Sittin around waitin on two pink lines

I think we all can remember back to anatomy class in high school, c’mon think WAY back…

A woman’s cycle, blah blah blah.

Until recently I thought of myself as pretty knowledgeable when it came to sexual health and the miracle of life, after all I did take the dirty 230 my sophomore year of college. But what I didn’t know is that the 1 ½ weeks between ovulation and your next potential period time literally slows to half speed.

It’s scientifically proven.

It’s true, counting days, charting symptoms and doin the…dirty all leads up to the universe slowing down.  The day after you finish your “fertile cycle” you are just DIEING to pee on a stick, let me tell you how big of a letdown that is. Even if your one little tiny egg was invaded by one little tiny sperm it’s going to take about a week to show up on a pee test, if you’re lucky! For some women it can take up to two before the hormone levels are high enough to be detected. But for some reason, even knowing these facts- you still take a pee test and the inevitable disappointment is there when it only shows one pink line.

Let’s get into implantation cramps and bleeding, {sounds like a blast right?} after spending a couple quality work hours researching my oh so trusty google, I was able to come to the conclusion that: some women feel them, some women don’t. Some women spot a little, some women don’t. Basically, every woman is different, and your body may or may not experience these things. Leading me to think that any time I felt ANYTHING going on down there a little moster was in the works. These anything feelings include: gas, a full bladder, jeans being too tight, hunger, constipation…yadda yadda {anything}…

It’s amazing how even the slightest chance that you may have successful combined egg and sperm inside you makes you change some of your daily habits. Even without the two pink lines, I’ve cut down on drinking both coffee and alcohol. I make a conscience decision to stress less, and I have cut out most of the items on the bad food list.

So, the waiting game continues. Having taken a pee test already this week, I’m trying my darndest to wait until the day comes next week when I could potentially wake up with that oh-uh I shouldn’t have worn white pjs to sleep feeling.

Getting your period when you and the hubby are trying to conceive is like nature gut punching you and saying “you suck at sex”. At least that’s how I felt before a wise old woman gave me a very valuable piece of advice.  (Okay she’s not old, but older than me, and that qualifies for wisdom)

She said “it really will happen when it is supposed to happen”. This wise old woman has a 3 month old beautiful baby girl, and she put it into perspective for me “to think that if it had been any other egg, or any other sperm I wouldn’t have the baby I have now. And I just can’t imagine not having this baby”.

So even if I awake in a blood bath next week, I’ll know that it just wasn’t the egg/sperm combo we are meant to have.

Cross your fingers for us.

Two of a kind working on a full house

Over the holiday weekend I came to the realization as I was sitting in the sunshine drinking spiked lemonade that hubby and I are drawing nearer on our days as a twosome. As ecstatic as I am to be adding ten more fingers and ten more toes to our household, I can’t help but want to savor every second that we have as a newlywed {childless} couple. I have declared that this is exactly what I’ll do until the delivery day comes. I’m going to drink up the two of us, relishing every moment.

I remember in 9^th grade when a school project was to carry around a robotic doll that required feeding, changing and recorded how long you let it cry or if you shook it too hard. I feel like hubby and I need to take that course again. I don’t know how anyone could ever feel prepared. Talk about emotional anxiety, I’m not even pregnant yet and I’m already feeling inadequate!

It’s hard to fathom how radically our lives will change with a new addition to our family, sure we have to be home to walk the dog a couple times a day now, but in a matter of months that will all change. I have the last Friends episode airing over and over again in my mind…it’s the end of an era. In a way I’m not saying goodbye to the late nights, I’ll be up all night with baby. I’ll be spending hours bathing baby instead of soaking my high-heel sore feet in a hot soapy tub and I’ll be changing diapers instead of changing wardrobes. I’ll always cherish the life I’ve lived but I cherish the promise of my future 100 times more.

There will be lots of laughter, and tears and of course those sleepless nights you hear so often about. But it’s all worth it, or so I’m told…

Dirt Under Your Nails

Hubby and I spent the weekend at our favorite place in the world, Bickleton Washington; The Bluebird capital of the world, and home of the "oldest still in operation" tavern in Washington. Also home to Nana and Papa Gray, my family has been farming and ranching in Bickleton since 1896, I've always felt that as soon as you hit the gravel road your anxiety, stress and worries bounce right out window to be forgotten about until a later day. Time has a way of slowing down. Skies seem bluer and grass greener.

The four of us spent Saturday playing card games and dominoes while gazing out into the rainy pastures and fields, I could listen to my Papa’s stories for hours, remembering all the years he had prayed for rain like this to cover the crops; so many years the rain didn’t come, not this late in the year.

Sunday we woke to a gorgeous sunny day. Papa and Hubby head off to an old barn to do some scavenging in its final days of being upright. This is one of the last of its kind, and will soon be dismantled and sold for pieces.

Nana and I took advantage of the sunshine and took a walk to the mailbox, taking the opportunity for a few last pictures of the barn. We were then instructed by the hard working men to provide a “beverage service” to their thirsty bodies. We high-tailed it back to the house and brought them back some fine refreshments on the luxury booze wagon.

We ended our visit with a fried clam feast, which Nana and Papa had just dug out at the latest clam tide in Oregon.

As we drive down the Glade back to reality, Hubby and I reflect on how great it is to spend such quality time with people who truly love us and can offer us so much knowledge and advice in life love and marriage.  

We are so blessed.

Grass Between Your Toes

This is more than just a blog about getting pregnant, being pregnant and raising babies, this blog is my expression of that grass between your toes, sunshine on your skin feeling that you get when you are overcome with joy, happiness and most of all L.O.V.E.

Of course the name of my blog would be misleading if I wasn’t on my own baby watch 2011. July will mark month one with no birth control. My husband and I are very excited to be adventuring into parenthood and creating a family over the next coming days; months; years.

I’m hoping that this blog will allow me and my ever growing {belly} family to fill my down time, all the while giving people an insight into the love and happiness that fills our house.

With so many changes in the days to come I wanted a way for my loved ones to feel like they are lying in the grass, counting the stars beside me. Trust me you are with me every night.