It’s funny how time changes – you spend your younger years stressing and worrying thinking “Oh god, please don’t let me be pregnant”, and you move into maybe your 20’s and 30’s and suddenly the thought process is tilted on it’s head.

When I found out I was pregnant, I was shocked – like, speechless shocked so much that doctor had to look at me and say “I hope this silence is a good thing?” with a worried look. I had no idea – Chris and I hadn’t exactly been trying, but we hadn’t exactly been careful. In fact, we’d discussed the fact that we might need to consider the IVF route in the future.

Around my 25th birthday, my boobs were really big and sore. I actually brought a new dress online for my birthday, and didn’t try it on prior to the winery tour we were going on to celebrate (ha), and found it was too tight! I was so annoyed that I’d had to wear an ‘old’ dress, but even more annoyed that when I tried that on, I had a bit of a tummy as well! You can see in the pictures of my birthday, I’m wearing a shawl I kind of cinched at the waist, because I was feeling a bit self conscious – completely and blissfully unaware that I was pregnant!

Blissfully, ignorantly growing a bean inside me. Note the handy shawl to cover my “fat” tummy, and yes – I’m wearing cat ears.

I’ve never been good at tracking my periods, and I’d spent a majority of May and June traveling, so I figured everything would be a little out of whack. I actually even did a few pregnancy tests from the pharmacy the week before, and they were both negative. On the Monday after my ‘birthday festival” (again, I’m so sorry to my unborn child, I hope you like red wine), I decided on a whim to go to the doctors during my lunch break at work to the doctor and take a test there. I even remember joking to the girls about coming back pregnant – when the doctor told me that I was in fact “very” pregnant, well you know the rest. Apparently, I had very high levels of hCG (the pregnancy hormone), and ended up being about 6 weeks along.

My first ‘progress’ shot – ahh sweet memories, why does it take a photo like this to really appreciate your body?!

So I guess my point here is – don’t trust a home test. Numerous ones all came up negative for me, and the doctors are going to be the most accurate. Trust your instincts. And if you can’t remember your last period, and your birthday dress is super tight, well then hey – you might have just had too much cake, but it couldn’t hurt to drop into your GP!

Did you know you were pregnant? What kind of symptoms did you have?