That pretty little plus sign

When buying pregnancy tests, after saying out loud in the aisle, "Man, these things are expensive - I shouldn't pee on so many every month" for some reason at checkout I always felt the need to flash my wedding ring to the clerk, like "Don't judge me - I'm married. I'm supposed to get pregnant."

On July 3rd I knew my period was a little late so I sifted through the cabinet to find a test. I had sworn off buying them after months of disappointment and managed to find one wrapped stick in my travel bag. I'm awful at catching pee mid stream (and I've been practicing!) so I prefer to pee into a paper cup. After dipping my generic test, I expected it to be negative so I turned on the shower. I took one glance AND SAW A LINE! There was a line in the control area and a line in the window. My heart thumped as I remembered I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT POSITIVE MEANS? Are there supposed to be two lines? Does one line mean pregnant? I freaked out, turned off the shower and rummaged frantically for directions.

Jeremy: What are you doing?

Me: I don't know what this test says!!! I think it's positive, but I don't know what positive is!!

Jeremy: Which test is this? Is it supposed to make the plus sign in this window?

Me: I DON'T KNOW!!

You'd think that with all of the expensive degrees we have hanging on our wall we'd be able to figure it out, but after months of buying tests, [early predictors, late predictors, plus, minus, one line, two lines] I had them all mixed up!! NOW I HAD A LINE AND NO DIRECTIONS TO TELL ME WHAT IT MEANS??

We had to leave for Chicago so we decided we would buy a test [not a generic one!] on the way and re-test tomorrow morning with the first morning urine (where the baby juices are supposed to be the strongest early on). We woke up on our anniversary in a posh hotel in Chicago and ripped open the package of home pregnancy test we'd bought on our way. So, test in hand, I was ready - except for that I forgot my paper cups. There was NO WAY I was going to waste urine by trying to catch it "mid stream" on a wand the size of a pencil meanwhile peeing our confirmation all over my hand. Note: This is yet another reason NOT to drink out the glasses you find in your hotel room. OF COURSE I WASHED IT OUT, but, I'm just saying...

After six months of trying (and our last before Jeremy goes away for clerkships) A PLUS SIGN! We are finally pregnant!! We're hoping for a very "sticky" baby.