Just like every other Sunday only not

I woke up that Sunday morning (July 20, 2014) and it was just like every other Sunday morning. There was truly nothing special or unique or extraordinary about it. In fact, I barely remember the exact details it was such a nothing day.

On Sunday all I was really thinking about was work the next day. I had a huge event on Monday in which I was the project lead so that was my main focus. That and football. My beloved Melbourne Demons were playing Port Adelaide and I knew that afternoon I would be enthralled in the game even though I was almost positive Melbourne would lose really badly. 

I had a cigarette in the morning with my coffee (a disgusting habit I know but in the interest of full disclosure a habit I had then nonetheless). And if I'm being really honest with you – I felt weird about having that cigarette and I could NOT work out why. I don’t even think I finished it.

At some point of that day I went to the local Italian supermarket near my house which just happens to make amazing coffee. I was off getting my second coffee of the day (still feeling totally normal) when the girl in front of me in the line grabbed an orange juice from the fridge. And I was looking at the juices and all of a sudden a nice, cold orange juice sounded really, really, really good. Which is weird for me because I NEVER drink orange juice. I never buy it, I never drink it, and before this moment I certainly never craved it. But I grabbed one and while waiting in line I thought about how when my mum was pregnant with me she craved orange juice and wouldn't it be so crazy if I was pregnant? Which I knew I wasn't. But in that moment I thought – but what if I was? So after paying for and drinking the juice I decided to also grab a quick pregnancy test because what the hey. I knew it wouldn't mean anything and it was just to be sure. So I went and bought the cheapest one (because I was being SO SILLY). And even as it was scanned through I cursed myself for being such a drama queen and felt so stupid for literally going from 0 to 100 all because of orange juice. I was probably just dehydrated for goodness sakes.

So I got home and put the bags from the supermarket on the kitchen counter and my husband started putting the grocery things away and stopped when he saw the pregnancy test. He questioned it and I told him the story of the juice and how crazy I was being and how I WAS NOT pregnant but I had to be sure because the thought entered my mind for a millisecond but I was most definitely NOT pregnant. He nodded and we went about our day.

The G popped out to watch his little brother play basketball just as I settled on the couch to watch the football (err… another cigarette was had in the meantime). He asked if I would take the test soon please and I said yes, yes, yes and he left. About an hour later he came home and it was the first thing he asked about. But I hadn't even done it yet; I was still watching the football and would wait until half-time or when I needed to pee, whichever came first.

So half time and the urge to pee coincided and I thought, I may as well do this. So I read the pregnancy test instructions carefully (I had never done one before), and I even second guessed whether or not to even do it because I didn't know when my period was supposed to come (I had only been off the pill 6 weeks and gotten my period once so didn't even know what my ‘cycle’ was) and I thought to myself that I was doing this all wrong and it was stupid but I had opened the packet so I would just do it anyway, whatever.

So I peed on the stick and put it down on the counter and it said there would be one line for not pregnant and two lines for pregnant. I washed my hands, fixed my hair, went to the lounge to check the score and walked back into the bathroom. I looked down at the counter and there were already two lines on the test. So I blinked 1000 times and kept looking at it and the two lines just kept getting darker and darker. So I read the simple instructions again (it said to wait three minutes and it had only been one minute so maybe I keep waiting?) But the two lines remained. I put my hand on my mouth and looked in the mirror and I was smiling.

My husband was IN THE TOILET during this time (we have 2 toilets which thank god). He can take a while in there so I just started calling his name trying not to sound panicked but I was inwardly jumping out of my skin. He came out of the toilet, came into the bathroom and asked, ‘are you pregnant?’ but he was grinning because he thought I was joking. I then showed him the test with my shaking hands and he looked at it and it was a collective what the fuck is happening moment.

So we did what any couple with an unexpected positive pregnancy test would do and we PANICKED. We immediately decided that the best course of action was to go to the chemist and buy another pregnancy test because (and don’t ask me how I got this theory) as I kept saying ‘people get false positives all the time’. We jumped in the car and drove straight to the chemist near our house which was always empty, ran in and because we were likely the only customers the lady working there had seen all day she immediately approached us and asked what we needed to which I replied, ‘your best pregnancy test!’ in a volume which I thought was normal but was very likely a scream. For some reason I overshared, telling her we had just gotten a positive pregnancy test but ‘people get false positives all the time’, again – no idea where I got this theory from. She calmly showed us where the tests were and then told me that false positives were not common at all and that false negatives were more likely and informed me that if I got a positive pregnancy test it’s because I was pregnant. Then she asked if we wanted to be pregnant because my husband and I must have looked like shell shocked teenagers (a question in hindsight that was totally inappropriate) but because I wasn't quite myself I looked at my husband and asked, ‘are we?’ He did not answer, probably because we were blurry images to him at this point. So we bought the digital test, she congratulated us and that stranger is the first official person to find out about our baby. Go us!  

We got home and this time I took the test IMMEDIATELY after skulling a huge glass of water. Because this test was digital all we had to do was wait for the words Pregnant or Not Pregnant to appear. So we waited the few minutes and then nervously entered the bathroom together where the words PREGNANT 1-2 WEEKS had flashed up on the test. I looked at my husband and we were both smiling and then we hugged and laughed and cried at what a crazy thing was happening to us.

So that kind of eclipsed all the things originally in my head that day. Melbourne ended up getting close to winning that game (by three points!) which normally would have been a game I was glued to, screaming at and then cursing but I watched it barely noticing. My husband says it’s the most quiet I have ever been during a football match. I also stopped stressing about my work event and started stressing about, you know, having a baby.

I am still shocked at how it happened for us. I'm shocked at how quickly it happened, how randomly we found out and how none of it is how I thought it would go. I feel blessed and lucky that we got pregnant so easily and without complications. It was a whirlwind of emotions – and if I'm being really honest the emotions I felt after this day ranged from happiness to shock to fear to worry (the worry continued on until my first scan). It was truly overwhelming. But I will never forget that run-of-the-mill Sunday which completely changed our lives forever.