Of course I’d miss it by a day. I’m just not that organized, and I guess I never noted the exact date in my mind. August 8th, 2016 was the day that we found out I was pregnant with Brady. One year and one day ago.
I might not have burned that date into my mind, but I do have a lot of memories of that day. I remember driving home from work, noting that I was out of pregnancy tests and deciding to stop and get some. Tomorrow would be the day that I could take a test after the two-week wait. After the first couple of months of just winging it, we’d gotten strategic this month. The pressure was on.
I’d like to say that I felt it or knew I was pregnant, but the fact that I bought a jumbo pack of pregnancy tests probably says otherwise.
Driving home from Target, I really had to go to the bathroom and decided that I might as well make good use of it and take a test when I got home. I didn’t expect to see anything. It was early, and if you’re testing early, you definitely shouldn’t test later in the day, when the hormones aren’t as concentrated.
I didn’t tell Jeff I was taking the test. I just stopped into our bathroom near the garage entrance and unwrapped the test. Much to my surprise, that second pink line showed up within moments. To say I was surprised would be an understatement.
Jeff was upstairs, so I yelled for him to come downstairs and waited. And waited. I couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t come downstairs so I could show him the exciting news. We were living in the tiny townhouse at the time, so you were never more than 15 seconds away from any point within the house.
A couple of minutes later, Jeff finally appeared and I showed him the test. Turns out, he didn’t come downstairs right away because he thought I was yelling because I wanted him to kill a spider. It wasn’t a far-fetched assumption on his part. I have been known to yell for him for that reason.
We were both so, so excited. I relish in the memory of that innocent excitement. We had no idea what was heading our way. Any future pregnancies we have will be marked with excitement, sure, but it won’t be innocent. Excitement will be paired with fear, anxiety, and uncertainly.
For now, though, I just want to remember that pure and blissful excitement, and not think about anything else.
