Babies and Fruit

We found out we were pregnant at week 4 and according to http://www.babycenter.com/slideshow-baby-size that meant our baby was the size of a poppy seed. This website and others seem to have a system down for comparing your baby to food, especially fruits. So at week 7, when we told my family that we were pregnant, our baby was being likened to a blueberry. This is why my younger sister, Rachel, began affectionately calling our child "baby blueberry". And since then, I've nicknamed our baby "blue"*. I did attempt to find other websites that compared your baby to other things, but no such luck. Though I did find an amusing take on the week by week from a daddy blog entitled "His Boys Can Swim" who put our 7 week baby at the size of the power button on your TV remote. I like the fruit analogy better.

*NOTE: The nickname "blue" is in no way a reflection of our baby's future commitment to any particular sports team whose catch phrase happens to be, "Go Blue". No OSU fans were hurt in the making of this nickname. Scarlet and grey donations appreciated.

The Faint Blue Line That Changed My Life

This picture is not ours, but it mind as well be. Do all couples do this? I mean it's not like we didn't know it could happen, and yet when it does...

Luckily for us my doctor had told me that the Dollar Store pregnancy tests were just as good as any others. Granted if you buy half a dozen, they no longer seem like a "deal". I was quickly finding out just how expensive babies can be.

Test 1: Negative

"Mike, why don't we buy a pregnancy test and take it on New Year's Day? If we are pregnant, it will be a great way to start the year!" Let's keep in mind that I am well before an early pregnancy test can even tell you if you are pregnant. But I was positive I was pregnant. The test, however, was negative.

Test 2: The dreaded faint line

Mike and I went to the Dollar Store to purchase our second pregnancy test. At the Dollar Store you have to ask for the pregnancy tests from behind the counter, sort of like a pack of cigarettes. Apparently there is a pregnancy test theft problem in Grand Rapids Dollar Stores. Also good to know is that the Dollar Store has many patrons, even at 8pm at night. As we were waiting in what seemed like the longest line ever, I was looking all over the store to make sure I didn't know anyone. My husband, Mr GR, however, knows everyone. So I kept asking him, "Do you know him? Do you know her? What about her?"

We get to the counter, and an elderly lady is putting away her money in front of us. I ask for a pregnancy test, and the cashier asks, "You only want one?" The elderly woman turns to me. She is eyeing me over her glasses and begins to nudge me slightly, and says, "All you need is one." She sort of chuckles to herself, and I tell the cashier, "Just one."

We get home, take the test, wait, and then....a faint line makes a sort of cross on the results screen. Mike looks at it, then I do. Then he does again. Then we both do. We hold it up to the light. Away from the light. Against a dark surface. A light surface. We shake it. We see if it glows in the dark. And then we Google it.

Google tells us that a faint line is still a line that is a positive result, but we decide we need another test. This time I make Mike go alone to the store.

Test 3: Positive

The night before I take this test I have a dream I'm pregnant. The test results look exactly like Test 2, but this time we decide it's positive. And the journey begins!