Our Polish Souvenir

Well just as we thought we were closing a big chapter of our lives by moving back home, we open-end up an even bigger one as soon as we arrived in Houston. Josh and I found out the day after we got home that we will be welcoming our first child this summer!!! Official due date is June 14th, 2012.

To be honest we still can't believe we have a baby on the way. As soon as we got home I had this crazy, wierd feeling that I could be pregnant. Josh and I had been open to the idea of expanding for awhile now but had no real plans to seriously think about it until we got settled back home in Houston.  So when we found out we were pregnant we were surprised and ecstatic all at the same time. Okay how about really  really surprised!! Although it happened a little sooner than what we anticipated, what is 3 or 4 months in the grand scheme of things, right?! This was all in Gods big plan for us and what an amazing story we get to tell that our little souvenir was brought back all the way from Poland!

This is one souvenir that can never, EVER be topped!

First two pregnancy tests were taken the day after we got back. The lines are so faint in the first one that I almost threw it away without giving it another thought, before deciding to take another glance at it in the sunlight. The second one, I took a little later and the line appears to be a little darker then the first. At this point I thought I should let the Hubby know that this could be for real! Of course when I told him he was extremely suprised and his first question was "how did this happen"? hahaha

Of course we still had our doubts and I had conveniently scheduled a routine physcial when I got back to Houston for the following Monday. I thought that I would discuss my suspesions with the Doctor in hopes of getting it confirmed. So on to my appointment I went, and called in early Tuesday morning for my results. Well to my suprise it came out NEGATIVE! I will say I was a little surprised but to be honest I knew in my hearts of heart that the result was wrong. Not sure if I was already getting that motherly intution but I still had a feeling that it could be too early to tell. So conveniently again I had scheduled my yearly women examin for Tuesday afternoon and at that point I had already planned to bring in my two faint lines for them to see. This is where the 3rd pregnancy test comes into picture. A more distinct POSITIVE! Still faint but definitly positive. Basically I was so early in my pregnancy I was producing super low levels of hormones which could explain the false negative. I was about 3 1/2 weeks pregnant when I found out the big news, making this the worlds longest pregnancy. Not really sure I recommend anyone taking it so early because this has made our first trimester feel like an absolute ETERNITY!

The 4th pregnancy test was taken 2 weeks later . I took another one so
I could have a clear positive for keeps sake.
 Pretty official.

At our  5 1/2 week appointment and very first ultrasound.

Baby Manard is about 3mm long. Believe it or not

you can actually see  a little heart flutter that early in pregnancy.
 Unreal!

5 1/2 week pic: first of many baby Manard pictures..

I didn't realize when I took this, that our OTHER 

sweet baby is in the picture as well.  

LOVE!

8 week pic: a little fuzzy but you
can see our little peanut growing away! =)

We told our immediate family the news when we went back home toTulsa for a visit, as well as a number of our close friends who would have suscpected the moment I rejected any form of alcohol. For the rest of our family we waited to spill the beans at Thanksgiving, making it a very special one this year.  It was so hard to keep this big secret to ourselves, especially when our first trimester has felt SOOOO LONG! All we have wanted to do is to tell the whole world what an exciting miracle we have been blessed with, so you can imagine the relief for us to finally be able to talk openly about it. =) Josh and I are thrilled beyond belief and we can't wait to finally get to meet this little peanut!!

More than anything we continue to thank God for such a smooth pregnancy and pray that things continue to go as well as they have. For the most part I have done pretty well and have only experienced occasional episodes of morning sickness.  Just a small price to pay for our little baby! More than anything we wish for a healthy and happy baby that continues to remain content with where they are at for the moment, and by that I mean right in that belly of mine. =)

So get ready guys! Familia de Manard's blog is about to take a complete 360 from a year of crazy, fun, European travels, to 100% baby talk. We couldn't be more excited!!

p.s. How ironic is the last picture to our last post on "farewell, never goodbye" ??? We didn't know it at the time but we were already pregnant. Pretty funny!