Finding Out About #3!

It was SO exciting announcing our news yesterday to everyone! Thank you for all the sweet well-wishes and congratulations…it’s going to be a fun blog topic for sure 😉 

Zach and I are very planned when it comes to our babies. This time around we had planned originally to be pregnant sooner. I thought it’d be nice to have a May baby but when Aflac announced the President’s Club trip in 2014 will be to Ireland, in April, we decided to wait a bit. It couldn’t have been a better decision! This way I’ll get to be less pregnant for the big trip and Casey is able to be due before me, which was important to us. It’s her FIRST baby. It’s a BIG deal (not saying our third isn’t a big deal but I just want Casey and Jordan to soak up ALL the attention they deserve! Plus I wanna be able to help her when the baby comes!). 

We had already decided to try to conceive in November but once Casey and Jordan announced their pregnancy at the end of October, the pressure was ON for us to get pregnant the first month trying! Typically I am BIG about not having ANY pressure. No one knows when we try. We don’t talk much about trying. We keep it light and don’t over-think anything. This time was different. 

This time Casey knew we were trying to conceive. And it’s the FIRST time ANYONE has known when we are trying! While I was so thankful to have someone to talk to, it did stress me out more about it. I just wanted our babies to be close in age so bad and felt like I had to get pregnant. 

I know this post I wrote about tips for conception has gotten a lot of negative responses…but we did all the tips and got pregnant the first month trying! So I am NOT ashamed to continue to leave the post up and to link to it at the appropriate times 🙂 

I actually started using the Pink Pad app back in January to track my periods and that junk is ACCURATE. It really helped me know when we could expect to be ovulating and when to expect my period each month. I loved it!!! I really think it helped me time things out just right!

This time around I also used ovulation tests. I can see now why so often midwives and drs say not to use them…on the Pink Pad App it said my flower was starting to bloom (meaning beginning of ovulation time frame) on my birthday and would be in full bloom on Nov 6th (meaning most fertile day). We did our normal every-other-day routine and then I got my first positive ovulation test on November 6th (as expected). What was CRAZY was that the ovulation tests kept being positive. I actually saw Stacy (my midwife) and asked her if that was normal or not or what I should do and she said QUIT TESTING! She told me to stop doing the tests, stop over-thinking it, and just do our thing 😉

I sent this text to Zach…proof that it was “tryin’ time!”

The weekend of November 15th we went to Destin for an Advocare trip (post to come!). While there I was EXHAUSTED. Like hard-to-the-core tired. I also started spotting. Which scared me. I never experienced implantation bleeding before but I assumed that was what it was. It never was more than a little when I wiped, but I still didn’t like seeing it and I probably made myself pee every five minutes that weekend. 

That Saturday I  woke up and it was a little more red in color than brown in color. I also took a FOUR HOUR nap. I just tried to take it easy and rest as much as I could. I googled like a crazy woman about it and was feeling such a mixture of emotions. On the one hand, I was excited. Implantation bleeding = pregnancy! But on the other, I was scared. Blood can = miscarriage. On Sunday I, again, took a four hour nap 😉 Zach also commented and said he for sure thought I was pregnant bc I looked so pretty! (Scoring those points huh?).

On Monday, Nov 18th Zach had to be at work super early so when I got up I went ahead and tested. It was SO early. I mean I wasn’t even supposed to start my period for two more days. And I didn’t even have a fancy test or anything. Just the cheap-Target one pictured above! But I wanted to be able to tell Zach in a cute way and I knew I had to test before Wednesday anyway (post to come about all of this but I HAD to know if I was pregnant or not by Wed the 20th b/c I had a foot appointment and our plan of action involved things that could harm the baby) so I figured why not try?

Sure enough it was positive! Super, super, super light but it was there. I was in disbelief. I wanted this baby SO badly and I couldn’t believe I was pregnant!!! 

I took Kye to school then Britt and I ran into Publix to get some stuff I needed for a shower I was helping host that weekend and I bought another pregnancy test. I knew with that faint of a line that I’d want to test for the next couple days just to feel positive about it so I bought another pack of tests. Yes, I KNOW. I ALWAYS say that a positive test is a positive test and not to waste money taking a ton of tests haha. It was funny too b/c I actually ran into Stacy at the Publix but didn’t tell her. I didn’t want to jinx it and was scared to say it out loud to someone 😉

When Britt and I got home I took it again with the new test (again though a cheap store brand, I knew I was wasting money and couldn’t waste that much money!). And again, light but def positive!

Last time around I surprised Zach with the news by having Kye wearing a “Big Brother” t-shirt (here is the video…still one of my favs!!!) I’m alllll about doing different stuff so this time around I figured the only way to truly surprise him was to tell him while he was working. Sure, I didn’t get to see his response but I knew he’d be shocked b/c I hadn’t planned on testing so early!!!

