The Summer I Turned Pregnant

The story of my surprise pregnancy

I was in Florida when I found out.

The date is Wednesday, March 6th. I’m shopping with my mom in a home furnishing store. We ran to pick up a few ‘home things’ to warm up our nearly empty two week rental. All of the sudden, I feel weird. different. light headed. nauseas?

Surely, I am dehydrated from the plane ride. Or maybe, it’s the cheap fragrance wafting from every lamp, throw pillow, and shaggy rug in this store. My period is due in the next couple days, it could be that.

I wait in line to buy a 50 oz life water for $5. Of course the line is 20 people long and I feel like I’m going to collapse.

As soon as I check out, I DO collapse myself onto an unusually large cushion swivel chair and chug the entire bottle of water. I throw my head back onto a mountain of nautical throw pillows. I close my eyes and ignore any pedestrian traffic as I settle in quite comfortably, looking like a lifeless corpse. “Ah, that’s better,” I think.

It wasn’t better. The next day. or the following. or the following.

On Sunday, I tell my husband, “I feel kinda weird.”

On Monday, I tell my husband, “I think I might be 1 or 2 days late, but my period should be here tomorrow at the latest.”

On Tuesday, the box of tampons I packed is now collecting dust.

On Wednesday, still nothing. “Ok, pregnancy is more likely than I thought.”

On Thursday, still nothing. Finally, I check my texts to decode when my last period was. I don’t use a period tracker (I used to, until I found out they sell your data to weird agencies!)

Instead, I’m girl math-ing the start date & end date by searching through the group chat history for complaints about cramps.

Ope.

I’m 10 days late.

Friday, I pee on the stick and the rest is history.

I’m 29 (almost 30). I’m married for 2 years to my high school boyfriend whom I’ve known for over a decade. We weren’t using birth control. This wasn’t an accident by any stretch of the imagination, but this wasn’t carefully planned either:

• I DON’T have enough money saved. Period.

• I’m NOT where I want to be in my career - I started my own business in 2021. Launching it has been great, but SLOW. I don’t even make 10% of what I used to make in my corporate sales job. I planned 2024 to be a “big year.” I wanted to work a TON and bust my ass to catapult my success and set me up to have a baby in the future, now what?! I’ve got to work double or triple time WHILE creating a human life?!

• I DON’T have a cute suburban home to bring a baby home to - Hellooooo… there’s a housing crisis! This is the LOWEST inventory of houses we’ve had maybe ever?! and the mortgage rates are DOUBLE what I pay for my city condo now. That literally means I can’t afford my current place at the current rate %. Excuse my french, but Where the f**k are we gonna live?!

• I THOUGHT I had maybe 2-5 more years before I having children - but I don’t lol. I have ~8ish months

And ofcourse, the elephant in the room:

• I have NO fucking clue what I’m doing. Like, I know WAY LESS than the average woman. I’m not one of those girls who always wanted to be a mom, OR who spent alot of time around kids and babies, OR who knows how to change a diaper. I know NOTHING. I *literally* know nothing.

*The morning after finding out. Strangely, cool as a cucumber lol*

But weirdly, I’m not scared.

When I saw the test results, I felt this overwhelming sense of peace.

A part of me has always felt like I was thinking too hard about planning my life carefully.

It was nice that ‘someone’ or ‘something’ else made the decision for me. I felt like I was on God’s/Universe’s timing, not my own.

A part of me likes to relax into the next chapter spontaneously, rather than plan it out so meticulously.

All of me is grateful and blessed that my body is able to even have a baby, and that it came so easily and naturally. I’ve had so many chronic health issues over the years that I questioned If I would even be able to get pregnant at ANY point. I consider myself so lucky that this is my path.

I keep reminding myself: 140M+ women give birth every year. 380K+ babies are born each day! Women have been giving birth and raising children EVERY DAY since the beginning of time. It can’t be THAT hard can it?! (Wink, wink)

I’ll be posting week over week updates on my pregnancy journey with challenges, learnings, and advice. If you’d like to follow along you can subscribe here:

If you’re new here, my name is Jessie. I’m a corporate wellness consultant, yoga teacher & certified health coach based in Chicago, Illinois. I’m 29 years old (30 next month). My sun & rising sign is Cancer, my moon is Aries. I’ve been married for two years to my high school sweet heart, Truman. He is THE BEST person ever.

*the night before we found out*

We are expecting our FIRST baby on November 6th, 2024. It’s a girl! - she will be a beautiful and fiery little Scorpio. I hope and pray we can give her the best life ever.

I’d love to hear from any new or seasoned parents on their experiences, questions, or advice.

Until next time.

XOXO,

Jessie