If You Haven't Heard...

...we're having another baby! The rumor is true, and I'm finally getting around to writing about this second pregnancy. It wasn't that I was purposely keeping this news a secret or off the 'world wide web'....I just literally hadn't gotten around to it! And we're 21 weeks along! Ha! It's true what they say about multiple children...no one will get the attention like the first one had. It's a bit harder to find time to think, let alone blog, about this pregnancy, when I'm chasing a toddler around the house.

 

So here's an overview of the last five months of pregnancy:

 

How I found out:

We found out we were pregnant on May 14. Actually, I was the only one who found out! I had just driven 800 miles from Dallas to Atlanta with Brylee to help my family the week before my brother's wedding. Monday morning, I knew something was up, so took a home pregnancy test and, to be completely honest, was a little shocked it was positive! Bryan wasn't flying into Atlanta until Friday, and I thought this was too big of an announcement to share over the phone, so I kept it a secret for the entire week! It was the longest week of my life! Bryan and I only had a few minutes of quite to ourselves in the car on the way home from the airport, and we both were in awe of this amazing gift. We then told my family the following Sunday at dinner with a mother's day card from her two grandchildren (Brylee is the only grandchild currently). And we told Bryan's parents via Skype that evening when we were wishing her a happy mother's day. Everyone was very excited.

 

First Trimester:

We kept this news between us and our families until about 8-10 weeks, after our first ultrasound showed a healthy baby with a strong heartbeat. I had great plans to take some cute photo of us and Brylee sharing this announcement with everyone on Facebook, etc, but never got around to it. I felt pretty good overall, with a little evening sickness, but never actually threw up, which I know is a huge blessing. I felt this baby move around 15 weeks, and had great doctor check-ups the entire 3 months. I had no real food cravings, and gained less weight than I did with Brylee, although my belly started poking out significantly earlier than it did with Brylee! Overall, the first trimester went by fairly quickly, and I think it took me the entire 3 months to come to terms with reality that we were really becoming a family of four!

 

20 Week Ultrasound:

We had our anatomy scan ultrasound about 2 weeks ago, praying for a healthy baby and anticipating the reveal of our baby's gender. Part of me really hoped it was a girl, because growing up two brothers, and knowing these two children will be right at 2 years apart, I thought having a girl right now would be a very fun relationship to have between these two children. And the other part of me was hoping for a boy, because having a boy is also a dream of mine and ensures we wont be desperately trying for a boy after having a house full of girls. It was very obvious based on the ultrasound we were having another girl, and that is when I shed a few tears of joy! Our sweet girl checked out perfectly healthy, and was of course measuring big at this point just like Brylee.

 

Waving Hi!

 Sweet Profile

 Sweet baby bottom

 She's all curled up with her bottom in the air!

 

I still feel great, and am 21 weeks along. My doctor does not expect this baby to come early based on my history with Brylee. They wont induce me this time around since Brylee was a C-section. My options are to go into labor on my own and try to deliver naturally or go ahead and schedule a planned C-section. We're pretty decided on having a planned C-section on Jan 2 or 3, 2013, although if for some miracle I go into labor early on my own (say around 36 or 37 weeks), with a slightly smaller baby, then we might try to deliver non C-section. What I don't want to repeat is 3 hours of pushing only to deliver a 9lb baby via C-section (thank you, Brylee!)

 

And just for fun, these are the profiles of my two girls at 20 weeks gestation! Brylee is on top and the new baby is below. I think they look amazingly similar! What do you think?!

When 1+1=4

Baby SISTER is due in early January and we couldn't be happier! More details to come!

Meme & Gramps Come to Visit

This past weekend my parents came to visit Brylee, and since we happen to live with her, they came to visit us too! We were expecting to have dinner with them when they arrived Thursday evening. However, due to bad weather in Atlanta, they didn't arrive until after 11 pm, and Brylee and I had already fallen asleep! But we started off strong Friday morning, and didn't stop until they left Sunday evening. We played at home, at the library, at the park, and at the Rangers game. And between my and my mom's camera, we took a lot of pictures! So enjoy a recap of our weekend in pictures!

