How I found out

When my period didn't arrive on time in early March, I didn't think too much of it because I thought it might have been distrupted by my travelling schedule (I was still in India at that point). I thought it was just delayed, because I had classic pre-period symptoms - mild cramps, sore boobs, feeling a bit irritable, sweaty and uncomfortable.

Happened to chat to Jenny and told her about it, and she jokingly asked if I was pregnant. I said "No lah! How can? I am having classic PMS. It's just delayed and will turn up soon."

Tthat's when she told me that pregnancy symptoms are actually quite similar to pre-period symptoms. She said I should just buy a home test kit and try since it was quite cheap. I checked online for pregnancy symptoms and realised that they were indeed, quite similar to pre-menstrual symptoms.

On March 9th, after lunch with friends, I passed by a pharmacy and curious, I bought one of the cheapest kits I could find. Alone at home in the afternoon, I tested. I read the instructions carefully to make sure that I was following it to a T and went ahead.

My first reaction?

I was skeptical.

I even did a 2nd home test 2 days later, which turned out positive (but of course) but I was still not convinced. I happened to be on some antibiotics at the time and I read on the instruction sheet that certain meds might create a false positive result. In truth, I was also a little apprehensive of the possibility that I really was preggers, and so I refused to believe until I saw a doctor to confirm it.

When I told Kisu about the test results he was slightly stunned, it took him a while to adjust before he had it stuck in his head that I was pregnant. I still kept saying that we couldn't be sure until we checked with a doctor, but he told me: "All I know is that those home test things are VERY accurate." I was still pooh-poohing him until the gynae appointment.

At the risk of being called flippant or insensitive, I just didn't believe that it was that easy to get pregnant.

I have many friends who have been trying and trying, and it was after hearing about all their accounts that I went off contraception in the first place. I decided to leave it to chance given that I'm not a spring chicken anymore. Jenny, who is my most knowledgeable friend in the pregnancy arena, has long given me stats and figures about how fertility drops as women age:

Chances of getting pregnant each month/ovulation cycle:

20s: 20 - 30%
early 30s: 20%
35: 16 - 20%
37: 14%
Over 40 : 5%

My gynae appointment was on Tuesday, March 13th. Ironically, I had made the appointment way beforehand, before even the possibility of being pregnant crossed my mind - it was for some period complications that I'd been having (another reason why I was doubtful - I thought it was just another screwed up period)

I arrived and before seeing the doc, the nurse as usual took my blood pressure, weight and then sat me down to ask me when my last period was. I said I had missed it. The conversation follows:

Nurse: "You are pregnant then?"
Me: "I dunno. I took a test at home but then I'm also on some antibiotics, so I'm not really sure. I read that medication can affect the results...."

And the classic line....

Nurse: "Medicine is medicine. Pregnant is pregnant. When was the date of your last period?"
Me (?!!!!): "1st or 2nd of March, i think....can't quite remember"
Nurse (impatiently): "Is it 1st or 2nd?" (gosh this nurse was very precise...if I remembered the exact date I would have told her, wouldn't I?!)
Me: "2nd lah"
Nurse consults a pregnancy calendar and proclaims the expected due date (EDD) to be 9th November.
Nurse: "Do you want to do another urine test or just let the doctor scan?", then
Nurse: "I think just scan lah, the urine test will be the same as what you did at home."
Then, as a concession, she smiled at me and said "Congratulations!"

(*this is nurse Doris, and since then she's always been the one to check on me before I see the doc each time I've been there for a consult..she's actually quite motherly and nice and gives me advice on how to deal with my nausea!)

I was slightly light headed as I wafted back to the waiting room, waiting to be called to the doctor's room.

And that was it. The scan showed the embryo and a little yolk sac.
I was still reeling.

After the news kind of settled (as much as it can on the 1st day), I started (in horror) recounting what I did when I was (unknowingly) pregnant:

+ indulged in a night of heavy drinking (lots of whiskey) and 2nd hand smoke inhalation during a clubbing session with my cousins in KL over CNY
+ bumped up and down vigourously on the back of a jeep on some really rough roads in kerala
+ carried heavy luggage during the India trip
+ ate all sorts of random food in India (thank God I didn't get food poisoning)

I concluded that baby sung was a little toughie if it had made it this far!