New Addition

Well, we now have a new addition to the Branch zoo, I mean crew...Tango! Drew has been asking me if we can get another dog for Brisket to play with for forever and my answer has always been no. I finally caved this time because I agree with Drew that they will be able to keep each other occupied when we are busy with the baby. Plus, he finally found a really really cute one to send me a picture of! When he emailed me the picture of this dog, I fell in love immediately. We went on Friday to pick him up at the Azle Animal Shelter. He is only 12 weeks old and so cute and tiny! They said he and his brother (already with a family) were found wandering the streets and we can definitely tell they weren't eating well then because everytime we feed him, he acts like an orphan and woofs up the food without even crunching...like it's his last meal. Bless his heart! He is very sweet. Very puppy. We think he is a retreiver and black lab mix. We were hoping that Tango and Brisket would enjoy playing together and boy were we spot on with that one! That is all they do!! They love playing keep away with toys, wrestling, and chasing each other. We love our new addition and wanted to share our sweet Tango with you as well.

And...I got pregnant. Really pregnant. At least that's how I feel and think I look.

This is me somewhere near the beginning of the pregnancy, when we first found out we are pregnant. And this is me now...

I know it may not seem much to you, but I feel like I really started to pop the ole belly out this week. Baby Branch is now the size of a lime at 11 weeks. I feel so blessed with such an easy pregnancy. No morning sickness to speak of! Yes, I am tired at times. Yes, I have other random/weird symptoms here and there, but overall it has been extremely easy and FUN! I can't wait until my next Dr. appointment on April 11th where Drew and I will get to hear our sweet baby's heartbeat again. Meanwhile, I will be dreaming about him/her while trying my hardest to become a side-sleeper.

First Ultrasound Appointment

I couldn't WAIT to get to see our precious little baby at our first ultrasound appointment. The appointment couldn't have gone better either (well...ok, I could have been a sweeter wife and not dragged Drew into the appointment feeling so sickly-later found out he had pneumonia, but I couldn't wait any longer!).

Dr. Snead came in and did a full well-woman exam on me since it will be past time for me to have one at my usual time next year when I am ginormous pregnant. I was pretty nervous (tmi, but it was the first time another man had SEEN me and I know he is a doctor and it's different, but that still just made me nervous)! He was very easy to talk to though and is an Aggie, class of '97!

He did the exam quickly and then did a transvaginal ultrasound. They turned off the lights so he could see everything really clearly on the screen and we could hear the heartbeat!!!!! That's when the tears came to my eyes. It was quiet at first but still definitely there. Then, he moved the instrument closer and we could hear it loud and clear at 117 bpm! The old wives' tale is that a low heartbeat means it's a boy and a high heartbeat means it is a girl. My friend, Lara, said her daughter Maclaine was at 152 bpm almost every time--any guesses?!? Drew and I loved that part!

Then, Dr. Snead turned the screen toward Drew and me and he pointed out baby. We could even see it's teeny tiny heart beating on the screen! I was measuring a lot less than the 8 weeks I thought I was at that point, so he pushed back our due date to October 18th (from October 6th)! He said the baby was measuring 6 weeks and 6 days at that point and that every Tuesday my weeks will change. He printed this sweet sonogram picture for us! Enjoy our Branch Baby Blur!

Dr. Snead left the room so I could get changed back into my clothes and said he would come back in to answer any questions we had. When he came back in, Drew's only question was if he thought our baby would have red hair or not! Haha!!!

Then, Dr. Snead asked us if he could PRAY with use before we left!!! I felt so overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit at that point. We got to see our baby AND we have a God-fearing doctor that initiates prayer with us?!? Wow. God is SO good. He prayed for my cough to get better and for me to feel better soon. He prayed for our baby and for a healthy pregnancy. What a blessing!

After seeing Baby Branch and hearing it's strong heart beat, as well as hearing from Dr. Snead that everything looked great...who could wait to announce our joy with the world?! Not us, we posted the great news on Facebook that evening. I posted my sonogram picture and Drew posted this...


Wanna guess who got the most congratulation posts?!

How We Told The News

We knew we wanted to tell our parents in person. We wanted to see their expressions and be there to give hugs and celebrate together. We were very anxious to do so!

On Thursday (after the Monday we found out) I already had an appointment at my Obgyn's office. Why? Because I had made it a couple of weeks ago when I thought there was something wrong with me and that I was having trouble getting pregnant--Haha! Whoops! God showed me who was in control!! So when I called to see if I needed to cancel the appointment now that I am pregnant, the receptionist told me I still needed to come in so they could confirm the pregnancy, do bloodwork, and so we could learn the do's and don'ts of pregnancy from the Nurse Practioner.

The appointment went well, but we couldn't wait any longer to tell Drew's parents! So, we headed straight from the appointment over to their house. We had picked up from the grocery store a container of sesame seeds. When we got to Ken and Diane's house, Drew said we just wanted to visit with them for a little bit (obvious?!). We talked for a couple of minutes and then Drew said that he had something for them. He had them open their hands and he sprinkled a sesame seed into their hands. He just let them sit there confused for a few seconds and then told them that the reason he gave them a sesame seed is because that is the size of the baby that was inside me! Ken said "Oh!!!" and just started smiling and shaking his head. Diane, as Drew put it, went all Pentacostal on us. She started screaming "OH!!!" and had her hands up to her face. "OHHH!" and she started crying. "OHHH!" and she gave me a hug. "OHHH!" and she gave Drew a hug. They told us how happy they were for us. They are really excited to have a future grandchild living so close to them as the other grandchildren live in Houston.

