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Nicole the Fertile Chick: The Two-Week Wait
It’s a song and dance…that two week wait. Before you know it, another one rolls by, and you have to decide how to deal with it each time. It’s such a peculiar time in a woman’s cycle, that is reacted to as differently as each woman’s personal situation.
For Ms Not-Trying-Not-Protecting (NTNP), she is happily oblivious of this window. Apart from the obligatory period of her menstrual flow, she breezes through her cycle, totally unmindful. She is often newly married, or married with a child or two, generally not averse to getting pregnant, but not breaking into a sweat about trying either. She usually does not notice ovulation, and is pretty much unbothered about the waiting game of the two-week wait. She is the one who is only alerted about a possible pregnancy when her period is delayed by a few days or even weeks. Sometimes, not even then.
These are the women you hear only found out they were pregnant after 8 weeks, or more. Of the various types of women in the TTC journey, she is arguably the luckiest. She’s the one who wins the lottery, without even having to buy a ticket!
Then there is the Ms I-Sure-As-Hell-Can’t-Get-Pregnant (ISAHCGP). This type of woman typically falls into 2 categories. You have the married woman who has put the brakes on childbearing, temporarily or permanently, or the single girl for whom pregnancy is not an option. These are women permanently in fear of their birth control failing them, or who have encountered some form of slip up in their ovulation window. They are usually very aware of this window and do everything they can to avoid sex at this time….but hey, mistakes happens! After the said slip-up or failed contraception, they spend the next 2 weeks in agony. They are permanently calculating, and recalculating, torturing themselves with thoughts of what could, or could not, be. For these women, the two-week wait is s.n.a.i.l slow. They are the ones who, during the entire two-week period, break into a sweat at odd hours of the day, suffering from panic attacks. As soon as they are able to, they take pregnancy tests. For those who do not have the courage for that, they are on full knicker-watch, waiting, hawk-eyed, for their period to land.
For those who do get their period, or a negative pregnancy test, their relief is overwhelming and they quickly return to their pre-2 week wait disposition, usually with a firm resolve to be more consistent with their birth control, or avoid any more slip ups…but more than half the time, they are usually back in this situation a few cycles later.
Then, there is the Ms Trying-To-Conceive (TTC)….the legitimate owner of the two-week wait, the one for whom this wait was actually designed. Ms TTC is aware of every single day of her cycle. From the first day of her period, through her period, she is aware of every itch, twitch, or feeling in her body. She keeps her body and mind prepped so that she and her partner can catch her eggies that cycle. She knows when, where, and how to have sex to ensure that they do not miss her fertile window. She covers her bases the entire time, right through ovulation. She does everything, and anything, to make sure the cycle is successful. She swallows fistfuls of vitamins and prenatals religiously, eats anything that even slightly hints at improving fertility, knows what positions will give her husband’s swimmers a better chance. Everything she can, she does! Then the two-week wait starts, and she transforms from a cool calculated lady with everything under control, to a hot, raving mess!
She is the one who knows the common symptoms, starting from 1-day post ovulation. She is the one who gets every pregnancy symptom in the book….the swollen painful breasts, the metallic taste in the mouth, the cramping, the aching….everything that is supposed to spell pregnancy, she gets! She is also the first to buy a pregnancy test. Halfway through the two-week wait, she begins to test, sometimes going through multiple tests a day, finding every reason to explain away a negative result. She holds out hope right to the very end…right up to the day when her period starts, signifying the end, or failure, of that cycle, and the start of a new one.
At some point in time, most of us have been each of these 3 women. Some are lucky to skip the Ms TTC phase, but for the growing majority, this is the phase we get to experience for most of our reproductive lives.
Even though I was Ms ISAHCG for most of my twenties today, I am happily Ms NTNP. Being Ms TTC for the first 3 years of my marriage drained me to the last drop of my blood. Now, I am too happy to not have to care about what foods to eat to keep my uterus warm, and all the other good stuff. Ms NTNP is what I will be until further notice ☺.
I look forward to the time technology would have evolved to such a point that this wait can be considerably shortened, and within a matter of days, one can know their fate. But in the meantime, we will continue dancing to its tune in a way commensurate with our individual situations.
So…..happy dancing ☺
