the first two weeks

You’re not really pregnant during the first two weeks of your pregnancy. These are the first two weeks of the last menstrual cycle before you became pregnant. So, when you find out that you are pregnant, doctors might say you are five weeks along, when really you’ve only been pregnant for three weeks.

Do doctors just rejoice in making things complicated? Maybe. Or maybe they just don’t believe women are smart enough to know when we ovulate and thus predict a closer date of conception.

When I ovulated, I felt it, a twinge in my lower left side. I was 17 days into my cycle (not 14 like the doctors would assume). And sometime in the next 24 hours (since that’s how long eggs live unless they are fertilized), I became pregnant.

I had only been off birth control pills for 17 days. Defying my family history, I became pregnant on the first “try”.