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!