I took this video of Britt (attempting to say “Big Sister”) and sent it to Zach’s phone. He was selling Aflac and the lady he was talking to asked about his kids. As usual, he grabbed his phone to show her pics of them and saw that I’d sent a video so he told her “you can see my daughter in this video my wife just sent!” He played HER the video and she said “wait, isn’t this your youngest? I think you better go call your wife!” HAHAHAHAHA Classic 😉 

He was so cute when he called and sounded so excited and surprised! We decided not to tell Kye. While he’s phenomenal about keeping things secret when we ask him to, this was a little too big to except him not to tell anyone. I took another test the next morning and it was a little darker:

That afternoon we had our pictures with Lindsay for Britt’s one year shoot as well as our Christmas card pics (post to come!). On the way there I asked Zach what he thought about having Lindsay take a couple pics for an announcement of the pregnancy. I TOTALLY trust Lindsay to keep the secret but taking pics that early on made me super nervous that I’d jinx the pregnancy. I already knew how I wanted to “tell the world” our news though and figured it made sense to use her while we had her! I’m SO glad we did b/c the pics turned out adorable and we wouldn’t have ever had time to come up with something else before Christmas! 

I really loved how the announcement turned out! It was even better than what I had in my head 🙂 I searched for Pinterest ideas for hours and then came up with what we used by myself b/c I didn’t like anything I saw! So many of the “third kid” announcements are negative and it’s important to me for my babies to know how wanted they were and how loved they were right from the start. I’d never do a negative announcement! I really wanted to play on the whole Little Brother or Little Sister thing since Zach and I are SO PUMPED that either Kye or Britt will now have a same-sex sibling! We never experienced that ourselves and want that for our children! So I think what I came up with worked perfectly! Hope yall liked it as much as we did…if you missed it you can see it here! (thanks again to Captured by Colson!)

And then Wednesday morning, the day I was supposed to start my period, the test was MUCH clearer and darker which made me feel super great!

Each pregnancy Zach has done something sweet for me after we find out and this time was no different. He came home from work one night with Brusters ice cream and waffle cones! So sweet and thoughtful and such a good daddy who loves all of his babies!

Finding out at barely three weeks pregnant was SO HARD. And it’s true what they say about every pregnancy being different. I’ve had a boy and a girl now and I can honestly say this time around is different than both of them! I’m going to be posting my weekly pregnancy posts each Friday so I plan to catch it all up with my first one tomorrow 🙂

But since this post is about finding out about the baby I did want to go ahead and share the announcement fun! 

We had decided early on that we would tell Casey and Jordan right away. They tried to keep their news a secret from us but it totally didn’t work. The four of us are just too close for secrets. You can tell when they announced their news (in this video!) that Z and I TOTALLY knew haha. We all talk daily and share way tooooo much to be able to hide things from each other. Plus they knew we were trying to conceive! I actually did my best to throw them off. Once I got the positive test I tried to say little comments to make Casey think I wasn’t pregnant. I even called her crying about how sad I was that I started my period and that I wasn’t going to be as close to her with our due dates, etc. 

My scheming skills are pretty legit b/c they were truly shocked when we told them! I had ordered matching onesies for our babies and put them both in a gift bag for Casey. When she and Jordan came over for me to take their announcement pictures I gave them the gift. I have been buying tons of gifts for Baby Branch. Like every time they come by we tend to have a gift for them so it wasn’t unusual at all for us to have a present. I wanted to video tape it but knew that would give it away so I kept it casual 🙂 

I expected Casey to catch on right away when she saw the first onesie but she didn’t. It was priceless. She was like “awww for when yall get pregnant!” So I grabbed the second onesie and held it up to me and just stared and her and smiled and she FINALLY got it 😉 It was an awesome moment!!!

The onesies say “My Cousin Is My BFF” with arrows pointing to each other!

Keeping it from Casey and Jordan for all of five days was tough…but we had to keep it from everyone else for five weeks. Omg it was SO difficult!!! I seriously need to repent on Sunday morning at church b/c I have had to LIE LIE LIE to so many people so many times! I felt bad too b/c I know it was hard for Casey to keep the secret! 

I think it was harder this time than ever for two reasons. 1) I’m waaaaaaay more intertwined with Zach’s family now than I ever have been in the past. 2) Casey is pregnant. Baby talk is CONSTANT. Plus Casey and I talked all the time about both of us being pregnant and it was hard not to slip up in front of everyone!

At one point I was pretty sure Mrs. Charlotte knew. We see the same foot doctor and I was SO scared he’d slip up. His office thinks I’m a crazy woman b/c I called them (multiple times actually) to remind them to tell my doctor not to tell my mother in law. They even put a note in her chart for him not to tell her haha. He will probably be more relived than anyone that this news is finally out in the open. Poor guy! I also had to lie to her about my foot a ton which was tricky!

When I went to my first OB visit (post to come) I lied to Mrs. Charlotte and told her I had a foot dr appointment so she could watch Britt for me. The appointment ran late and I was in a MAD DASH to meet her at school and a business card from their office fell out where I thought she saw it. I did damage control the best I could (I called the foot dr again and told them about my fib that I’d been to see them and told them to say something about me being there when they saw her haha) and just hoped she didn’t see it. 

