Week 15

This week was FULL of fun things but BUSY! Monday night was my school's Literacy and Math Night for families to come up to the school together to learn some great ideas of games and activities to do at home that would help their child further their education in the classroom. This year the theme was Under the Sea. The Kindergarten booths were fantastic if I do say so myself! We had dowel rod fishing poles with magnets on the end of the fishing line. The kids tried to catch a fish that had a picture on it. When they caught a fish, they would have to tell what the beginning sound (can vary it with ending or middle sounds) it started with. They seemed to have a great time fishing. The math booth was a big fish bowl filled with fish shaped papers that had subtraction problems written down on them. The kids had to pick one out of the fish bowl and then were given the right amount of goldfish crackers to use as manipulatives to solve their subtraction problem. It was a hit as well and I am pretty sure we had several repeat visitors--guess they were hungry for a snack! Here is a picture of a harried Tara after coming home from that evening. On Tuesday night, we had dinner with Ross and Kacie Whigham and their sweet son Carson at Cheddar's! Drew and I had the BEST time with them and probably overwhelmed them with questions about parenting. I know it won't be the last time we go to them for advice and can't wait to join them in this adventure of becoming parents.

Thursday afternoon I met Drew at a car dealership in Denton to look for a new car. Drew's cousin's husband, Mark, had a buddy that worked at this dealership and was trying to find us something that we can actually put a carseat in! My 350Z just wasn't going to cut it in the mommy world. I knew I wanted a mid-sized SUV, but wasn't totally sold on one certain kind. That afternoon we test drove two: A Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Toyota 4Runner, both silver. I LOVED both, but was really being swayed by all the swanky stuff the Jeep was decked out with inside: leather interior, heated seats, wood-grain dash, built in GPS, and a sun-roof. He let us drive home the Jeep to "see how it fit into our lifestyle" for the day and told us to think about it, do some research, and come back the next day to let him know what we were thinking. That night, we got a subscription to Consumer Reports and found that there were several bad ratings for the Jeep and ONLY perfect ratings for the 4Runner. Now, I sure would like leather seats someday, but let's face it--we need something reliable. I will have precious cargo that I will be carting around in this vehicle soon. After we prayed about it, we both felt sure that the best choice was to get the Toyota 4Runner. I was excited! (but a little sad to say goodbye to my fancy sports car once and for all)

I took off a day of teaching on Friday. Friday morning I had to take Tango to a vet in Weatherford to be neutered. Poor thing. He is definitely a car-sick puppy and drooled and threw up on the way there...in the Jeep we were trying out from the dealership!! Thankfully I had a blanket all spread out in the back where I put him and the mess was contained. By the time I got home and cleaned up the house a bit, my parents arrived! I had been looking forward to their visit for a long time!! We met Lara and Maclaine for lunch and a cupcake from the cutest bakery and then went back to the dealership in Denton to sign the papers for the Toyota 4Runner. They made it very painless and it was comforting to have my parents with me since Drew had to stay at work. Here is my sweet new ride that I LOVE!

I am so glad we made a wise choice and feel very confident we made the right choice. That evening Drew brought home Tango from the vet and we picked up dinner from our favorite hole-in-the-wall Haslet place, Mama Licha's Tacos! Mmmmm!

Saturday morning, Mom and I left for Canton. This was our very first trip there! I have always been hearing about it and really wanted to check it out, but NOTHING can prepare you for the craziness and the vastness of this place. It was so much fun! We had a blast and I got some inspiration for the nursery. I have decided that boy or girl, the theme will be "branches" just like our last name. I envision a neutral color for the wall, browns, greens, and either touches of pink or blue depending on the gender (I can't wait to find out on May 23rd!). I want to get a huge tree wall decal to put near the crib. I also found this beauty to place in one corner of the room for decoration on our Canton trip! If it is a girl, I plan on hanging crystals from the branches. Sunday, we took my parents with us to The Hills Church of Christ and enjoyed a great brunch with them at Waffle House. After brunch, my parents came with us to Babies 'R Us so that we could show them the few things we registered for and get their opinion on strollers, bouncers, car seats, etc. Before when Drew and I went the first time....it was a little overwhelming and daunting to say the least! So many choices and so little personal experience! Going with my parents was refreshing. They were laughing and squealing at how cute things were or how neat this or that was and had so much joy in imagining their future grandchild in each item. It took a lot of pressure off of everything and I found myself pointing and clicking that scanner like crazy with such freedom! Here is the travel system that we registered for that day.

