Baby Blogging. Oh man, keep me from being one of those people who are just ALL about their kid/kids. Anyway, I'm Ali. I am 40, and married to an Italian guy who is normally a lot of fun and great to be with. Our wedding was on April 17, 2003.

We decided very recently to try to have a baby, and I thought I'd document the journey.

It began right after we came home from our Italy vacation (October 4th through the 12th). I got to meet my in-laws for the first time. On October 21st, I went to my gyno and brought Marcello (the husband) with me. I was expecting the doctor to tell me it was going to be a long hard battle at my age, and being a little overweight. She told me the opposite. She said everything looks great, and that we should just go right ahead and start trying. She told me about another woman who was heavier than me, and the same age, who conceived within 3 months of trying and had no problems with carrying or delivery. Mother and baby were fine.

So I was enthused. I thought, great. Let's do this.

We sorta began to try, but didn't go crazy. No charting my temperature, or using any tests for the ovulation dates. I just thought - hey, I feel like maybe I'm ovulating. Whatever, right? This is a warm up and I'll be lucky if I get pregnant like that other woman, within 3 months.

A few weeks later, I got my usual ridiculous, heinous pms, and thought okay, no problem. I'll get my period, it'll end and then we'll really start trying. But it was late. Being late is not unusual for me, but I thought I better check this out after it was about a week late and there were drinking plans in place for the next night (Friday the 17th). I knew I better just check to make sure it was my usual cycle being stupid.

Out of curiosity, I googled "pms symptoms pregnancy". Boy did I see something I didn't know! Lots of women were certain they were getting their periods - bloating, cramps, backache, crankiness, emotional crap - the works, and then found out that they were in fact pregnant!

Early Friday morning, I went to the pharmacy and got a clear blue easy test. And of course I didn't pee enough to take the test! So I grabbed another tester and brought it to work with me. I took the test, and it wasn't so clear blue easy afterall! It says that there's a blue cross if you're pregnant and a blue minus sign if you're not. Well I got a single blue line that was vertical. There was a ridiculously light blue line crossing it. What the hell is that? I left the instructions home, so I called my husband and asked if he could take a look, see what it means. He tells me it looks like it means you're pregnant...Wow!

At this point, I call Angel, my friend who has 2 kids. I tell her the scenario, and she tells me to go right out and buy a First Response test. I do. I take it.

It's positive.

Two beautiful beautiful pink lines that tell me I'm having a baby.

I call my doctor's office. Her nurse answers the phone. I tell her what happened. I love her response. "You're fucking kidding me!"

So I asked her - can i have coffee? beer? can i get my hair colored (which i had an appointment for this morning)?

No coffee (but I think my doctor said I could - I have to ask her on Monday).

No beer (I thought maybe I could have a glass of beer occasionally instead of a glass of wine - I've been craving beer like mad!)

Yes, I could get my hair dyed.

I'm going for my blood test on Monday. I told my sister I'm pregnant. She seems happy about it. Thank God!

Today I had an odd experience I'll tell you about later.

This will be my log/diary for this journey.

More later!