I want to thank everyone for all of the congrats & prayers! We are super-duper excited and feel so
incredibly blessed to have so many people praying for us and for our new baby! My official due date would be sometime in the 1st week of February, but since I have super-speedy labors and getting to the hospital in time is a real concern, my doctor said after Anna Kate that they will most likely induce me between 37 and 38 weeks next time. So we're looking at a late January baby... just like me!
So we had been trying for many months, and I was starting to get discouraged (
we tried for a long time with Wesley, but got Anna Kate the 2nd month we tried, so I was disappointed it wasn't easier this time). When I realized that we would not be able to try again until August due to Michael's travels in June and July, I reached maximum determination! While I've always been pretty secretive about baby-trying in the past, this past month I specifically solicited the prayers of my parents and of some of (
you!) my closest friends. I never get tired of seeing God display His faithfulness to prayer! I truly believe it's because of those prayers that Michael and I have once again been given this amazing gift. Most of you know that I had some early complications with Anna Kate's pregnancy, and I solicit your continued prayers that the next few weeks will remain drama-free!
I had not planned on testing until Sunday, but beginning about Wednesday night, I kept having to get up to pee-pee numerous times at night. I got up at 6 a.m. on Saturday to go, and I think it was my 4
th or 5
th trip. Wesley came and got in bed with us at 6:15 (
I'm not loving this early-rising sun!) and when he woke me up, I had to go so badly that you'd think I hadn't been all night. I thought, "This is ridiculous! I just went 15 minutes ago!!" So I decided to go ahead and take a test. I didn't wake up Michael. I just used a cheap dollar store test, and after two minutes a
very faint line, almost like a shadow of a line, appeared. I kept staring and staring at it wondering if I was just imagining it to be there
because I wanted a positive so badly! So I woke up Michael and asked him to come look. He said there was definitely something there and that we should go buy a digital test. We went back to bed (
Michael promptly conked out, of course, but I couldn't sleep!). When both kids woke up, we headed to
Walmart to buy a digital test. I took it as soon as I got home. I set it on the counter and set a timer and wouldn't let Michael go near it until the timer went off. When the buzzer went off I ran to the test and yelled,
"Pregnant!!!"The kids were running around playing... probably coloring the walls with Sharpies and chewing on the dry wall for all we know, because we were so distracted! We immediately started talking to Wesley about it, which was fun because with Anna Kate he was entirely too young to grasp the concept at all throughout the entire pregnancy. I said, "
Wesley, guess what?! Mommy has a baby in her tummy!" Wesley's face lit up and he exclaimed,
"Me??!!" I am always telling Wesley that he grew in my tummy (especially when Daddy is asking him if he's a Mommy's boy or a Daddy's boy!), so I guess that's just the first thing that came to his mind! I explained that we would have a new baby, like when we brought Anna Kate home from the hospital (Wesley truly never grasped that there was a baby in my tummy while I was pregnant, but he has always remembered Anna Kate coming home). This seemed to excite him. We asked him if he wanted a brother or another sister. At first he said brother, but then he started yelling, "
No brothers - Lots of sisters!!" He has more consistently said he wants a sister since then, but once when we asked him why he said, "
Cuz,
cuz,
cuz...
can I have a dog?" I'm enjoying Wesley understanding that I have a baby in my tummy... it's fun to have him on this journey with us! He says things like that he wants to share his
Bumbo with the new baby.
And here's Little Miss Oblivious! I tried to get a pic of her holding the test, but she ignored the test completely and immediately started yelling to see pictures on the camera. Oh, what a stinker she's going to be... watch out, #3! Here's an early prediction: Anna Kate will have a
much more difficult time adjusting to a new sibling than Wesley did with Anna Kate! Of course, we couldn't have had it any easier than we had it with Wes. He adored Anna Kate from day one and never seemed to mind her a bit until she got old enough to pick fights with him! But she will also love on the baby and kiss it to death... when she's not busy throwing a tantrum. ;o)
The kids got a little crash course in being gentle with tiny creatures Tuesday afternoon at my friend Stephanie's house. I pretty much invited myself over because Wesley has begged to go to "
Karessa's house" for months and months and months. They have a big toy room that has made a permanent impression on Wesley! I think the last time Wes was at Stephanie's was when they watched the kids for us last November so Michael and I could go see
Fireproof. The Sherwood Family has added several members since our last visit... Dakota got a hamster and
then Karessa got a hamster, and the next thing ya know there are 15 baby hamsters in their cage! They gave most of the babies back to the pet store, but they did keep a couple of the babies.
Wesley is much more
skittish about things than Anna Kate... he was interested, but as soon as it started to tickle he hopped up and yelled,
"I'm done!" Anna Kate, on the other hand, could not hold the hamster by herself because she would have squeezed it to death! Sweet
Makinna was all about the hamster too. -Below- My sweet daughter kissing a rat... I hope this isn't a
foreshadowing of things to come in her teenage years!
Wednesday we headed to Winter Haven, famous in our household for being the home of Kendall and Megan. We met at a Chuck E. Cheese-type-place called T & R's
Funhouse. We had a great time! Wesley's favorite game there was the bowling game, of course!
We leave early in the morning for St. George Island! This is our 4
th consecutive year to join my entire family there for a wonderful week of sand, sun, and togetherness! I have always either had a new baby or been pregnant while at St. George, so I would have been super-blue to have not been pregnant this year... got it in just in the
nick of time! I may post from the beach, or I may embrace the laziness and come back 5 blog posts behind... either way we're off to make memories!
Oh, and by the way... the pregnancy craziness has already begun. I had my first crazy pregnant dream (s
nakes in the nursery and on Anna Kate) and then today I returned books, DVDs and a CD to the library. Got back in the car and put a movie on for the kids and discovered that one of the DVDs was still in the car player (
I had returned an empty case), so I drove back and left the car running by the front door and ran in and practically threw the DVD at the first person I saw at the desk (I didn't stand in line, either). I got about 8 or 9 minutes down the road and I started to think that if I never took the DVD out of the DVD player, I probably never took the CD out of the CD player either. Sure enough!
Back to the library. Left the car running by the front door again, ran inside like a wild banchee woman
again, and threw the CD at the same woman, saying, "
You're gonna think I've completely lost it!" Didn't stand in line that time, either! Week 5 and this baby is already sucking my brains out! Seriously, hormones have some sort of crazy effect on my memory!