You should have seen Drew being very hands-on with taking it off of the shelve and trying it out, folding it up, putting the car seat on, etc. What a man!!! We were sad to see them go, but my parents left from Babies 'R Us to head home to College Station. Thanks Mom and Dad for visiting--we love y'all!

Short Posts to Catch Up

So, in the effort of keeping the extremely long posts to a minimum, I am going to have to post several short ones to catch up on all this blogging I have been lacking on! I haven't been as good at some things that I thought I was going to be incredible at during this pregnancy.

1. Blogging

2. Taking weekly pregnancy pictures

3. Journaling (noting when I start to grow, feel things, doctor's appointments, etc.)

I'm going to make a conscious effort to do a lot better on all 3 of those things from here on out. Since the last time I posted was about week 13, I think this is a picture of week 14 that I sent my mom on my iphone to show her how much I am starting to show.

Belly bands are starting to become a must at this point. I now own 2 white ones (thanks Lara! and one I bought), one beige one (thanks Sam!) and one black one (thanks Kacie!). What generous friends I have! If you don't know what a belly band is, you either a) haven't ever been pregnant, or b) they didn't have these wonderful inventions around when you were pregnant. Because if you have been pregnant in the past couple of years, I am SURE these were as much a friend to you as they have been to me in this time of change. They are stretchy bands that go around your belly and hold up your regular jeans, pants, skirts, etc. At this point, I am not able to zip my pants up all the way anymore and forget trying to button them! These work great for that. You just put it on over your unzipped jeans to hold them on and when you wear another shirt over it, it just looks like you have a white, beige, or black undershirt on.

Week 13

We got to hear the heartbeat again! We had a doctor's appointment on Monday afternoon and were delighted to hear our sweet baby's heartbeat going strong at 150 bpm. It was so fun! They used the jelly on my stomach like they do in the movies! :) I was feelin' like the real deal about then. I asked our nurse practitioner if it was just an old wives' tale about the lower heartbearts = boys and higher heartbeats = girls. She said yes and no...it's ultimately a 50/50 kind of thing. BUT...she said that it has been scientifically proven that if you compare the most athletic man in the world's heartbeat with the most athletic woman in the world's heartbeat, the man's heartbeat would be slower than the woman's. She said that men's muscles are stronger and can pump the same amount of blood through the body in one pump that a woman's muscles would take more pumps to accomplish. I asked her what it looked like we are going to have based on that theory and she said it's looking like a boy! It's fun to guess, but I can't wait for the REAL revealing day on May 23rd! We booked that puppy as soon as we were on our way out of the office. I can't WAIT (and neither can Drew)!!!!!!

People at school really started making comments this week about my new baby bump--I guess I am starting to show to somebody other than myself! My stomach feels hard now. It kind of feels like how your stomach feels when you flex your abs slightly! Due to that change, I keep poking my belly because it is so strange to me that when I poke, it feels hard. Drew hates that! He keeps telling me to stop poking our baby all the time. Haha! I am still feeling great and very happy.

Our baby is the size of a peach this week! So....I may have gone to the grocery store this week to get peaches and homemade vanilla Bluebell icecream in honor of that (or was it because I had a craving for icecream and that just gave me an excuse?)! My mom told me a horror story this past weekend of a lady gaining 80 pounds when she was pregnant with her first!! I do think about this every time I eat my new icecream, but just guiltily eat the rest anyway. Thankfully, my nurse practitioner told me I have only gained 1 pound so far. Uh WHAT?! My body looks way more than only a pound gained to me and that is not what my home scale says, but oh well--we'll go with that because that makes me feel better and a little less guilty when eating my peaches and homemade vanilla goodness.

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!