The Story of How it All Went Down!

On Sunday, July 4th, about six days before the end of our two week wait, the pastor at our church preached a sermon about family.  In the middle of the sermon, he spoke briefly about infertility, and he said that he wanted to say a prayer for all the couples in the church who weren't able to have kids on their own.  I bit my lip and held back my tears as we agreed with pastor in a general prayer over the congregation.  I didn't know this at the time, but Judah later told me that it was during this prayer that he felt God clearly speak to him and tell him that "it's been done."  Judah left in peace, choosing to believe God's word that we were already pregnant.  That night, he asked me if I could take a pregnancy test and I told him that if I did, it was too early and it wouldn't show up even if I was. What I didn't tell him was that I had already taken a test, and it had been negative.


At this point, I was already beginning to feel strange... I woke up the next morning thinking that maybe I actually was pregnant, but I forced myself to dismiss the thought right away, especially considering yesterday's negative test.  I was desperate not to have my hopes dashed again.  That day we met Judah's sister Gabby for a late lunch at a local sushi restaurant.  On our way out of the restaurant I noticed that there was a Dollar General in the same plaza and I told Jude and Gab that I was going to run in there to get a couple of things.  Really, I just wanted to get a couple of $2 pregnancy tests just in case I needed them later on in the week.  (*note- for those of you looking to have children- buy your pregnancy tests at the Dollar General or the Dollar Tree.  You could end up in the poor house if you buy them all from the pharmacy!)

 Jude and I having sushi with Gab the day we found out we were pregnant!

Later that evening Judah decided that he wanted to try his hand at making raviolis and pasta from scratch.  (For those of you that don't know- Jude is turning into quite the chef, and is even starting culinary school in the fall!) 

Jude and his six hour pasta experience.  This is what he was doing when I was in the other room freaking out. 

 I was in the office desperately trying to finish up some math homework.  A couple hours into my homework I took a break to go to the bathroom, and I had a thought that I should just take another test.  "Why not," I said to myself.  I opened the box of generic "early results" tests that I had splurged on at the Dollar Store.  I was already annoyed at myself for wasting a test while I sat around waiting the two minutes it takes for the test to turn.  But low and behold, when the two minutes had passed, I looked and saw a very, very faint line.  


I freaked out.  I was talking to myself at this point going back and forth between "Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh!"  and "Okay Asheley, calm down, it's probably nothing.  The line is SO faint... just relax."  I brought it to the brightest lamp I could find.  Yep.  There it was.  For the first time in my life- THERE WAS A LINE!

Our very first positive pregnancy test!

(Look closely... it's there)

I didn't know what to do because I still wasn't 100% sure that I was actually pregnant.  I wanted to call my friend Amanda who used to work at an OBGYN, and knows basically everything there is to know about this kind of stuff, but I didn't because I knew that if I WAS pregnant, I didn't want Amanda to find out before Judah.  So I told myself, I'll just wait until tomorrow morning, and then call the doctor and have a test done.  If it's positive, then I'll tell Judah.  I really didn't want to tell him that I was pregnant, and then have it turn out that I wasn't.  I knew he'd be heartbroken. 


I tried to go back to my homework, but I was completely unsuccessful at getting anything accomplished.  I just kept thinking about that test and wondering if I was REALLY pregnant!  I found some excuse to run out to Walgreens so that I could pick up another test (we were out of printer paper or something).  This time I got one that was a trusted name brand (the test not the printer paper)- thinking that there was no way that TWO tests could be wrong.


Before I left I drank an unsightly amount of water and once I came back, I went in and took the test right away.  I couldn't believe my eyes- another faint, blue line!

Test number two!  Can't see the line as well in the picture, but it's there!

                                      
At this point I was still deciding if I was going to tell Judah tonight, or wait until the doctor confirmed it the next day.  As it turned out, my face couldn't keep a secret.  Judah came in the office to ask me something and I turned around in the desk chair with a big smile on my face.  He stopped mid-sentence and asked- "what?" I just couldn't hold it in. 


