We did it!!!!!

I'M PREGNANT!!!! I actually can't believe it, reading back over the last few entries. I guess I was feeling pretty sure. Or at least hopeful. And, YES, it "took." I don't feel silly at all!! :)
We ere suspicious toward the end of last week so I was taking a cheapy pregnancy test every day...Wednesday, Thursday, Friday AND Saturday's were nagative. Then...Sunday morning, it was there, but definitely faint. I tortured myself all day and when I mentioned it to our home group, the ladies said, "Faint means you are!!" So...I got a more expensive test afterward and, since there were two in the pack, took one Sunday night and, yes, positive. Still light! But there. Which counts, evidently.
So Monday morning, I was eager to test again. High temp--check. No AF--check. Pregnancy test? Positive. Undeniably. It didn't come out well in the picture, but my SIL and The Paladin confirmed my suspicions. My husband acted so UNsurprised. He had told me, "It'll happen soon," but...first try??? Come on!! I could hardly believe it. No waiting and wondering?? Ooooooh, do I feel blessed!!!
My temps are even higher now so progesterone levels seem to be just fine. I'm feeling a little tired and crabby but nothing major. I've got a mega shopping list going since I'm now in a "critical phase" of baby development. Eating well is no problem for me and I'm even kind of over-eating, assuming I'll feel yucky any day now and have a harder time getting all the nutrients I need. In the early part of Monkey's pregnancy, all I wanted was spaghetti o's and crackers for lunch aand lots and lots of grape juice. No cravings yet...but I'm definitely more sensitive to smells now so that makes it harder. My bananas can't be mushy, either. Blech.
So...here I am. Preggers. It actually worked. And the first time trying!! I am amazed.
Here's the vital info.:
I'm just a month along now. My weeks start on Monday, so that's convenient!! Hey, I'm a third of the way through the first trimester!! :) I remember someone telling me that with Monkey and I felt strangely relieved about that.
My due date is a little disappointing. I didn't think it would "take" so soon, so I was counting on not having a baby until 2009! My due date, based on almost every source, is the end of December. Dec. 28th to be exact. Now, Monkey was born 6 days after my due date but I've heard that second babies often come sooner. So we're definitely going to be on pins and needles as the holidays approach. I'm going to need a lot of very BIG, dressy maternity clothes for all of our festivities!! And there's always the chance the baby will be born on Christmas day, NY Eve or NY Day! Yikes!! That'd be quite a way to ring in the new year!! Or it could be early January. No matter what, it'll make birthday parties difficult, just like for the rest of us.
But...I'm not complaining!! I'll take that over having had to wait another however many months ANY day. I hate the waiting!! God must've just been waiting for us to synch up with His plan. Or He's just blessing me, knowing how the waiting makes me crazy.
Monkey will be just over 3 years old, which is lovely. Potty trained and Mom's big helper! Love it!
We've got a lot of planning to do...lots to do.
I'm so excited!!

