I used to hear stories of women that claimed they didn’t know they were pregnant and gave birth thinking they had heartburn or gastritis.  I thought they were insane.  How could you NOT know?  When I was pregnant with my first I had symptoms before I knew. With my second it took a couple weeks to sink in, but I knew.  I got HUGE with my first, but only had a bump for my second. 

So I thought all these women were nuts.

Then it happened to me.

When Riley was born we agreed that was it. Two was our limit. We were done, finito, kaput.  I was breastfeeding, had the pill and we took…other precautions.  At no time was there less than 3 forms of birth control happening.

When Riley was 4 months old her reflux came to the forefront, as did her FTT. I stopped breastfeeding and switched to formula in a desperate attempt to have her gain weight (what a joke…but that’s a diferent story). 

All of the health care visits for Riley kept me busy.  Not to mention working nights waitressing.  I was busy, tired, and not paying much attention.

In December I wrote the following on my LiveJournal entry:

I feel pregnant still/again. Nearly 100% sure I’m not…because it would be almost physically impossible to be…and if I was, I’d be about 6 months along right now and a bit bigger than I am…so I think I have another cyst. Probably pretty nasty too, because when I was taking a bath the other night I realized one side of my abdomen is relatively solid. There’s definitely something in there. I’m still 10 lbs. above pre-preggers weight and I don’t eat a ton…I eat like I always have. My boobs are still a cup size over pre-preggers and leaking…and I’m moody as Hell…I’ve started getting the sharp pains around my ovary area that I got when I had my last one…but they aren’t as frequent.

So what did I do?  Nothing. 

January came around and about mid-month my eyes flew open at 5:30AM.  Mind you, I am nowhere near a morning person – if I DO Wake up at that time I’m usually half-dead.  But no, that day I woke up WIDE awake.  I placed my hand on my stomach and said, “What the hell?”  It felt like a baby kicking. 

So what did I do?  Blew it off as gas.

It was another TWO WEEKS before I randomly picked up a pregnancy test at the grocery store for kicks.  Because really…there was NO WAY I was pregnant!  Right?

Test came up positive.  I freaked.  Bawling my eyes out crying.  All the reasons we could NOT have another kid racing through my head I called Archie and asked him to come home.  Despite my protests that I couldnt tell him over the phone, he forced it out of me and was home 20 minutes later. 

I still didn’t believe it.  I called the doctor’s office and my wonderful nurse (LOVE her!) told me to come in first thing in the morning and she’d draw the blood.  I had to wait another 24 hours but my wonderful nurse (again, LOVE her) called me before they even opened to let me know she’d snuck a peak into the computers pre-paperwork and gotten my results.  I was in fact pregnant.  She then said…

“Let me see if we can get schedule you in about 4 weeks out. By these numbers I’d say you’re very early, about 4 weeks.”

My response was immediate:

“No.  You don’t understand.  My FIRST symptom was the baby kicking!  I think I’m WAY beyond 4 weeks.”

In shock she agreed that we had to get in for an ultrasound ASAP. 

4 days later I found out the sex of the baby…on her first ultrasound. 

I was 23 weeks. 

She was born at 36 weeks.

The doctor said I set a speed record for him in pregnancies.

In my defense, after this visit my pregnancy did far more than set a speed record.  It was like the minute my pregnancy was confirmed my body took it as a big thumbs up to REALLY let loose.

I had SEVERE pain (Pubic Symphysis Diastasis) – so bad I couldn’t roll over in bed at night. I blew up and looked pregnant within a week (I hadn’t up until then). I was put on modified bed rest within a month of my ultrasound – true bedrest when I went into pre-term labor at 35 weeks (lifted @36 weeks).  It became almost a nightmare once I knew I was pregnant…

But for 23 weeks I didn’t know I was pregnant!