Tuesday 11th May 2010 7.00pm - 7 days to end my Menstrual Cycle
So it all started on a Tuesday evening...I had wrapped up my day and was to meet hubby at a nearby Chinese restaurant for a nice Chicken noodle soup that I simply love. After we had my fav soup and shrimp dumplings we went to CVS to buy a pack of home pregnancy test kits to see the outcome of the efforts of last month :)
So T (I will refer my husband thus) and I were planning for baby since last 2 months...but obviusoly we knew nothing about ovulation, basal body temperature, cervical mucus etc. signs. So we missed the "timing" last month. But this month we had it all planned out after reading through hundereds of websites and "educating" ourselves. We were very hopeful taht this time we have "got it right" :)
So this home pregnancy test kit was to measure the results of our efforts. Some home pregnancy test kits claimed that they can test upto 6 days before the period and so excitedly we bought one.
When we came home T was insisted that we conduct the test today but I was hesitant as 1. I was afraid of a negative test (as I really wanted a baby)
2. I was skeptical of the results being accurate
Anyway, after some more pleading and pushing from T I finally took the test (which was 7 days before my period!!! ) and as expected it was negative (statistics claimed 33% accuracy for 6 days and I took it 7 days prior to my periods!!!) But logic never comes where heart matters and I was really very sad and so was T. I was really depressed but at the same time tyring to convince my self that we can always give it another shot next month (statistics claim that there is only 25% chance that you get pregnant in the first attempt!!) I was feeling bad for T as he was very excited before I took the test and looked very sad when it was negative. Thus ended the day on a very unhappy and disturbed note.
Sunday 16th May'10 4.30am - Expected date of my periods
After Tuesday's unhappy ending I did a lot of research on home test preganancy kits and their accuracy. Below is the summary of my findings -
1. Despite the claims of the home pregnanancy test kit manufacturers on the sensitivity to HCG (hormone levels detected in test kits) the best time to test is only after you have missed your periods
2. Though these manufacturers claim 33% accuracy for a test performed 6 days before the end of cycle they are seldom accurate.
3. These tests may have a lot of false negatives (false negative is a test where even though you are pregnant the test falsely tests you as negative becasue the HCG levels have not reached detection levels yet)
So after reading all these articles the whole of last week gave me some ray of hope and I decided to wait until the day of my period which was today. Between that Tuesday and today T and I had stopped all talks on baby as I did not want to bring that topic again and hide my disappointment at the negative test.
After the will now unfold the events that took place on this Sunday morning. I had an urgent need to pee at 4.30 am on this Sunday morning. Before I go to the restroom I see the home pregnancy test kit package lying on the table. Out of curiosity (and also because T was asleep - there was no "performance" pressure on me plus I need not declare the results to him if they were negative and see the disappointment on his face) I picked up one of the test strips and rushed to the bathroom. I followed the intructions and lay the tsrip on a flat surface for the mandatory 3 longest minutes of my life to read the results. Meanwhile, I rush to my prayer place and lit a lamp and pray that the God's grant me my wish this time (when in doubt PRAY :))
After lighting the lamp and praying to God and come back and check my results and lo and behold!!! I see a faint pink line next to the "test valid" line!!! I rub my eyes to make sure I am not hallucinating!! and yes it is confirmed that I am pregnant!!
I wake up T at 4.30am and I start crying out of joy!! We hugged each other and took pictures...called up our parents and let them know of the good news and thus started our journey...me, T and our baby - the size of a speck of dust in my womb!!!