new ovulation day and a dream

Ugh, I dislike this GREATLY. Three tests, all negative, but still feeling a little "off" (drooling, a little light-headed) and no appearance by AF--and no indications that it's impending. So!! Back to analyze my chart!! My temps were a bit wanky for a while, with taking them so early and all, so I have two cover lines. I did have a second brief fertile-seeming period of a couple days two days AFTER the first fertile period. Thankfully, we "did it" on BOTH fertile days. Phew.
So...if my peak day was in fact two days later than I'd originally thought, that'd put me getting a positive test result...tomorrow. Grr. And, of course, it's possible that it didn't "take" at all...I just wish I'd get some conclusive news. It's nice, I suppose to still have hope for this cycle, despite my reading my chart wrong initially...but it makes me feel dumb at the same time! :)
I'm looking at my chart now...and I'd probably have had a positive test by now with the earlier conception date, unless the tests I've taken have been REALLY weak. And, actually, the later ovulation date makes more sense...and my temps have been quite high, even the past several days. I just got a little ahead of myself!!
So...tomorrow I will test again. Even The Paladin said, "Give it 'til the weekend."
MY DREAM!! Oh, let's see...Wednesday night, I was feeling a little anxious and asked the Lord to give me a dream to help me walk through this season. I'm not sure what I was expecting...but I got a baby dream! I had just had a girl--hadn't even nursed her yet--and ooooohhh, how I loved her!! She was tiny and I was holding her in my lap, just like I held my niece on Friday.
Now The Paladin has been saying for a while that he "knows" what the gender of our next baby will be. He's freakishly good at "knowing" a lot of things. I'd think he's just a good guesser, but...he's right more like 90% of the time, maybe more. So he wouldn't tell me what gender...until I told him my dream. "Yeah, the next one's a girl," he told me. Wow. It was prophesied to us that we'd have multiple children and that one would be feisty and one would be red-headed. Could we be getting a red-headed baby girl soon?? We'll see!
So...a nice dream, and I felt very comforted by it, like God was saying, "It'll happen. Just hang in there. I've got it all planned out." Now the girl part...I dunno. I don't think I'll be out buying pink just yet.
I had dreams with Monkey, too. About giving birth with two other women, and low and behold, they both became pregnant soon after I did. Well, one used a surrogate, but still. So...I certainly don't discount them.
My brain runs amuck. I have a long day tomorrow so if the test is negative again and no AF, I'll be really distracted.
I was pretty sure with Monkey. But didn't want to get my hopes up. Am I AS sure this time?? I don't know. Wishing and hoping for something and truly believing it will happen are two different things, and hard to separate. I do have hope.
If I'm not pregnant this cycle, I'll feel so...silly. Isn't that...silly?? To feel silly?? There's just something about hoping and hoping and hoping, and it not happening, that makes you feel...silly!! Especially when you want it so bad. It's like wanting it should make it happen, or you didn't want it enough!
It's a good thing I believe in God's perfect timing. I do feel peace about this. no matter what the outcome.

so far, negative

I took a cheap pregnancy test I got for $1 tonight and it was negative. This is day 12 post-ov and late into the evening...and a cheap test. So there's still hope. I have a different $1 test for tomorrow morning, the day I got a positive test with Monkey. The Paladin wants me to wait until the weekend--he also insists I'm not pregnant. He's usually right about that stuff. It's infuriating.

My hubby doesn't think so

The Paladin isn't thinking I'm pregnant. He says he isn't sensing a life in there. I said, Well, maybe it hasn't implanted yet so there's nothing to sense. He said to ask him again in a few days.
I felt felt weird today off and on...could be anything.
I think I'm going to the 99cent Store tomorrow to buy a handful of pregnancy tests, just to torture myself.

symptoms

10 days post-ov, which is when I had a little spotting with Monkey. None of that today, but I did have a wave or two of nausea and, after a two-hour nap (much-needed), I was shaky and really hungry. I had a big breakfast and a decent lunch and it was only 5:00 so that's a bit odd. Now my back feels a little achy, almost pre-menstrual-like. I'm still a little shaky, though, even after finishing the sandwich I started.
Today I have felt a little different. Nothing to get excited about, though.
I have been tired but then I'm staying up too late, too. I took a long nap yesterday and today and was tired off and on all week.
That's the kicker--all the "early pregnancy symptoms" can easily be a million other things and completely un-related to each other and to pregnancy.
Wednesday is the earliest I could realistically test but unless it's a $1 test, I need to restrain myself until the weekend, assuming I don't get a visit from AF before then. The next several days will be long.

lower, gulp

Lower temp today--but still relatively high. Crampy, too. Tummy ache. A "heavy hitter" at church is now praying for us--can't hurt!! I need a nap.

