My Uterus is Magic 1

Saturday, January 26th was my 29th birthday. I was driving home from work the Friday before and I felt a twinge of pain in my lower abdomen on the right side. It felt like cramps but went away quickly and I forgot about it. We had a fun weekend that ended with both of us catching the cold that was going around and laying low for the next week. Go to work, sleep and repeat.

On Sunday, February 3rd I got cramps. Light but pretty standard. I thought I was getting my period early, it shouldn't be until next Saturday. This was only the third cycle since I stopped taking the pill so I was still getting used to the new normal. Later that night I noticed I was spotting which confirmed my belief that Aunt Flo had arrived early. The next morning all of that was gone like it had never happened. I shrugged it off.

On Wednesday, I started to wonder where Flo had actually gone? It was 5:30 in the morning. I opened the cabinet in my bathroom and pulled out a Clear Blue Early Response at home pregnancy test. I had bought a box a few weeks before just to keep around. I really thought it would be a great way to remind myself no, you are not pregnant, when I started to worry. Now I was wondering, so I thought it would be an easy way to put that thought to rest for another month. I had read about implantation cramps and bleeding, and I wondered if a little seed had planted itself in my uterus and caused the cramping last Sunday. I peed on a stick, put the cap back on and brushed my teeth while I was waiting the three minute to read the test.

I read the HPT packaging and insert in full when I bought it. The test explains, of course, how to use. It also explains how it works and how to read it. The home test will show a positive result by testing the amount of pregnancy hormone in your urine. It's called human chorionic gonadotropin or hCG. This hormone starts being produced immediately after implantation but can take a few days to register on a test. The HPT shows 98% accuracy if taken on the first day of your expected period. You can take it before but each day before it decreases in it's accuracy. Something like 68% accurate three days before your missed period.

The thing to really remember is you cannot get a false positive on an at home pregnancy test. You may get a negative result, but still be pregnant. It just means you don't have enough of that hCG hormone for the test to read yet. However, if you get a positive read, you are pregnant and that is a fact. No matter how faint that second line is, you've got a seed a-planted.


So there I was, with an eight dollar piece of plastic covered in my own urine. Three minutes had gone by and I looked at the test. There was a strong horizontal blue line and an ever so faint second vertical line, making a plus sign in the result window. I rubbed my eyes and looked again. I should have washed my hands, I probably peed on them. There was a line. It was there, but so faint. Could I actually be imagining the line? Was it really there? I took a picture, because as we all know, it would last longer. For me to look at again, and again, and again and again...

I went back to our bedroom where my husband was still asleep. I rested in beside him on the bed in the dim room. He started to stir as I whispered to him, "Honey, my uterus is magic. Something's a-stir in my underbelly. It sparkles so." A meek smile spread across his face with his eyes still closed.

First Day of Last Period: January 10th, 2013
Ovulation: January 25th (fifteen days after start of last period)
add some good old fashioned intercourse and you have fertilization! Ooh, sexy.
Implantation: February 3rd (nine days after ovulation)
Positive HPT: February 6th (3 days after implantation, 3 days before period was due)