different.

It’s 5 am and I’m pacing around the house (waaaaayyyy too early to wake my husband up). I know what I’ll do, get a delicious breakfast prepared so we can sit down together, eat and chat about our plans.

Awesome, I start squeezing oranges (coz there is just nothing like fresh squeezed orange juice first thing in the morning). Finally, it’s about 6:30 and I think it might be late enough to wake my husband. I go into our room, and it looks like he could be restless anyway, coz our cats are sprawled over his legs and it looks like he couldn’t move if he tried.

I say to him “Can I turn the light on, I have a present for you” and he says “was there a positive test?”.

I fossick around in the cupboard for a few minutes and hand him a package. Inside there is a little bib that says “handsome like daddy”. He picks up something that isn’t the bib, gives me a strange look and says “soo… there was a positive test?”.

I confirm it by showing him the pic I snapped of it and he says “that’s nice… did you have to smash around the kitchen for the last 3 hours?”

I explain that I’m starving and we’re having bacon and eggs and he should get up now. He agrees and we sit at the kitchen table talking it over.

I say to him that this is bizarre because I don’t look or feel any different and it doesn’t feel real. I decide I’m going to see if I can get in to see the Doctor for confirmation.

We both think that’s a good idea and I sit crying at the table like a mad woman (hormones, can’t help it).

I say to my husband “I feel silly” he grins at me in that cheeky way he does and says “you look silly too!”.

He goes off to work and I wait around until the Doctor’s surgery opens. Luckily, I get straight through and the receptionist informs me that I can have an appointment on Saturday for an extra $20 on top of the usual charge or I can wait until Tuesday.

I ask about the likelihood of a cancellation today. She tells me it’s unlikely but I can call back as many times as I like to check (no, they don’t have a cancellation list).

So I spend the next few hours calling the office over and over… until finally there’s a cancellation (either that or they get sick of me ringing and give me an appointment anyway).

I wait patiently until the afternoon and see the GP. She asks me if I did a home test. I confirm and she states “well, you don’t need another test here then. Get a blood test today, you will get the results in 2 weeks. By the way, you can’t eat any of your favourite foods – here’s an extensive list of all the things you should avoid for the next 9 months. You shouldn’t bother trying to do anything fun either” (she didn’t really say that, but that is what I heard).

So from now on I just know I’m going to feel guilty for even sniffing a glass of wine or looking longingly at a piece of soft cheese (I’ve already got a few food-related bungles to share with you, but I’ll leave those for another day).

So… that’s how we found out we were having a baby. All in all, it was quite a drawn-out process and once we knew for sure I guess it was a little underwhelming.

Don’t get me wrong. The whole experience of letting our parents and close friends in on the news was very exciting (I’m pretty sure the image of my father-in-law slapping my husband on the back over and over again crying out “well done” will be etched into my mind forever).

It makes us wonder if other people have a similar experience to us. Were you outrageously overwhelmed when you found out you were expecting? Or like us, was it a ridiculously drawn-out process that seemed slightly unbelievable, because other than a line on a stick, you didn’t feel or look any different to normal? Let us know in the comments below.