A- "I think I'm pregnant...."
J-  "Wait.... what!?  Are you being serious?  How do you know!?"
A- "Well, I took two tests and they were both positive, but the line was really really faint...."
J-  (Jude had to sit down at this point.  He felt his way to one of the small tables and sat down.)  "But how do you KNOW?  Are you SURE??"
A- "Well, I'm not sure... but Amanda told me that you don't really get false positives on a pregnancy test so..."
J-  "But you are sure that it's positive?"
A- "Yeah- I mean it's faint but.... just come look."


I took him to the bathroom and showed him both tests.  He agreed that there was a line, but said that he was still skeptical because it was so faint and he didn't know how these things worked. I agreed.

Judah inspecting the tests. 

After inspecting the tests himself he turned to me and said "Call Amanda.  Maybe she'll know."  So, I gave her a ring and she didn't pick up so I sent her a 911 text.  She called back right away.  I picked up and said "So... I think I'm pregnant."  She yelled into the phone "YOU ARE!  I KNOW IT!"  I told her that I wasn't sure though and explained about how faint the lines were on the tests.  She reiterated to me again that we could not get a false positive, but I was still skeptical.  Finally, in a last ditch effort to convince me she said, "Asheley, I am your best friend, and I know what you have been through. I would not be telling you this if it was not 100% true.  YOU ARE PREGNANT!"  


That's when I started crying and through my tears I said to her, "I am!?"  Now Amanda was crying and she said "Yeah!"  I ran into the kitchen where Judah was trying, unsuccessfully, to finish up his pasta which was now covering our countertops.  "Amanda says we're pregnant!" Jude turned to me and saw my tears and started crying himself, "Really!?"  "Yeah!"  I said.  And then we cried, and hugged and laughed, and at some point I hung up the phone on Amanda, who had apparently been talking all along. (I called her back later in the evening.)

Judah's "happy daddy" face.  

            

 Not a very good picture of us because we had been crying, but it's beautiful all the same.

The next day I called my doctor as soon as I got up and told them that I thought that I was pregnant. They asked if I wanted to come in to test that afternoon.  Of course I did!  At three o'clock I drove to the doctors office and gave some blood, then I had to wait the two hours it would take for the test results to come in.  That two hour wait was torture for me and for Judah, who kept texting me every 15 minutes asking if the nurse had called yet.  At 5:30 the nurse finally called me back. 


N- "Hi I'd like to speak with Asheley."
A- "This is her."
N- "I heard you called today with some questions?"  (I didn't realize it then but she was kind of playing with me at this point.)
A- "Well, yeah. I mean, I came to have a blood test done to find out if I'm pregnant."
N- "Oh. Okay. Um.  Can you tell me when the date was for your last period."
I gave her the date.  I wasn't sure what she was getting at.
N- "Okay, so this means that you are only about three and a half weeks along now..."
I cut her off. 
A- "Wait.  I'm sorry.  But are you telling me that I'm pregnant!?"
N- "YES!  You are definitely pregnant!"
A- "OH. MY. GOSH!!!!!!!!  I'M SO EXCITED! THANK YOU SO MUCH! WOW!  I CAN'T BELIEVE IT....."


And so on and so forth.... I think I might have made that nurse's day because I could tell she was really excited, too. She works at an infertility clinic, so its probably not every day that she gets to make a phone call like mine.


She told me that my HCG (pregnancy hormone) levels were low, at only 20, but that it was expected considering I was still not even four weeks pregnant.  Apparently, less than 5% of the population finds out they are pregnant as early on as we did.  She asked me to come back in on Friday to re-test.  On Friday, my numbers had increased to 140, and by the following Tuesday they were already at 1020!  The nurse told us that everything looked great, and that our numbers pointed to a very healthy baby, and we scheduled our first ultrasound for July 28th, after which, the fertility clinic would release me to my regular OBGYN.


I will never forget these days and the relief, and gratefulness to God that we felt on that first night.  It was truly a miracle!  And in true Clark/Dougherty fashion, we celebrated with a bowl of Judah's incredible homemade raviolis!