This morning I had an identical temp to yesterday, and was feeling BURNING hot in bed on waking (even at 6.30am!), so I thought for sure it would be minimum 36.8-something or 36.9, but it was 36.78 again. Nearly as high though, and no drop. Flat temps, hmmm! I've had flat temps before in pregnant cycles, but not for quite a few babies! :)
8DPO is the earliest I will let myself test, and since that day had finally arrived, and my temp was high, I decided to. I only had 2 expired tests (25miU at that) but with my first-morning-urine (which I had urgently needed since the early hours but saved just in case!), I decided I might as well use them as not. I expected a total negative result because I'm only 8DPO (and have never had a positive test before 9DPO - and have even had negative results at 9DPO before when pregnant too), but otherwise they'd go in the bin when replaced by the ones coming in the post today anyway. So I used one. And there was a faint line! Took 5-10 mins to show (negative must be confirmed by waiting 5-10 mins as per instructions) and super faint, but I was juuust about able to get it to show in a photo, and there's some extremely faded pink colour to it! :) The only way I could get it to show up enough was to make the photo darker and black and white. It's such a barely-there line that I wouldn't call it a positive - or I would feel unsure charting a positive test result... Anyway, here's the photo from this morning's test:
I knew my new pregnancy tests would be arriving in the post today at some point, so I decided to keep the urine I used for the test, as the tests arriving would be more sensitive (10miU). I did buy a few 25miU tests as well. They arrived mid-morning, and I dipped a 10miU test in my FMU. It looked negative after the first couple of minutes (you have to wait until 10 to rule out a negative result in the new tests too) and the children were interrupting me all the time at the bathroom door (you can't imagine how hard it was to photograph the earlier test - I had to smuggle the camera into the bathroom in a basket of clean laundry, lol!). So I left it, and returned at around the 10 minute mark, to find a faded PINK fat line, just about visible. I don't think it was an evaporation line as it was too soon for that, I think, and there was colour to the line... BUT still too faint to call positive. I didn't get chance to take a photo but I'm pretty sure I would have struggled to get it to even show up on a photo, and I didn't have time to fiddle with it! :P Later in the day, when I went back to look at it, I wasn't sure if I could see anything at all really, so I was a bit confused because I just KNOW in my knower that I'm properly pregnant, and am just waiting for the tests to catch up with the fact and show it! :P I feel a bit silly and guilty as though I'm being complacent, but I can't explain it. I just know. Did I mention this yesterday? I can't remember. It feels like ages since I last updated, but my last entry says "7DPO" so it must have only been yesterday! ;) I feel like I shouldn't be so sure of myself about it, but I'm not trying to be. Last cycle I had SO many pregnancy symptoms and was sure I was pregnant (and I was), but even so, I was constantly hoping and wondering each evening that my temp might not drop. Often I felt doubtful, even in spite of the symptoms. Not this cycle, it feels so different. I am almost doing my days without dwelling on my luteal phase at all. I am not even obsessing much at all! I feel strangely as though I am just biding my time and waiting until enough time has passed that I can see those positive tests that I'm already feeling on the inside. I feel further on in pregnancy than I actually am, which is a statement that makes NO sense whatsoever, and I can't explain it, but there it is. I'm NOT further on, I just feel... further along! :/ Confusing, sorry! I can't describe it any other way!
I have been having more heartburn than usual for the past few days, and it's been bothersome ALL day today, on and off. I've had a lot of trouble with morning sickness type feelings, and my nose has become super sensitive today - very handy when trying to track down a dodgy smell somewhere in the kitchen (!!) but not so handy when it makes me feel queasy to smell things! I opened the back door this morning and in 0.3 seconds I knew a cat had pooed in the garden overnight. Ugh! If it hadn't been pouring with rain I would have had a walk about to see if I could sniff out where it was!
I feel really quite crampy today. Mostly mild cramps... My backache from yesterday is still pretty bad, but more crampy/pully than injury today. I have had some definite pulling and twinges inside my hips though, on both sides, but more persistently on my right side (where the back (injury?) pain and radiating abdominal pain was yesterday). I have been more crampy this afternoon and evening, worse than mild cramps, but I am not sure if they could be classed as bad cramps, even for me... Charting bad cramps for now. Definitely more than mild cramps... I have a slight sore throat on once side this pm/eve, which is worsening a little. It has been hanging around mildly for a day or so, NOT viral, just more like that "is it/isn't it a sore throat" thing that I've had in the 2WW before sometimes.
