Our Rainbow

I have been praying diligently for God to help me relax and stop worrying about when we will get pregnant.  I prayed a 100 or more times that God would surprise me with a positive pregnancy test.  All this time I really didn't let go of charting or anything else because I wanted to be in control.  After my doctor's appointment I decided that for the new cycle I would just using OPK's (ovulation predictor kits) instead of charting.  This way I would not be stressed about my temperatures and I wouldn't have the daily reminder and analysis of what was going on with my chart, etc.  So May started out and I was relaxed and I tried really hard not to care about when I was going to ovulate (yes I know weird to be posting all of this).  I was using OPK's and by the time I made it to day 24 of that cycle I still hadn't gotten a positive and I was really frustrated because I really wanted to have an idea whether or not I'd ovulated.  I tried really hard not to focus on it and we had a lot of fun on the weekends.  We went out with friends and enjoyed life.  Went to the NC Fest one weekend, went out to dinner with friends, just enjoyed being the two of us.  

Well on May 23 when I got home from work I thought I was feeling a little funny.  I was worried that I hadn't ovulated yet and that what the heck I might as well go ahead and check to see if I was pregnant.  I mean I bought 25 tests off amazon and it would cost me 20 cents to check so whatever.  I tried the OPK and the pregnancy test.  I watched the pregnancy test for about 30 seconds and then decided I knew a negative test when I saw one and threw it out.  I then checked the OPK later and saw it was negative.  I was still wondering what was going on because I was feeling a little off.  We went to our friend's house for dinner and I didn't think twice about the pregnancy test.  We got home and of course I decided that I should probably check the test to make sure it really was negative...well we got a little surprise because it was POSITIVE!  I was freaking out and shaking.  Of course I didn't believe the test so I took another one of the same kind and other one of a different brand.  So you can see those tests below:  All POSITIVE!  

Craig and I were both weary.  I had not yet missed my period and we thought anything could happen given our past experiences.  The next day I went out and bought more tests/different brands just to check again...I know seems a little crazy now, but at the time not so crazy.  

This is a picture of the tests made pretty for our due date.  We were guessing February 3/4th, 2013!

My sister graduated from high school a couple days later and we went home to Ohio for her graduation.  We had a SUPER hard time keeping the news to ourselves, but we really wanted to be able to show them a healthy ultrasound before we got their hopes up.  Somehow we kept quiet and no one guessed our news.  Not even my mom who I was sure thought something funny was going on.  Of course one night I ate a whole jar of pickles (which I actually do even when I'm not pregnant) and he joked, "Who needs a pregnancy test when you've got a jar of pickles!"  It was actually right on the money, but I acted as if I was offended and told him we wouldn't know for a couple more weeks.  

When we got back from Ohio I decided I needed to take another test (this is the last one I promise!):

The test on the left was from 5/24 and the test on the right was from 5/28 so now the test line was darker than the control line.  I was ecstatic.

From the day we found out we were pregnant I started praying that no matter what happens with this pregnancy I will be okay and Craig and I will be okay.  I have been praying to God that our baby makes it safe and sound to full term.  I believe He gave me a sign on our road trip back from Ohio when we saw a double rainbow.  It was a beautiful sight and it had been months since I'd seen a rainbow.  Peace just washed over my soul and I started feeling like everything was going to be okay.  

We probably could have requested to have hcg levels checked early on to help determine viability, but decided that it would just make us more nervous.  We decided to just pray for the best and go to the ultrasound.  Our first ultrasound was scheduled for June 21st.