10 Weeks From Today...

...I will have TWO children!

 

 I woke up this morning realizing it was Wednesday, 10 weeks away from our scheduled C-section. So far my third trimester is going well. I have felt fairly good, occasionally feeling bad after dinner and before bed. I am not that "sleepy," but boy am I exhausted by the end of the day. Being pregnant with a toddler is a bit more challenging than my first pregnancy.

 

I am very excited about welcoming this child into the world. We are doing our best of introducing the idea of a baby sister to Brylee. She knows "baby sister" is in Mama's belly and will point to my belly or kiss it. But I'm not sure she has made the connection that an actual newborn will be joining us soon. And to be honest, I'm not sure I've really even wrapped my mind around the idea of having a newborn join our family in 10 weeks.

 

I have a feeling these next 10 weeks are going to fly by. Here is a quick run-down of our lives in the next 10 weeks: Halloween weekend & parties, a small friends baby shower, rotary bowling fundraiser, our church's annual "Love Where You Live" Sunday, Brylee's B-day party, trip to Atlanta, Thanksgiving, Brylee's actual birthday, Trip to NYC, Bryan's 1/2 marathon, Brokaw family Christmas, actual Christmas weekend, my parents come to town, New Years Day....then Baby! It seems a little overwhelming & crazy when I list it all out.

 

And if you haven't heard, Baby Brokaw has a name...

 

Lynlie Kayte Brokaw

 

So unless I go into labor early, on Wednesday January 2nd we will become a family of FOUR! So the countdown begins....

 



Arboretum Pumpkin Patch

Last week Brylee and I headed to the Arboretum on my day off. It was a little warmer than I had hoped for a fun day at the pumpkin patch, but we still enjoyed ourselves! Enjoy these sweet smiles!

Annual Friends Weekend

Two weeks ago some of my best friends in the world headed to Dallas for our annual "Friends Weekend." We all met at ACU, had arguably the best four years of our lives, and have tried to get together at least once a year since we graduated. We all currently live in Texas, so almost everyone was able to drive up on Friday. We had a great weekend catching up, meeting new additions to the group, and letting kids play together!

 

Wendi & Wade have family in Arlington, so we met up with them a night early and headed to our beloved Rangers game! We have been to so many games together, and share this favorite past-time with them.

 

All day Friday we hung out at our house, catching up and letting the kids play together!

 

Dancing girls!

 

"Aunt" Britt story time

 

Story time migrated to under the table in their "house"

 

We all got to meet Allison & Randy's handsome new boy, Barrett!

 

"Uncle" Brandon's technology lesson

 

We all enjoyed a cadual dinner Friday night

Saturday morning the girls got out of the house for a couple of ours to have brunch together.

 

 

And they surprised me with a little "showering" for baby girl!

While the mamas were away, the daddy's got to play!

 

 

Then we traded duties and the girls hung out at home during nap time & dinner time while the boys enjoyed cheering on ACU football at the Cowboys Stadium.

 

We spent our evenings loving on babies and playing outside...

...and cleaned up during bath time!

 

Here is what our group looks like this year: 2012

 

Emma (3) Brylee (almost 2) Jake (1+) London (1+) Clara (4 months)

(Baby Barrett was hungry during this picture, so he got included in the Mamas' picture)

 



Best Friends

Wendi, Allison, Kathrine, Brittnie, Ashley, Jamie (we missed you Jenny!)

Most of the group headed back home Sunday morning. The Holmes and Brokaws hung out for a little while...

.... and met for brunch at Allison's house before Kathrine & the Holmes headed back home.

 

These ladies (and guys, for that matter) have such a special place in my heart. They are all very important in the story of my family. We have all seen each other get married, buy houses, and now we are all mothers. We have a very special relationship, and plan continue these yearly gatherings until we are all gathering in Heaven one day! I love you, Girls!!

Wylie Rodeo

Every year Bryan volunteers to help out with parking for the Wylie Rodeo. Because of that, Brylee and I got free tickets and enjoyed a Saturday evening playing in the dirt and smelling cows!

 

We parked at the high school and they had school buses shuttle us to/from the rodeo fair grounds. Brylee loves the "Wheels on the Bus" song and loves school buses, so it was a real treat for us to get to ride on a school bus. She was pretty squinty because of the sun, but I promise, she was really excited to be riding on a school bus!

 We enjoyed watching horses...

 ...getting balloon animals made...

 ...jumping on a bounce house...

 ....climbing the fence...

 ...watching the cows...

 ...and meeting up with Daddy at the end of the night!

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!