The next day, Friday, we packed up and took a surprise trip to College Station as soon as Drew and I got home from work. I had told my parents that I didn't want them to ask each month if we were pregnant or not, because I wouldn't be able to tell them a lie over the phone and it would make me sad not to be able to tell them in person. I told them that they would know when Drew and I just showed up on their front doorstep. I was SOOO excited to tell them--they will be first time grandparents!! The whole way there I agonized over the logisitics of how to tell them. Do we walk in the back door like we always do? No, that would scare them. Do we ring the doorbell? Maybe, but what if only one of them comes to the door and then one of them gets to hear before the other one?! I probably drove Drew crazy with all of these questions the whole way there. Finally, we arrived in College Station around 10pm and walked up to the front door and knocked and rang the door bell. As though they had been expecting us, they came to the door TOGETHER and were already jumping up and down before they opened the door. When they opened the door they said "Ohhh! Does this mean what we think it means???!!!" and we smiled and said "Yes!! We're pregnant!!" They hugged us and we had fun sitting in the living room just talking about the exciting news for a while. My parents called Trey and told him and Katie to come over because we had come into town unexpectedly. They were troopers and came over late (although they are always late-nighters) and we told them as soon as they came in the back door that they are going to be an aunt and uncle! Katie said she knew it and that she was suspicious that we would be making a surprise visit on Valentine's weekend for any other reason other than to tell them that we are pregnant. Later I found out that my Mom had even told a friend of hers that she had a feeling she should put clean sheets on the guest bed in case we came!! Next time, there will be no hints, no warnings, and only surprises people!!! I can't believe so many people just knew! It was fun to talk about what Mom and Dad want to be called as grandparents and other things like that.

We told as many family members as we could in person and the rest we enjoyed making joyous phone calls to on the way home from College Station. We told Jared and Sam and our nieces and nephew on Skype--that was fun! What a blast it was getting to tell our grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Joy is such a blessing and even more of a blessing when shared with others. Thank you, God, for giving us Baby Branch!

Announcing Baby Branch!!

The Big Long-Awaited Announcement:
WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!

We are soooo excited and filled with awe at how awesome God is and humbled by such a huge blessing. We have known since February 7th, but wanted to wait for a few things before telling the world on the blog: telling parents and family, seeing the ultrasound and heartbeat at the doctor's office, etc. Therefore, I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog! In the next couple of days I hope to post about how we found out, how we told our families, and about our first ultrasound appointment. Thank you for sharing in our joy!

~How We Found Out~
I took a pregnancy test on Saturday 2/5/11 and it was negative at first, so I just went back to sleep after being very impatient and waiting only about a minute before getting frustrated that it was another negative test and not giving it the full amount of time to develop. Later that day, I saw the pregnancy test had a positive line! I showed it to Drew and we both couldn't believe it, smiled, but decided not to get too excited in case I had waited too long to read it. I had read on the instructions before that the results could be skewed if you wait too long to read them instead of the 10 minutes instructed. I looked up "false positives" on the internet and found lots of information about "evaporation lines" where girls waited too long to read their tests and a line appeared making them think it was a positive test but it was really just an evaporation line instead of a true positive.

See how faint it was?

We decided to get some more tests to see if the same thing would happen. We went to Target later that day and got some FRER tests (a very reliable brand). I took one that afternoon and couldn't really see a positive line. I was disappointed and really thought the first test I took was an evaporation line afterall. I kept expecting my, ahemmm, monthly gift. Sunday, my back started hurting and I had mild cramps--I really thought my monthly gift was coming! I took another FRER test and it too looked negative to me. Bummer.

On Monday, 2/7/11, I decided to buy some more pregnancy tests on the way home from school. Earlier that weekend, I had told my mom about the random evaporation line test and then the negative tests afterward and she said I should wait to take another test until at least Wednesday. Well, needless to say, I got a little rebellion streak in me and bought the other tests because I was getting fed-up with the longest cycle ever! I took one right when I got home and in seconds I saw a positive line again!!! Now, I KNEW it was real.

I couldn't think straight, I was so happy and very anxious for Drew to get home from work so I could tell him the good news in person. I tried turning the TV on to distract me until he got home. Nope. Turned it off--didn't even know what I was watching--all I could think about was that I was pregnant! Decided to use that time to say a prayer of thankfulness instead until Drew came home. When he got home less than an hour later, he was wearing his new glasses that he had just picked up and was excited to show them to me. I told him that I had something to show him too and showed him the positive pregnancy test! He was happy and in disbelief. We hugged and kissed.

I could tell that he needed more proof though. I knew I needed to take another pregnancy test to prove it to both Drew and myself, but we were needing to head out the door to make it in time to downtown FW for a birthday party for Drew's aunt Cindy at a Mexican food restaurant with the extended family. So, what did I do? Packed the extra test in my purse to take there! Halfway through dinner, I excused myself to the ladies room and took the test again...in seconds it popped up positive! I felt VERY sure that I was pregnant at that point. Wow! When I walked back to the table, Drew was looking at me because he knew what I was up to. I gave him a very knowing look and smile and nodded my head YES! He was happy and so was I! We just kept holding hands and rubbing each other's backs during dinner enjoying our secret. We are pregnant!!! His dad even asked me during dinner when we were going to give them a grandchild! I just told him we were working on it.

We spent the rest of the night talking to each other about how there was a baby inside of me! Things are going to change! What joy!

Stay tuned for more baby posts!