My husband, Trent and I put a lot of thought into having kids of our own. After we got married, we were unsure if having kids was something we wanted to do. I know this sounds selfish, and you’re right. Trent and I have such a great relationship and life, that the thought of something changing our “perfect” life, (significantly) was difficult for us to commit to. After a lot of discussion, we decided, kids it was!

Now I am a planner. While spontaneously having sex to at some point hopefully get pregnant sounds fun, it’s just not for me. I work at a middle school, so I get the summer off. Considering we don’t get maternity leave (that is a whoooole soapbox i’m sure you’ll read about soon) I wanted to try to have a due date between March and May. This way, I would have the remainder of the school year off and the entire summer off with the baby. My thinking was that I would be able to return to work in the fall when school started back up. My job is really important to me. As a school social worker, the beginning and end of the school year are typically always difficult for students. It was important to me to start the fall with my students, so we could build our therapeutic relationship from the start of the year.

It had been decided. June of 2022 would be baby making month! I had been on birth control since I was 15 due to ovarian cysts and migraines. Therefore, I had no idea what my cycle would be like and what I should expect when getting off the pill. Naturally, I took to Tik Tok to find ways women tracked their ovulation. I knew tracking my ovulation would give us the best chance at getting pregnant within my planned out timeline. This brought me to the “Premom” app. (10/10 recommend this by the way) The Premom app walked me through their ovulation sticks to buy and the app that tracked your cycle, telling you when to start testing as they predicted your “ovulation window.” I bought the ovulation tests and downloaded the app. I followed the app closely. On the day it told me to start ovulation testing, I did! There I was, peeing into a cup twice a day, dunking the ovulation stick in, watching the die rise, and staring as I (not very patiently) waited to see the test line show up. What I was not prepared for, was the sadness that came from low ovulation levels, time and time again. My mind started to race and the Googleing commenced. “Ovulation after birth control” found its way into my search bar. I scrolled and scrolled finding answers that I termed both good and bad.

However, I didn’t give up. In fact through my ovulation testing, I realized how badly I wanted to be pregnant. I finally started to see a small spike. The Premom app allows you to take a picture of your ovulation test, and it gives you a rating with a number, that “rates” your LH (ovulation hormone) levels. This test showed a jump from .28 to .41, along with a darker line than I had seen on all my tests so far. This started to give me hope. Finally, the day came. The line was dark and beautiful. The rating was a .86. The next day was a 1.75 and the app indicated that I was hitting “peak ovulation.” I was so jacked I shoved the pee stick in my husbands face, forcing him to tell me how beautiful it was. As you can imagine, he was just excited for what he knew was coming next! (Wink Wink)

As the app recommended, we “baby danced” on the day before the peak, the day of the peak, and the day after. The pressure this put on us did for a moment make me wish we were going the spontaneous route, but it was too late for that, and I don’t regret going about it the way we did.

Next, was the dredged “two week wait” as the app referred to it. Conception would have been June 19th, 20th, and 21st. I waited until June 30th to take my first pregnancy test. Knowing it was likely too soon, I couldn’t wait any longer. The test was negative and I was a little upset, but I knew we tracked ovulation closely and I was keeping the faith. The next pregnancy test I took was July 1st. I had a jankey Dollar Tree pregnancy test, so I talked myself into taking it “just for fun” since I didn’t trust it. It was negative. Trent’s sister got married on July 2nd, so I took a test the morning of the wedding, mostly to confirm I would be partaking in Bud Light drinking. The test was again, negative. (Although I ended up only having one beer, just to be safe) At this point I was starting to get sad, but my self talk came in strong and positive. I was started to feel off, and I just knew that regardless of the negative results on the pregnancy tests, I knew I was pregnant.

July 3rd came and we spent the day out at the lake fishing. The weather was rainy, as it always is on the 4th of July weekend, so we came back into town fairly early. Because I have no self control, I talked myself into yet another pregnancy test. We have a funky bathroom sink. It doesn’t sit flat. So anytime I would take a pregnancy test, I would always set it on top of a toilet paper roll to keep it level. So, that’s what I did. I peed on the pregnancy test, and set it on a roll of toilet paper on the tank of the toilet. As I finished peeing and went to get up, I glanced back at the test and only saw the control line. As I sighed with disappointment, I continued looking at the test as I stood up. As I got vertical and was over the test, ever so slightly, a second pink line was forming.

I know myself. I know that there are secrets I can keep and secrets that I won’t even pretend I can keep. Therefore, before I got off birth control and we started trying to get pregnant, I bought Trent a cute onesie. This was going to be my way of telling him we were pregnant. Fast forward back to me pulling my pants up and seeing the test line develop on the pregnancy test, I opened the bathroom door, test in hand, and shouted “I THINK I’M PREGNANT!!!”

-Kenz

For those of you trying to get pregnant, it is worth noting that if I would have just used “the calendar method” to track my ovulation based on my cycle length, I would not have gotten pregnant. The app predicted my ovulation a full week before I actually ovulated. Use ovulation tests!