and then I heard the most beautiful words.....

November 9, 2006: I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was beyond nervous and cautiously excited. I had to be up at the crack of dawn to head to the hospital lab to get my blood drawn before going to work. I knew that I had a long 4-5 hours ahead of me at work before the results too. Just like every other time for the last 4 years, I knew the routine, grab the squishy ball, squeeze your hand a few times to get the blood flowing and then a little stick and you're all done. Trust me, I've had my share of bad sticks and there are plenty of phlebotomist that need to find new careers.

On to work I went, trying my hardest to keep as busy as possible. After lunch I just couldn't take it anymore and called the doctor's office to see if they had my results. The nurse put me on hold to check and came back with the most beautiful words I've ever heard....."congratulations, you're pregnant" Words escaped my brain, my eyes whelled up with tears and all I could muster out of my mouth was "Are you sure?"

Four long, heart wrenching years went by, procedure after procedure and time after time my body failed me. Finally we got the best news that I could ever receive. I was chatting with Jay via the messanger and he asked if I had gotten the results yet while I was on the phone with the nurse but my fingers wouldn't work and I really didn't want to tell him via messanger. The nurse followed up with my instructions for medication, follow up blood work and when I would come in to get my first ultrasound. So I called Jay and told him and I could tell in his voice that he was just beside himself and if he could, he would have been jumping all over his office.

Of course what does a person do once they receive "real" news that they are pregnant? Go out and buy a pregnancy test. I think I've put at least 1 or 2 executive's kids from First Response through college with the number of tests that I've bought over the years so by the time we started doing IVF, I swore that I wouldn't take a home pregnancy test before the blood test. I didn't even have any spare ones at home, I was trying to be really good.