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When Two Weeks Feel Like a Year
Author: Stef Daniel
You ovulated. You know you did because after taking your basal body temperature and peeing on an ovulation detector strip (and it turned purple) you informed your spouse to come home in a romantic mood. And he did! Then, you held your legs up in the air for the required 10 minutes, didn’t take a bath, and held off urinating to make sure the sperm had ample opportunity to make their way to your awaiting egg. Two days later, you think you feel something. The day after that you see pregnant women and newborns everywhere you go, taking that as a sign from the Universe that you are pregnant. You smile more, then worry, then smile again, and wonder if you are really craving pickles or if it is just your imagination getting the best of you. Ugh, the next two weeks feels like an eternity.
Don’t worry; you aren’t the first women to take a pregnancy test after just a few days realizing, of course, that implantation can take several more days. Then… it’s here. You are a few days from expecting your period and you feel different. But then again you always feel different before your period. Are you pregnant, or are you crazy? It can be hard to tell.
The best advice is to remove the stress from the situation. Certainly, you can’t stop thinking about it or push something as important as having a baby completely out of your mind. But don’t let it rule your life and try not to create symptoms and signs. In fact, if you are pregnant, your life will change so drastically so fast that you should savor these last few weeks of freedom.
There are also plenty of tests that can tell you five or even seven days sooner. The truth is that once you have sex, the sperm fertilizes the egg, and the egg implants – it can take the full two weeks for HCG to start building up in your system. Home pregnancy tests are pretty accurate; however, they aren’t magical and won’t be able to tell you that you are pregnant until relevant amounts of the human pregnancy hormone begin building up.
From the point of having sex, try to wait at least 9 days before taking a test. Why? Because taking one and having it come up negative can be devastating, especially after building yourself into such a frenzy of emotions. If you wait, then a little pink or blue line will appear (even faintly) and you will know. Once you know, a whole new set of ideas and worries will consume you. If you take a pregnancy test and the line is barely there or not at all, save your money and wait a few more days to take another. HCG doubles in your body daily, so there should be plenty of it in just a few days.
The two-week wait is hideous. Regardless of how the test turns out – you can rest assured that you are simply on the brink of a lifetime of waiting and worry. If it doesn’t turn out the way you had hoped or planned, take heart – the majority of women require 3-5 months to get pregnant. Most importantly, keep yourself busy and stay away from the ice cream and deviled eggs until you really deserve them.
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