Neil says my skin MAY be weirdly soft - especially on my left cheek, lol! I'm not sure either. He will check again tomorrow. :)
I had another yucky afternoon/evening feeling queasy with everything smelling of old car, yesterday. Today, the queasy feeling started at 10.30am!! It is making me SO nervous... :/ I'm only just at 3 weeks - what on earth would I be like at 4 and a half (when it started with Lydia)?! Or SIX (when it started with most of the boys, and kicked into a higher gear with Lydia)?!! I could be actually vomiting, which I am SO VERY THANKFUL to have avoided thus far in my reproductive career! :/ The difference today was that I didn't have so much of the car smell. Chewing my finger/fingernails makes me feel a bit yucky (definite morning sickness sign - aaaargh! This doesn't usually happen until another couple of weeks have passed!!!!), and I have had a yucky metallic taste in my mouth some of the time this afternoon and evening. I have just felt mildly queasy in the background of everything. I made roast chicken, etc. for dinner, and making the gravy at 6.30pm made me feel gaggy, just the consistency made me feel a bit sick, and then slightly gaggy as I was watching it being stirred in the pan. I am most definitely absolutely pregnant. I wasn't sure if I could eat the dinner, even though I wasn't feeling too sick or anything, when I sat down to it. I ate it anyway - oh and I felt sick at lunch time and made myself a ham and cheese and cucumber sandwich, which I felt slightly queasy eating, and then felt better for eating straight away, followed by slightly queasy not long after finishing (morning sickness pattern, for me). I'm also noticing an ever so slightly bitter taste to food, especially crisps. I almost gagged on a parsnip this evening - not the sweeter tip, but the part nearer to the root that sometimes has that... yucky, almost garlicky taste - can't describe it, but it made me almost physically gag when I was chewing it. DEFINITELY pregnant. No other possible reason in the whole wide world. Just impatient for the tests to confirm it! ;)
Right before the boys went to bed tonight, I was upstairs getting pyjamas, and needed a wee, and was suddenly seized with the urge to test again! I felt quite silly as I'm STILL 8DPO, and have already crazily tested today, lol! But I hadn't been for a good long while (5/6 hours at least?), and had a pack of 10 super early tests to use up which will sit around for ages (ever?!) once I know I'm pregnant and don't need them any more! :P So I used another. That's what super early tests are for, right?! ;)
Well, after a few minutes, it looked negative, so I went out of the bathroom to finish getting the pyjamas for the little boys. The window on the wasn't 100% white yet, but almost completely, and I'd been there at least 5 mins. When I had finished gathering clothes, I came back - just before the 10 minute mark I would think, though I wasn't timing it. There looked like a very faint line, with colour, and fat, not a thin stripe, like this morning but I didn't have time to compare them, and thought not much of it, since it was obviously no different to earlier and I would likely test again in the morning anyway. Finally after the boys were prayed for, and snuggled, and going to sleep, I had chance to sneak back into the bathroom to collect both this morning's and this evening's tests for detailed examination downstairs (and to show Neil), around 9.15pm! ;) There IS a line! I can barely make out a shadow of one on this morning's test, but there's more of a shadowy line on this evening's than this morning's!!! :D I handed them to Neil and he squinted at them for AGES, not seeing anything. He often can't see the super duper faint lines on early tests that I can see. He says, "Nah!" and then I have to point a pencil tip at where I mean him to see the almost non-existent line, lol! And sometimes he sees it, then. Sometimes not. Anyway, he was very patient with me! ;) He took his glasses off, and held the tests at various angles, and then suddenly said, "Oh!" And I said, "Which one?" He said, "The bottom one." and pointed at the shadowy line. I told him the top test was this morning's and the bottom test was this evening's. :) I think I could almost call it a BFP (this evening's not this morning's), but Neil says he thinks I need something more visible to call it one, so I'm not sure what to chart right now. But obvious progression - yay! Now that I'll be testing only 12 hours from now (presuming my temp doesn't drop, which for some inexplicable reason, I have no qualms about - even though it COULD happen, pregnant or not, I just feel so sure I'm pregnant and it's not about to end), there might not actually be any difference in the line tomorrow morning from this evening's... Oh well. I will see. I can't NOT test tomorrow morning with FMU though, can I?! ;)
OH! I forgot to say here, because it happened after I updated my blog, in the afternoon - I was leaning on the bannisters upstairs, talking to Benjamin who was playing in one of the bedrooms, and Arthur appeared on the stairs and said, "Mummy? Have you got a baby in your tummy?" I was totally floored and just opened and closed my mouth, and was not awfully cool about it, lol! I didn't give him an answer, just said, "What makes you ask that?!" and he told me, "Matthew said he thinks you've got a baby in your tummy, so I came to ask if you have!" Then Matthew appeared next to him, smiling away. I could NOT help smiling, aaaargh, I tried so hard to keep a straight face, because they're old enough at 8 and 10!!!! I don't want to give anything away before it's 100%, and even then I would prefer to let them know later than this! Anyway, I asked Matthew the same question, and he said it was because he looked up the stairs and saw me leaning on the bannisters in a certain way, as though I was "trying to feel.... maybe a baby inside?!" Bless! I said, as far as I KNOW (because I had no positive test yesterday), there isn't, but I felt a bit guilty saying that, as I felt instinctively that I DO have a baby growing inside me. :/ The fact that he said that makes me even more excited, because he did that with Lydia's pregnancy at 6DPO, just randomly, the same as yesterday (7DPO). :) Arthur has also done this in very early pregnancies before, when he hadn't yet known about my pregnancy. Or children (Nathan and Matthew) have randomly started discussing a name for the next baby while I was waiting to test once! Seems like a good pregnancy sign to me! ;)
Happy note: Matthew was VERY disappointed that I wasn't pregnant. He said he would REALLY like another baby, and he doesn't mind if it's a girl or a boy, just another baby would be so lovely. Love that boy! :)
I will update tomorrow! :)