Monday, April 21, 2008

Kill the Wabbit, Kill the Wabbit

I just saw a commercial for First Response pregnancy tests. No, I'm not in need of one. I think I'd be in need of some heavy duty mood altering substances if I did. I caught the part that said digital reading, and it tells you yes or no. No pluses or minuses. No lines. No tiny balls turning color.

That's sure come a long way since I first peed on a stick.

In fact, the first one I ever used, I didn't even pee on a stick. I had to pee in a cup and transfer it to a little tube. Once I did that, I had to put a little stick with two balls into the vial. Then I had to wait to see if one of the balls turned pink. I'll tell you what, when you're a little nervous about being pregnant in the first place, and you have no comparison to what color of pink the one ball might become, you get a little nutty. Your eyes begin playing tricks on you, and the second ball definitely looks pink. I lived in terror for a few days until my body gave me the deciding factor that the ball had not changed colors. Whew.

When I took a pregnancy test and found out I was going to have our oldest son, I didn't even pee on a stick then, either. I had to pee in a cup, and then deposit a precise number of drops into the top of this little square looking thing. Then carefully, as to not flip urine into my eyes, I had to remove the top part of the square by pulling up on a tab. After five minutes, I would get a plus or minus sign to tell me whether or not I was pregnant.

The plus sign was unmistaken. It was there in all it's glory. But you know what I did? I told my husband I didn't think the one line was dark enough, and I didn't think we were pregnant. He assured me it was a plus sign. What did I do next? I cried. I didn't know nothing about birthin' no babies, and I was scared.

The next pregnancy test I took to determine if our second bundle of joy was on the way, I again had to pee in a cup, and then use a plastic dropper thing to put my output into a little top "window." I didn't wait five minutes before checking on it, and I watched as it seeped through the test to the main window and that plus sign was instant presto! There was no doubt if it was a false positive or a trick of light. But I knew anyway. I was sicker than a dog for two weeks, hardly able to tolerate 7-up.

Come to think of it, I've never peed on a stick, much less one with a digital read out to tell me if I'm knocked up. Well, don't think I'm going to make it a goal of mine. But none the less, technology never fails to amaze me.

Here's an interesting site http://history.nih.gov/exhibits/thinblueline/timeline.html and another one http://www.early-pregnancy-tests.com/history.html

Hey, at least I never had to have a little rabbit surrender its life in order to tell me.

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