Reading books at home...

...and reading books at the library.

 My dad speaks fluent Spanish, and thinks Brylee would benefit from a little bilingual lesson!

 And since she's not allowed to play with our computer at home yet, she loves banging on the kids computer at the library.

 Friday night Bryan and I went on a date. This gave us a little time to ourselves, and my parents had a little time with Brylee to themselves. We all had a great night!

Trying on Gramps' shoes

 Eating a "snack"

 They went out to Chick-fil-A for dinner & play, then came home to take a bubble bath (Brylee's new favorite activity!)

 Saturday morning we all went out to eat donuts..

 ...then played at the park! It was the first time in a long time that we have had decent enough weather to play outside for a couple of hours.

 Then we came home and rested before a big evening...

 ...at the RANGERS GAME!

And Brylee met Santa for the second time (first was last Christmas, and she was NOT a fan!)

 This Santa was a lot more friendly...

 ...and gave Brylee her first candy cane.

 We were all exhausted Sunday morning, so we slept in and spent some quality family time before my parents had to leave that night.

We pulled out a bowling set that I had stored away from one of her birthday presents, and had a good time throwing balls all over the play room.

We loved every minute of your visit, Meme and Gramps! Can't wait to see you again soon!

Fun Zone

While we were in Illinois, our nephew Luke was able to celebrate his birthday with a bunch of cousins at this fun zone! It was a great place filled with arcade games, lazer tag, roller skating, and this fun 3-story 'ball zone.' It only cost $5 for a child under 2 plus an adult to go in, and was well worth it for the two hours we were there.

The first level had all these foam balls you could collect and send up a suction tube that would spit them back out at you from above.

It took her a while to get brave enough to climb up the first little section. She needed help on most of the climbing primarily because the places to step up were too tall for her! Waving to Daddy below.

She still doesn't like climbing through tunnels, so we skipped that part

The second level also had these air guns you could use to shoot the foam balls at targets or people below

No, I'm not teaching her how to "stuff" her shirt...just a good way to collect balls!

Just before we left she finally was brave enough to climb up with me to the 3rd level to go down these slides. They were very fast, but Brylee loved them! We never made it all the way to the very top to go down the enclosed slide, but this seemed to be fast enough for the both of us!

And Daddy went roller skating with Luke, so Brylee joined them for a lap or two. It was really nice because this place was not crowded at all for most of our visit. We had a lot of fun!

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Life on The Farm

Both of Bryan's parents grew up on farms near Pittsfield, IL, about two hours away from St. Louis. These farms make for a very fun place for grandkids, and now great-grandkids, to spend time exploring, learning, and playing! Brylee had an absolute blast playing outside and exploring the "barn". His living grandparents don't have "working" farms anymore, but some of Bryan's uncles grow crops on their land.

Brylee was fascinated with the "barn" and would frequently ask to go there.

Learning how to drive a riding lawn mower

Needless to say, her clothes were filthy after this trip!

Her Nanny (Bryan's mom) and Aunt Judy found this push cart in the barn and it became a big hit around the farm

Bryan's Grandma Hammitt has 24 grandchildren and over 50 great-grandchildren, so she has lots of practice playing with kiddos. She created a ramp for the car Brylee was playing with

But the biggest hit of all were rides in the golf cart. The little ones just loved this, and I would be lying if I didn't say I also enjoyed driving the gravel roads myself!

Although Brylee wasn't big enough to pedal this bike, she looks like such a big girl sitting on a real bicycle!

Her second cousin Bryce is 1 month younger than Brylee, and they look like they could be twins.

Hammitt and Brokaw Cousins

Nanny got caught feeding Brylee an entire bowl of ice cream! She definitely ate like she was on vacation that week!

Cleaning up is the cutest part of getting dirty on the farm. We love it there!