Whether this is your first pregnancy or your sixth, seeing those two pink lines on the pregnancy test changes everything instantly. You may be shocked, excited, nervous, grateful and about 100 other different emotions all at once. After the feelings settle a bit, one question most mothers ask themselves is, “I’m newly pregnant, now what?”?
Both Shannon and Andrea both vividly remember the feeling of finding out they were pregnant for the very first time.
Shannon’s experience
It was my first month off birth control, and my husband and I had just started talking about getting pregnant. All of my co workers had been getting positive pregnancy tests left and right, so I got a wild hair that since I had been off my birth control for not even a month, maybe I could have been pregnant. Looking back, nothing really prompted me to test except a deep feeling of maybe it just happened to me too. I peed on the test, and then actually forgot about the test and finished getting ready for work.
I was halfway to work and remembered I forgot to shut off my hair straightener and since I was in the bathroom I remembered to take a peek. What the What? There were two lines. How? Was my first thought! I considered it a fluke. I went to work, and a friend just happened to have a pregnancy test. I took it again and it was instantly double lined. Wow! That escalated quickly. I told my husband and my mother. I was still so shocked it happened so quickly. What a wild and amazing day!
Andrea’s Experience
I have a history of large painful cysts on my ovaries and really “late” periods from a diagnosis called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). When I got pregnant, I was newly married and by newly, I mean the ink may have still been wet on the marriage license. I didn’t even realize my period was late because there was never any rhyme or reason to it (thanks PCOS). All I “knew” was I must have been getting some gnarly cysts again because I was having lots of discomfort and pain in my pelvic region. Just to appease my mother, I took a pregnancy test and it was negative. Phew! Done with that idea, I was 18 and had been married for like a whole two weeks at that point.
Unfortunately, about 10 or so days later the pain was even more. I decided to go to my doctor and she asked if I could be pregnant. “Nope!” I said with confidence, I had taken a test over a week ago and it was negative. The doctor decided to take some urine and blood to run a few tests. About 10 minutes went by and the doctor came in and informed me I was indeed pregnant and the discomfort was more than likely my uterus growing.
I wish I could have had a recording of my face. I’m sure it looked like I was in pure shock, jaw gaping open, eyes big as saucers, words unable to be spoken. I’m sure I was a sight. As shocked as I was, almost instantly I began to plan for what my new future was going to look like and felt the excitement and nervousness of becoming a mother.
What did I need to do? Who would this person inside of me become someday? What were my next steps?
Our brains turn into mother mode so quickly. I knew I needed to find a medical provider, I needed to make my first appointment, I knew I needed to tell my husband and the rest of my family. There are so many steps so we are going to give you a four part series (with this being part one) with some helpful tasks and suggestions for each trimester. Hope you enjoy it!
