And I Was Like Baby, Baby, Baby, Oh!

Since I will be 16 weeks tomorrow, I guess it is about time for a baby update, especially considering the last post on baby was announcing the pregnancy.   We've had two doctor appointments so far and I'll have another one this week.  It's a small Christian practice and one of the doctors actually goes to my church.  Have I made that situation as awkward as possible? You bet!  So far, so good with this practice, but if you know me, you'd know I'd rather have a midwife.  Unfortunately, our insurance won't cover it this time around, but my doula (Zach) and I are confident we know what we're doing enough this time around to have the kind of natural birth I want in a doctory, hospital setting...if God chooses for me to have the desire of my heart in this matter.  There's your Presbyterian caveat.

We had an ultrasound at eight weeks to date the pregnancy and the baby was a squirmy little peanut.  The doctor (the one from our church) was great about getting Owen involved and talking to the boys about the baby.  The second appointment was your standard five minutes with the doctor, but we did get to hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler for the first time.  The heart rate was 170, which is fast even for that age, but both the boys always had fast heart rates.  And yes, I did double check that the old wives' tale about faster heart rates meaning a baby girl was false.  So no hint as to the baby's sex yet! I'll let you know for sure in about 24+ weeks.

I've been feeling much better regarding nausea and fatigue.  I did have one brief, surprising bout of morning sickness at 14 weeks, when I thought I was well clear of that nastiness.  I was actually in a packed out yoga class at the Y, after finally getting my lazy butt there following weeks of, "Erghhh, but I'm pregnant!  And sleepy!  And queasy!"   I thought I was having a coughing fit, then ran out of the room to explode vomit all over the bathroom.   And that's why we don't exercise, people.

Overall, I think I'm safely into that "2nd trimester honeymoon period" and my days have been much more productive.  Owen is finally having "school" again and though my house is not up to normal cleanliness standards, it is functionally clean (eg you can walk around in it without stepping on a toy/cereal/pile of laundry).  Most days, at least.   My belly is looking large, and not just to me.  I met a woman the other day and right away she said, "When are you due?"  I said, "What? I'm not pregnant!"  She said, "Yeah right, honey, you're too far along for that trick to work."

I have felt the baby move a few times, which is always delightful.  It seemed early to me, but when I looked up what happened with the boys, I felt them both moving around 15/16 weeks.  Now you're all caught up on my pregnancy.  I should have some ultrasound pictures for you in a few weeks as well, so get excited. 

Baby!

A few months ago, Zach and I had a talk - the ole "when are we going to have more babies" discussion.  It's amazing how long it took us to have it, though I'll grant that we've had a busy six months. When Owen was a little over a year, Zach and I were both ready for another child.  After Caelum...well, let's just say we've been biding our time a bit more.  My reasons for waiting were quite lame and selfish (coffee! wine! sleep!), while Zach's were more reasonable (not having a support system here yet, getting settled). Anyway, we finally stopped dragging our feet and felt ready to keep this family a-growing.

Fast forward a month, and this girl is feeling prettttty queasy.  Since that's my easiest frame of reference when it comes to being pregnant, I took a test. Negative.  I don't know if the test was too early or what, but the queasiness came back again and again.  I thought I was having a crazy phantom pregnancy symptom (though that was the only one, besides fatigue) but waited two weeks and took another test. Positive!

This was the first time Zach hadn't been right there with me as I was taking the test, so I wanted to do something special to let him know. I was feeding the boys some breakfast and Zach was in the shower, so I quickly grabbed some fabric markers and plain white shirts for the boys. They scribbled on them while they ate pumpkin waffles and then I wrote "I'm a Big Brother" on Owen's and "I'm a Big Brother Too!" on Caelum's.  Sure, I'm not very crafty and my handwriting is awful, but it got the message across.  When Zach was ready to leave for work, the boys ran to show him their shirts.  It was perfect; Zach saw Owen's first and said, "Owen, I like your shirt. You ARE a big brother." Then Zach read Caelum's and looked at me right away, saying, "What? Really?" He was delighted and explained to the boys what their shirts implied.

Owen immediately said, "Really? For real? A baby in your belly? Mommy, you did it! Yay for Mommy!" He is super excited and one of the first things he said was, "I wonder when your baby shower will be?" Owen wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl.  He says if it's a girl, it will be Esmé Ruth (he's right) and if it's a boy, he likes the name Jonathan. We tried to convey that we didn't want to tell everyone about the baby quite yet.  When we made a celebratory stop at Starbucks, he ran up to the counter and said, "We're getting something special because we're celebrating...oh wait, wait, I'm not supposed to say anything." So stinking cute. My favorite Owen reaction to the news was his pep talk for Caelum: "Caelum, now you're going to be a big brother. When the baby comes, it will be very little.  You can't drop it. You need to be nice."

As for Caelum, all he got out of all the hoopla this morning was that there was going to be a baby.  He also says that he has a baby in his belly.  Even though he's still my sweet baby boy, he seems so much older now, just because I know he's got a sibling on the way. Caelum insisted on wearing his Big Brother shirt all day.  So now the Target cashier and librarian might have some idea, but no one else knows.

We are excited.  We don't know how far along I am since my body is crazy, but I don't think I could be more than five weeks.  I might be even less than that, but we'll have to wait and see once I finally make an appointment.  I'm estimating that the baby will be due some time in August, so get ready for a long, hot summer.

Congratulations to us.  I know a lot of pregnant ladies right now, but I also know quite a few couples who are having a hard time getting pregnant.  I want to be tactful in our announcement, but I am absolutely bursting with the news.  I feel totally blessed that Zach and I get to be the parents of three (THREE!) kids and covet y'alls prayers for our sweet little one.