Introduction! Finding Out...

Hello! Welcome to my new blog ~ The Pregnant Doula!

Okay, so I'm not a doula yet. I'm a "novice" doula - a doula in training. In fact, I started a blog titled The Novice Doula in October, 2014, chronicalling my journey to becoming a positive birth support for labouring mothers. You can find it at www.thenovicedoula.blogspot.ca

Unfortunately I had to take a little break from my doula journey, as we moved in November, 2014, and just as we were settling into our new home in December, we got a big surprise (which you've probably guessed by now)...

We're pregnant!!

A little backstory:

I had our son in August 2013, and absolutely loved my pregnancy/birth with him. I always felt so beautiful, so natural, so connected to him, so empowered. 

 

I went to 41 weeks, 1 day with him, and had a beautiful, perfect, drug free natural birth in hospital, an experience I wouldn't change for the world (you can read about it in my October 13th and October 24th posts on thenovicedoula.blogspot.ca)!

Since his wonderful pregnancy & birth went so well, I knew I would just love being pregnant again, and couldn't wait to start trying. In November 2013, I had an IUD placed (Mirena), because we wanted to make sure everything was well set up before a new pregnancy came - life has a way of making plans without you!

Come May 2014, we just couldn't wait any longer, so on May 30th I had the IUD removed, simply because we wanted to start trying again (no side effect complaints, beyond a lack of sex drive, I quite enjoyed my Mirena and even didn't bleed while on it, which was lovely). Our doctor said "Everything looks perfect, go ahead and have another baby!"

And so we tried. And tried. We moved a few times, and found my cycles hard to track, as I was still breastfeeding Roo. My period officially came back in late August, but my times were all messed up - a 25 day cycle, a 33 day cycle, a 15 day cycle. It didn't seem like pregnancy was in the cards for us anytime soon, and we were due to move again - back to our home town, which we'd missed dearly, and our family had missed us. 

November we decided to stop "trying", get through our move and Christmas, then maybe pick up again in January, if Daddy's job and our lives seemed to even out again. I was disappointed, but the timing seemed right - Roo was conceived in Novemeber, and I certainly didn't want them to have the same birth month, so a month or two off sounded great. Boy, was the plan never to be!

We made love very few times in that month, between moving stress and family coming to help, it wasn't easy to find the time or energy for that kind of thing! But I still faithfully noted each time in my period/fertility app, just in case, to keep in the habit of it, I suppose. Little did I know how useful that would be!

December came in a flurry of moving and cold, we were living in Southern Alberta before we moved, so the wind and cold were near unbearble! Thankfully we were moving back home, to the sunny Okanagan, away from their -40C weather!! We arrived at our new home on December 3rd, exhausted but happy to be home!

By December 10th, I had noticed some strange things. I am usually a night owl, preferring to stay up long after H goes to bed, reading or being on my facebook or what have you, but since the move I felt awfully tired (which is to be expected), falling asleep HOURS before H every night! This had never been the case before. After a particularly rough day, we came home and I told H "Okay, I'm really tired and really hungry. Can you watch Roo while I eat everything in the fridge and then lay down for a while?" - comfort eating is common for me, but I just wanted to eat and eat until I was too full to move!! 

Finally, a silly little thing caught my emotions the wrong way, and I completely snapped on poor H. Now I knew something was up. As we were making up from our bickering, I told him "I won't be mad anymore... If we can go get a pregnancy test. Right now." "Right now? It's after 8, and Roo's in bed already... ?" "Right now, I'll get him in the car, I have to take one tonight!" Of course, the sweet man he is, and not wanting to fight anymore, he dutifully got in the car and drove us to the closest gas station for a test - they had two packs for $4, so that's the one I chose. 

I decided to do a 4 hour urine hold, for a more accurate test, so I set an alarm once we got home and waited... It seemed like forever, but finally it was time! I went in the bathroom to do my thing, and then we sat (not so) patiently, watching that little stick. It said 3-5 minutes, and by 4 minutes I was sure it was a negative, my heart sank. H had already given up, but I stared at that little window, and as I watched... "H, I swear I think I see something". "No you don't, it's probably nothing..." "Come look!" 

And that little pink line slowly got darker and darker before our eyes!

I didn't believe it, but was at once overjoyed! I'm pregnant, I'm really pregnant! It had to have been early, but it was there! You don't get a line without being pregnant! We're going to have another baby!!

H of course was over the moon, all traces of ill feelings from the fight now gone, we were going to have another baby!

I was still nervous, and was extremely glad for that other test, which I took the next morning, and it too showed a beautiful pink line:

We were pregnant! But wait, then when would I be due... ? November, December, January, March, April, May, June, July... August?! We were due with another August baby!!

The timing, I have to say, is quite sublime. 2 years apart, a pretty good spacing. But with my irregular cycles, how could we know the day for sure? The two possibles were a week apart, and that week can mean all the difference. I had to get one of those digitals that estimated the weeks past conception. 

And so, two days after we found out, we got a digital, and we took it right there in Walmart - we just couldn't wait! And lo and behold...

1-2 weeks past conception... 3-4 weeks pregnant... Wait, that means... I am due ON ROO'S SECOND BIRTHDAY, to the day!! What timing...

And that is how we found out this beautiful little blessing was on it's way. More to come in the following posts, this pregnant mama needs some sleep!

~ The Pregnant Doula