The night before I found out I was pregnant with #2, I didn't sleep well. That's when I knew something was up. I always sleep well unless of course I'm pregnant. I decided that morning that after the gym, I would swing by the Dollar Tree to pick up some pregnancy tests. A friend of mine who recently had a baby told me they worked, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm not one to hold things in, but I decided to keep my planned trip to the Dollar Tree a secret from Jeff.
So that Friday morning I made my way into the Dollar Tree. I grabbed a baggie of quarters I had in my car and plopped Graham into the shopping basket. I wasn't quite sure where to go. I surely didn't want to ask someone what aisle the pregnancy tests were on, so I quickly browsed the store. I thought about buying a few items so it didn't look like I was
only buying pregnancy tests but realized that was ridiculous. Plus, these people didn't know me anyway. So I finally found the tests. With Graham, I would have never dreamed of buying a pregnancy test from the Dollar Tree. If someone told me they worked, I wouldn't believe them. No thank you. I'm sticking with my $13.00 a pop EPT or Clearblue tests. But my how things have changed. One being that we're on a stricter budget these days and buying a pregnancy test for $1.00 sounds like it's worth a try. As I've mentioned before, we are doing the Dave Ramsey envelope system. My dilemma was that we'd never discussed what budget pregnancy tests are going to come out of. Well, it wasn't really that big of a dilemma, but I thought I'd just use the bag of quarters that had been sitting in my car for months.
With a somewhat embarrassed face, I put my 2 pregnancy tests on the counter. I knew if one said I was pregnant, then I wouldn't believe it. I needed two to be sure. The cashier told me the price and I started digging in my quarters' baggie.
"I'm sorry. I know it's annoying, but I'm paying you in quarters."
"Oh honey, we love quarters here," she replied.
I was glad to hear those words because I felt cheap. I felt like a 15 year old who sneaks away from home to the dollar store to buy a pregnancy test with the change she found in the couch all the while hoping her worries will be put at ease by seeing one red line, not two.
"I'm at the Dollar Tree buying pregnancy tests in change," I thought. Being insecure about the whole situation, I wondered what everyone around me thought.
"Look at that poor girl. Too young to even have one baby, and now she's about to have two. Must not know what birth control is. Heaven help her."
But I wasn't that person. First of all, I'm not that young and second of all, this was a baby that we really wanted. Not an "Oops I Did It Again" kind of thing.
Well I hoped I could leave that trashy feeling behind in the store, so I stepped into the parking lot with G in one hand and the fate of my next 8 months in the other. I loaded Graham into the car and wondered if I should really take the test or just save it for another month. "After how long it took to get pregnant with Graham, surely I can't be pregnant now," I thought to myself. But I gave in. I put Graham down for a nap and took the test. "No way," I thought. So I took the 2nd test. Surely two tests couldn't be wrong. I called the doctor and they confirmed it that afternoon for the third time. At least I did better than last time when I took 5 pregnancy tests before going to the doctor.
I thought I was going to go crazy that afternoon waiting on Jeff to come home. I wanted to tell everyone who called me that I was pregnant, but I knew I needed to tell Jeff first. I made a video of Graham as I told him he was going to be a big brother and I made Jeff watch the video of G "doing something super cute" as soon as he got home from work. Finally I could tell some other people! Well, all this to say that yep, we've got a little baby on it's way due December 8th, and yep, those Dollar Tree pregnancy tests really work. Stop wasting your money on the expensive stuff. $1.00 can tell you if your suspicions are true or not.