Carsick

About my story of being 'carsick' the entire time in Yosemite… didn't have to do so much with a car as it did with a baby. Joe and I have been trying to get pregnant for a little over a year and a half. We decided we wanted to get pregnant in December of 2008, and figured it would pretty much happen overnight (that's how sex works, right?). When we didn't get pregnant right away, I was a little worried, but also a little relieved. We both still had a lot of school to finish, and I knew it would be 10 times harder with a baby. We were still 'trying', but kind of put the baby part of it in the back of our heads, thinking we would worry about what might be wrong after we graduated.

Now, here we were. In Yosemite for the week with our best friends. I kept mentioning little things throughout our trip like, "I feel like I am constantly carsick", and "I feel like since we got here I have to pee every hour", and "I think one of my fillings might be leaking… I've had a weird metal taste in my mouth all day". Mind you, I had no clue of any of the side effects of being first pregnant except that you feel sick. Even though I was constantly 'car'sick, it honestly never crossed my mind that it could be pregnancy. Finally, Cindy said, "I swear you are pregnant". I instantly rolled my eyes and assured her that I wasn't pregnant. I even made fun of the suggestion saying, "ya, because my baby is so huge it is pushing on my bladder, and that is why I have to pee so much". She of course went on to explain that a change takes place in your kidneys and bladder when you are first pregnant that filters out things faster, therefore increasing your peeing frequency. I still blew it off, thinking to myself, we've been trying for over a year and a half… why would it all the sudden happen now? There's no way.

The last day spent in a tent ready to throw up is when it really got me thinking. I am used to being sick after every car ride, and every ride I have ever been on for that matter, but it really had never lasted for days at a time. And, come to think of it, it was the 25th of the month and I usually start by the 15th at the very latest. Maybe it was all just a coincidence though. I thought of the possibilities in my head -- if I really was pregnant, that would put me due around the month of January. That is when I start my last semester of college, the busiest of them all! And I just signed up to run that half marathon in October… paid $65 bucks for that thing… non-refundable! You can't train for something like that when you are pregnant. That's it, I really am not pregnant. This is all just a huge coincidence.

After the long car ride of me stuffing my face with Laffy Taffys the whole time, we were home. Joe and I went and bought a pregnancy test (he made sure he had his wedding ring on before we left). I took it, and it came out 'invalid'. A horizontal line meant not pregnant, a plus sign meant pregnant. I got a vertical line. Bummer. I had Joe go get another one. Took it, and nothing came up this time… no line at all. Then I read the instructions that said "must urinate for at least 8 seconds for test to be accurate". I had peed for maybe 3 seconds. Bummer again. Next day I made Joe go get another one even though it was Sunday, and this time he came back with a double pack of the expensive brand. You only had to pee for 5 seconds, and it said it words "PREGNANT" or "NOT PREGNANT". Took that one, and finally got the result I was hoping for and dreading at the same time. How were we going to do it? How were we going to pay for it? I knew the second I came out of the bathroom and showed Joe that he was thinking the exact same thing. He was ecstatic, while at the same time scared out of his mind of what was to come.

We truly feel like the luckiest people in the world that we get to bring a baby into our little family. We feel completely unprepared, but that it was totally meant to be at this very time in our lives. It puts everything back into perspective, and makes you appreciate each other even more. I just started my summer semester (first math class in 7 years!!), and I am constantly sick. I snack on Goldfish the whole time I am at work from 8-12, and snack through my whole math class from 12-3. They aren't lying when they say nothing sounds good. And already I have a few things on my list of foods I will probably never eat again… most of them things we ate while in Yosemite: cheddar bratwursts, hummus & bagels, texas caviar, Laffy Taffy, dried mangoes, and 'sweet and salty' granola bars from Nature Valley. And at the top of my list: CURRY. Even the name makes me want to hurl. I made a big pot of chicken curry a few days before Yosemite, and ate A LOT of it. Usually love the stuff, but will probably never be able to even smell it again.