chart study

I spent some time last night studying my chart and the one from when I got pregnant with Monkey and there are some similarities (like ovulating very near the same day) and differences, too. I had a very clear temp shift last time and this one was more gradual. But, hormones change and I am still nursing. Then there's when I ovulated. It could be a two to four-day difference. Assuming the earlier day, I could have implantation any time between days 8 and 12, which would be TODAY until Wednesday. With Monkey, I took a test at day 10, the same day I had a tiny bit of spotting (almost certainly implantation bleeding) and it was negative. Two days later, I had a faint positive and the next day, i had a clear positive.
10 days post-ov THIS cycle, when I could expect to have implantation spotting, would be Monday. And I could test as early as Wednesday. It does no good to test before implantation--your body doesn't know anything is going on until then because it's all on a cellular level UNTIL that fertilized egg burrows in the uterine lining. Then the hormones start flowing and the test picks it up.
My temps are low compared to Monkey's pregnancy...97.8 to 98.0 compared to 97.9 to 98.3 with Monkey. So that's not encouraging.
If I ovulated later than I thought, I wouldn't get a positive until Friday or later. So it'll be hard to wait it out and I wouldn't expect a period until Friday the 18th, at the earliest. It's going to be a long week.
First month trying. If it takes, it'll be a miracle--but it's always a miracle.
I feel a little icky...but it's probably anxiety!! I don't have a strong feeling either way--just hope.
I also had fertile-seeming fluid today, which is WAY weird. Hormonal changes?? Who knows. With Monkey, the other reason I suspected I was pregnant was because I usually spotted in the three or so days preceding my period--and was 14 days post-ov and wasn't spotting. So that'll be another sign to look for.
Anxiety, man. Phew.

Definitely...

...post-ov now. Another quite high temp this morning. This is good news cuz even if I'm not pregnant, at leasr I can move on to a new cycle sooner!!! I'm checking this chart against the one from when I got pregnant with Andrew and so far, they're only slightly similar. I've marked when to expect implantation spotting and when I could test, just so I know. It'll still be a while before I know when I really ovulated...but if I am pregnant, depending on when I get a postivie result, I'd be able to tell better. It's still only a matter of four or five days, though, which is a pretty good estimate. I'd be due mid-January, which is just fine by me.

FINE-ally!!

Yes, it looks like I did ovulate. Probably Sunday or Monday. I took my temp this a.m. at three-something and again at six-something and it was fully two tenths of a degree higher the second time, also putting it above the cover line. It occurred to me that I have been taking it super-early in the night, the first time I wake up. So, yeah, your temp rises during the night. So...the last several temps would be sort of misleading and if I bumped them all up two-tenth like I did today...I'd have had a temp rise on Monday. I had a major dip Thursday and Friday, then Sunday I was WAY fertile (fluid-wise) so that would add up. And thankfully, we "did it" Friday and Sunday so we're in good shape.
This cycle is a booger. Then I missed a day to take my temp so that doesn't help. It was definitely really low Thursday and Friday, which is typically a dip in estrogen as ovulation approaches and before the progesterone takes over. I could've ovulated as early as Saturday, too. I thought I had fertile fluid Sunday, though, and have definitely dried up since. I still had SOME fluid post-ov, however...which is weird.
Today's was quite high, though. We'll see how the next few days pan out. My temp today was what it was when I got pregnant with Monkey so that knowledge will help. I'd love to see it stay high.
Either way, we'll know in two weeks!!

Nope, haven't ovulated yet

cuz I've still got fertile fluid today!!! It's a little frustrating--like I want to ovulate already and get on with this cycle so I can find out if I'm pregnant or not. It's dragging on. Ugh. And I'm crampy today, too. And short-tempered. Grrrr.
My temp was high today but I'm certainly not dry like I should be post-ov. Hmm.

I found it!!

My thermometer, that is. Woo-hoo!!
Still not dry so I may not have ovulated yet. I'm getting impatient!! Let's get on with this, already!!

still fertile

Yup, we're at day 22 and I seem to be having another fertile spell--trying to ovulate again, perhaps. Not "again," like I already did--I mean my body tried once earlier in this cycle and didn't quite make it so it seems to be trying again. I've gotta reach that estrongen threshhold!!
We're doing the every-other-day thing to conserve sperm--so that's fun!! :) I can't find my thermometer--really need to. That'll help a lot.
I'm feeling slightly less urgent about this--but that won't continue once I know I ovulated. If I'd have conceived today, I'd be due January 11. So it's nice that we'll be well into 2009, it would seem.
As always, time will tell!!

loooow

day 18. low temps continue so i haven't ovulated yet. good news, i suppose. life is a bit crazy but pretty normaol, all things considered...but it makes us wonder if we really want to add a baby to the mix. is it ever just the right timing??