Mother's Day weekend

Saturday/Sunday (May 12+13)

Paul and I decided to tell our family on Mother's day weekend, as I was 8 weeks and we knew we would be seeing both families that weekend. We thought about several different ways to tell our families, but decided on a Christmas theme, since our baby is due December 21. We were shopping at Kohl's (at the end of April mind you) and happened to find some Christmas stuff that was on sale! For the Menards, we picked out a small stocking that said Grandma and for the Tischers we picked out a snowman picture frame. We made an insert for the stocking, as you pulled out the insert, the message said, BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER...Baby Menard due December 21, 2011. We placed the same message in the picture frame.

On Saturday we went to the cities for my father-in-law's graduation from Concordia-St. Paul.  After the graduation ceremony, Margie, Pierre, Renee, Isaac, Aidan, Millard, Paul and I went out to eat at Cossetta's. We had a nice meal, then began to celebrate Mother's Day. Margie opened a few gifts and I made sure to keep our present for last. I had Paul sit next to Margie and I sat across the table and was taking some pictures. My hands were shaking in anticipation as I waited for Margie to open the last gift. She opened the stocking, pulled out the insert and immediately was smiling and couldn't believe it. She started crying, and Renee and I were crying. Aidan and Isaac didn't know what was going on, so here a 6 and 9 year old are seeing all of us crying in the middle of the restaurant and Isaac said, "This is so embarrasing." We then of course I told the boys they would be getting another cousin. We surprised them and it was a wonderful reaction! They were all so happy for us!

On Sunday we met Jessica, Eddy, Isaac, Piper and my parents at a park in Hinckley. The sun was shining and we placed ourselves at a picnic table. We visited, played with the kids, then sat down for a nice picnic lunch. After lunch we moved on to celebrating Mother's Day. I was again shaking in anticipation of my mom opening her gift. My sister of course knew of our secret and that we were sharing our news, so she was ready with the camera for pictures and to record their reaction on video. I sat next to my mom as she opened her last gift. My mom pulled out the snowman picture frame with shock and awe on her face and showed my dad. They both were immediately smiling and couldn't believe the news! We totally surprised them too! And they were thrilled with our news! We then told Isaac and Piper they were going to have a cousin and Isaac stands up, looks at my stomach and said, "It doesn't look that big!" :0) The day was awesome and my family was also so happy for us

Our families have been an amazing source of support, love, and encouragement on our journey. We feel very blessed.

8 weeks

Tuesday, May 8. My first OB appt at 8 weeks. This was the first appt at our new doctor's office. I met with a nurse and got the typical height, weight, medication review, and vitals checked. Then we went over health history. Finally, I got a big three ring binder of information and education about pregnancy. I went home and proceeded to look through the binder with excitement!

6 weeks

Monday, April 30. Even after sharing our news with my sister, we still couldn't quite grasp how things happened and if the positive test was true. We were thrilled and just wanted to know everything was ok with the baby. So after several talks with my sister, we listened to her advice and called the doctor. I had my HCG level drawn on Friday, April 27 with a result of 18,437 = great level. Then on Monday, I had an ultrasound. I was 6 weeks and 2 days. I saw our baby on the ultrasound, about the size of a pea with a heart beat of 152. I couldn't believe my eyes. I kept staring at the screen, brushing the tears from my eyes. I wished Paul could have been there but he had a baseball game. I told the ultrasound tech this and she was kind enough to put the image of the baby's heartbeat on a CD to take home. Paul got home from his game and we went to the computer so I could show him the CD. We knew then that our baby was growing and healthy. We stared at the screen and at each other, feeling blessed for this miracle.

Face Time

Wednesday, April 18. Three days. That is how long I was able to keep our little secret. From the moment we found out, we were in shock. We had been trying to conceive for over 2 years. The first year of trying, we were patient and took things a month at at time and were not too worried. Then after a year (almost to the date) I had a meltdown. Uncertain as to why two healthy people weren't able to conceive, we proceeded to each have a work up. Paul checked out fine, but I was diagnosed with endometriosis and on my birthday of 2011, I had surgery to remove the endometriosis. Our doctor indicated our odds to conceive on our own were good so we tried for 4 months--no success. Then, we proceeded with fertility medication (Clomid). I was on the terrible medication for 6 months--still no success. We tried to remain hopeful but wanted to move forward as there were no signs things were working. On to year two. We proceeded to a different fertility medication (Femara) with IUI (intrauterine insemination). We had two rounds of Femara and IUI which were both unsuccessful. Of course we were devastated. We talked in depth about how to proceed. We knew we were meant to be parents but didn't know how we'd get there. We decided to continue Femara but also moved to our next step, which was to see a reproductive endocrinologist. We did our research on different clinics (with help from my sister), made the decision for a doctor in Maple Grove, and got the referral. We were waiting for insurance to give approval and for the clinic to call us with an appt. Turns out we didn't need the appt because on Sunday, April 15 we found out I was pregnant! So you can now understand the shock of a positive pregnancy test after two years of trying! It didn't seem quite real to us. I proceeded to take about 3 more pregnancy tests, all positive. Paul and I wanted to share our news and have someone validate that this was real. So on Wednesday, April 18, we shared our big news with my sister. I had gone to TJ Maxx and bought a MN Twins outfit and brought it home to show Paul and celebrate that I was pregnant. We sat down on the couch and called my sister on Face Time (like Skype but on an iPhone). The call was first with Jess and the kids; Isaac and Piper were full of energy and wanted to be on camera. We visited, then I asked if we could just talk to her, so Jess had the kids go play. Then we told Jess we wanted to show her something, so I held the Twins outfit up to the camera....her face went from smiling to breakdown in tears in excitement. It was an amazing moment to share with my sister.

The Beginning

Sunday, April 15, 2012 was a big day. We found out I was pregnant! The day before we had gone to a Twins game, visited my grandparents, and then went home for a relaxing evening. I woke in the early morning and took a pregnancy test. I had taken a test every month for over two years and had never had a positive test; always showed negative. So, naturally, I did not think this time would be any different. But I took the test like every other month to get the result, then cry, grieve and move on to the next month hoping to get pregnant. After washing my hands I looked at the pregnancy test and saw a faint plus sign...positive test! Couldn't believe what I was seeing and immediately started to cry and shake. This was at around 6 am so I go into the bedroom and wake Paul up. So he wakes up to me crying and he asked if someone was hurt or if someone had died. I just handed him the test and said "I don't know what this means; I've never seen a positive. Can this be right?!" Paul was cautiously excited. Of course the test was from Gopher Bargain Center(a discount freight store) and was $2 so I wasn't sure if this could be right. We sat in bed, excited, nervous and so badly wanted this to be true. Paul had school work I do and I had to run errands so I told Paul I would pick a few pregnancy tests to verify the results and if the other tests were positive, we could breathe and be excited. So I ran to Target, spend like $50 in pregnancy tests (all different kinds) and then couldn't wait to take a test. Next stop was Kohl's so I took a test there and it was positive. There I am at Kohl's in the bathroom crying with excitement. I hurried up to finish buying the items I had planned to get, then drove home in a daze of bliss. When I walked up the stairs, Paul was sitting on the couch and I smiled and showed him the positive test! Then we both were crying, smiling and beyond thrilled! We could not believe it finally happened...I was pregnant! We soaked up the moment but were kind of in disbelief. Therefore, I took a pregnancy test everyday for the following 6 days to confirm and see the positive sign/pregnant sign! Everyday was exciting to know it happened and nerve racking wondering if everything was ok. We prayed every night to keep our baby safe and thanked God for the miracle. Our little secret.