2 Pink Lines!

Week 5: Our Story Begins....

Our story begins on a trip to Arizona. We were visiting our family on the west coast, and I knew it was that dreadful time of the month again. The time when not only is it painful because you get sharp, knife stabbing, intolerable cramps; but, just to drive it home of how much physical pain you are in--you get the "1 liner" pregnancy test. Whoever thought that 1 pink line could cause so many tears? I told Steve I wanted to take a test when we were here, because it would be so much fun to find out we were having a baby. He suggested that we hold off until I get home in case we were bound for disappointment.

We decided to go to the gym and burn off some of the massive amounts of wine we drank the day before. I had a great run, and was extremely sweaty (more than usual). While we were working out I kept smelling bleach; a pungent ammonia smell. As I went to get in the shower, I realized that smell was all over my clothes--coming from me!!! I picked up my soaking wet clothes, took a sniff, and it was as if I had dumped them into a bucket of bleach! I immediately thought something was wrong with me. Could I be sick, am I poisoned? What was a girl to do but jump on the computer and GOOGLE!

The Google search led me to a lot of websites for woman going through menopause. They said a quick spike in hormonal changes could create this smell in their sweat. Then a light bulb went off in my head. I got that indescribable feeling that I "knew" I was pregnant. Pregnancy causes rapid hormonal change. I knew that had to be the reason. Little did I know for the next 2 weeks just how high my hormones were rapidly changing. I ran this "theory"by my sister-in-law Kristy, who has a background in nursing; she was right on board!

Later that day I went to Walmart with my niece Chelsea. We bought a pregnancy test. She was so excited, I made sure to let her know not to get her hopes up. I also told her I wasn't going to tell Steve I was buying a test, and to keep it top secret for now. We picked up her boyfriend on the way home from the store. When he got in the car he "wreaked of laundry detergent". At that very moment, I knew for sure I must be pregnant; and I could not wait to get home and take that test!

I ran straight up to the bathroom to pee on that once dreaded stick. My entire Metzler family was in the kitchen making Mojitos. I sat down, closed my eyes, and did the "stick thing" for what felt like the 1,000,000th time. I felt too nervous to look, I thought that those 3 minutes of waiting time would go by soooo slowly. Much to my surprise, those 2 glorious, most beautiful, hot pink lines showed up on the test within a matter of seconds! I hear a lot of woman have to take more than one test because the second line might be faint. Well, my line was not at all, it was screaming hot pink saying "You did it, you really, really did it!!!".

I ran to the top of the steps and called out for Steve. He would not come. Kristy came over to see what all the screaming was all about. I just looked at her, with tears in my eyes, and nodded my head in a frantic yes. She immediately began to tear up, and called for Steve to come. It seemed like ages for Steve to mosey over and come up the steps. I ran towards the bathroom, and as he begrudgingly followed (not knowing the reason for my "craziness") I started to cry, jump, and dance---I sang out "We did it, we are pregnant".

Steve looked white with excitement and nervousness. He laughed a little and said, "Don't those things come with 2, try again". We laughed, and I refused; secretly afraid it would go away. We ran down the steps and shared our amazing news with his brothers, their wives, and our 7 awesome nieces and nephews. We called our families, they were all full of the same tears of joy that we all felt. We spent the next two weeks in a bubble of shock, celebration, and happiness. We bought the classic "What to Expect When Your Expecting", and talked about our new future ahead.

As we flew home I wrote a very long letter to our future baby. I told him or her this very story, and shared my dreams of our new life with him or her. There is no word that can define how we felt-- our family was about to get bigger, our love was about to get stronger--and still we had no idea the "surprise" we would soon find out in the next two weeks....