Then I got the flu (Yes, while pregnant. Yes, post to come). It was so super mega hard to keep up the lying to Mrs. Charlotte while sick. But I did it! For being a Christian who prides myself on being so honest, I sure am a dang good lier when I need to be haha. Actually while I had the flu I became confident that Mrs. Charlotte did NOT know I was pregnant. If she knew I was pregnant and as sick as I was…she would have FLIPPED OUT. She would have totally been sleeping on my couch and not letting me out of her sight 😉 Instead she was a little annoyed with me which was a good sign. Mrs. Charlotte is SUPER tough and can push through when she’s hurting or sick. I’m typically the same way and we both get a little frustrated when those we love aren’t quite as able to “push through” like we are. Well with this junk I was NOT pushing through at all and I could tell it was a little annoying to her so I was pumped that she was clueless 😉

I had a MILLLLLLLION ideas for how I wanted to tell the family. We decided to wait until Christmas morning and somehow do it in a present. We decided to wait and tell Kye until Christmas Eve. I wanted to tell him in a cute way, but knew the less “exciting” we made the news to him, the better he’d be able to keep the secret for us. It was super important to Zach and I to let Kye know before the family knew though. So when we tucked him into bed Christmas Eve night I told him that I have a baby in my belly and he was excited but we changed the subject super fast so he wouldn’t wake up and tell everyone the next morning 😉

When I told Zach my ideas for announcing it he liked the ornament idea the best so we went with it! I use the same ornament company every year for our personalized ornament and they do a great job…I highly recommend Calliope Designs!

I loved the snow people because they looked so country 😉 I decided to give a personalized ornament to Mrs. Charlotte with ALL the grandbabies listed on it…including our newest addition. I KNEW that she would read off all the names of the kids and that it would hit her when she read them off out loud 😉 I wanted it to be Mrs. Charlotte who got the gift and I knew I could rig up a way that everyone else would be paying attention. I thought the ornament turned out ADORABLE!!! (We call Casey’s baby “Branch”)

I also made sure to wrap it in “special” paper so we’d know which one was THE gift!

Christmas this year was a SICK one for everyone. But it was an amazing morning! Zach was so eager to give out the gift which was cute but I made him hold off until a good moment. At one point there was a lull in the opening. The kids had opened quite a bit and everyone was very chill. I’d been mentioning how this year it’s important to me that Kye watches everyone open their gifts from us. Which is true, he’s old enough now where he can sit and watch others and enjoy the gift of giving (btw he did awesome about it!). So when the lull came I just took that moment to ask everyone to find a gift from us and let my kids see them open it. Zach passed out the presents and held the special one to the side for the right moment so he gave it to Mrs. Charlotte and told her to go first.

Yes, Mr. Rusty is wearing a sickness mask…

Zach also rigged up the video camera. Which I didn’t fully realize so my awesome butt is in the video the whole time. Like hardcore. So enjoy that haha.  I thought he’d be holding it and zoom in and get everyones reactions…but we all know men don’t often think the same way us women do so it’s not the greatest video ever! However, you can tell that Mrs. Charlotte is SURPRISED and that everyone is excited so that’s the important part 🙂 You can see the video here! I LOVE how she reads off all the names and doesn’t catch it at first. It reminded me of when we told her about Britt (you can see that video here!) b/c she read Kye’s shirt out loud and didn’t realize it at first either! haha!

Ignore how deathly ill I look…

Everyone was truly pumped and it made me feel so good that no one had already figured it out 🙂 There were other awesome Christmas surprises this year, especially for Mr. Rusty (I’ll make ya wait on the Christmas post for that though!) but it was SO sweet how this surprise trumped them all. Mr. Rusty kept talking about it all morning and even made all these ideas about extending their house haha. It truly made my heart so, so full to see how loved our new baby already is!

We went to Big Daddy’s for breakfast and didn’t have any set plans on how to tell them the news. Mr. Rusty was SO excited though and really wanted us to tell them in a cute way. So I planned on giving them a picture similar to the announcement I posted on social media yesterday…but once we got to their house Kye whispered to me and asked me if he could tell everyone. Duh, I said yes. Here’s a video of Kye sharing the news! Everyone was excited but especially Big Daddy. He’s so precious and I’m so thankful we were able to share our exciting news with him!!! 

When I mailed off my Dad’s and Audrey’s Christmas gifts I stuck a print out of the announcement in with other pictures of the kids I had printed for them. Dad called me during naps yesterday and it meant SO MUCH to me to hear the excitement in his voice! He said he think it’s a boy and Audrey says girl 😉 

I am SO GLAD the WORLD now knows! No more secrets! 

As always we will NOT be finding out the sex of the baby…so you’ll all have to wait until August 1st!!! Lots and lots more to come, thank you for sharing in our excitement and joy about our newest blessing!!!

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Emily Parker

Hey Y'all, I'm Emily! I'm a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happiest place and I love making memories as a family together. I'm a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.

My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.

You can read more about our family on my About Me page. Also be sure to follow along with me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest!

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