Two (Fuzzy) Pink Lines

For months - about 18, to be exact - I've been using early pregnancy tests (because I am impatient - and if you are dealing with or have dealt with infertility, you know what I'm talking about). They'd all been negative - through temperature taking, ovulation predictor sticks, IUIs and Clomid - all negative. So, you'd think that I'd know exactly what a negative test looks like.

But two weeks ago, as I stared at the EPT test, I couldn't tell if the faint, faint, faint second line I was seeing was a mistake or just the way a negative test looks - or if it was actually positive.

My advice to you - if you're as impatient as I am and feel like every day of your cycle lasts two weeks - is to keep the test lying there for a little while. I know they tell you not to - but when the tests were negative, no matter how long I left the test sitting, the one line stayed one line.

But this time was different. After a few hours, there was a second line!

It was fuzzy and much lighter than the test line, but it was definitely a second line. Or was it?

My husband thought so. So I called my sister - who has two kids - and after finishing screaming in happiness, she told me that in both of her pregnancies, she got a fuzzy second line when she was pregnant. "Oh my God!" she yelled, "You are totally pregnant!"

And she was totally right. I had a blood test three days later which confirmed the fuzzy line (and by the way, if you get a fuzzy line, spring for a digital home test - you'll get a YES or NO or PREGNANT or NOT PREGNANT - lots easier than deciphering the fuzziness of lines.

So, I'm now a whopping 23 days pregnant - or five weeks - since they count the pregnancy from the first day of your last period (wierd). And every day I am convinced that it's not real or that it won't last - every time I go to the bathroom I expect to get my period.

What's normal that you might think is not (or at least it's what I'm experiencing): period-like cramps, sore and wierd-feeling breasts as early as a week after ovulation, slight nausea (mine is worst in the afternoon) and feeling hungry all the time (but not wanting to eat more than a small meal).

More on those - and other info - later.