So, with two little boys and a full time job keeping me busy, I have been behind almost ALWAYS on this blog. I am finding myself actually caught up at this point in time (just for about a month and then Alex's next post is due, oy!) But anyway, since I'm actually caught up and since I wrote about my other two pregnancies (Alex's much more than Declan's) I thought I'd update the old blog with the news that we are expecting baby number 3!!!
We are very excited about the new addition to our family who is due to arrive sometime in May While May 16th is the official due date, who knows when the baby will actually come? With Alex having been induced 8 days late and Declan coming in like a hurricane 8 days early, it's hard to say exactly when this baby will make an appearance.
We found out I was pregnant on September 3rd. I put Matt through so much with the big surprises with the other two that I just told him that I was going to test that Thursday morning since it was 10 days past ovulation (that's when I first tested positive with Declan). Woke up that morning and went to the bathroom. I came back to bed and Matt asked, "Well, what did you get?" I waited 5 minutes then went back in and told him I saw a faint line.
Here's a little side note to explain what I did next:
When I was planning to get pregnant for the second time, I went to see my OBGYN for my annual exam. This was at the end of November. I told Dr. Bale that we were planning on starting trying soon and asked him for a prescription for prenatal vitamins. He gave me the prescription and said good luck and told me to call when I get a positive pregnancy test. Well a mere 2 weeks later I found out I was pregnant, so I called the doctor's office to let them know. Dr. Bale said, "Didn't I just see you a couple weeks ago? Man, your husband must be shooting golden bullets!"
Okay, so back to baby number 3 . . . After I saw the faint line on the pregnancy test, I pulled out a gift that I bought after we tried for this baby. It was a "Golden" bullet inscribed with his name. Matt opened the gift and smiled. Then he said, "You are lucky I know what this means, otherwise I'd think you were trying to tell me you have a bullet with my name on it!" I honestly hadn't even thought of that. So glad he knew what it meant!
A couple days later I used an expired digital test to further convince Matt since the line was so faint on the test at 10 days past ovulation. Even the expired test showed that I was pregnant :)
We didn't keep the news to ourselves for long. I was already experiencing the first trimester fatigue so we decided to tell the kids right away hoping that we could get Alex to help out a little more around the house. The whole telling them early pretty much back fired on us. They either weren't excited at all or they just didn't get it.
Right after we told the boys, we decided to tell my parents. Sometimes a girl just needs to talk to her mom about this kind of stuff. So we headed over to their house with Declan dressed in Alex's old "Big Brother" t-shirt. Of course neither of them noticed at first (or they did notice and just thought he was wearing a hand-me-down). Finally my mom looked at Declan's shirt and said, "Hey you big brother - you're not the big bro . . ." Just then it clicked and she looked over at me and said, "Is he the big brother?" I told her yes, he is the big brother and there was a lot of happiness and hugging!
We told Matt's parents a couple days later. We tried the same tactic with Declan wearing the "Big Brother" shirt. That did not work at all with them. It took forever and so I eventually just told Alex to tell Grandma Gerry. So Alex went into the kitchen and said, "Hey Grandma Gerry . . . my mom has a baby in her belly!" At first she didn't think it was real, but when we confirmed there was more rejoicing.
Once the whole family knew, we started slowing telling close friends. I was fortunate enough to be able to see all my college friends within a month of each other so I actually got to tell them in person. All except Katie of course who is in Africa. Once all the family and our close friends knew, it was time to make it official . . . Facebook official that is. We waited until Halloween and then we posted this:
That one didn't take too much explaining and we got a lot of congratulations and well wishes.
So now that the news it out, I've been getting all the same questions including, "How are you feeling?" The truth is that with this pregnancy I was NOT feeling well at ALL for the entire first trimester. I constantly felt like I was going to throw up and I was so tired all the time. Luckily this became a bit better around 10 weeks and by 14 weeks it was pretty much all alleviated. Now I'm still pretty tired, but I think that has more to do with having a full time job and two very active boys to take care of.
Another question is "Are you hoping for a girl?" To be honest, I'm already sick of this question. No I'm not "hoping for a girl." I was hoping for a baby and it looks like I got what I wanted! Honestly, I think Matt would really like a girl, but he would be thrilled with another boy too. I know that boy or girl, this baby is so special and we are all going to fall in love with him or her. I, myself, am already in love and there is nothing this kid could do to change that.
Which leads us to, "Are you going to find out the gender?" The answer to that is no. Matt really wants to find out because we are all out of boys names. If it's a girl, we don't have to go through the pain of trying to find a name. I really loved being surprised with the boys and I really don't want to ruin that moment in the delivery room so I made the decision that we will wait again. I told Matt that we need to just assume it is going to be a boy and come up with a name so we are prepared either way. So we are still discussing boys names and we are taking suggestions if you want to put in your 2 cents ;)
Another question is, "Are you showing?" With this being baby number 3, I'm pretty sure I started showing the day after we found out. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I really did pop out early. Here are some of my "bump" photos:
6 Weeks (in the Willis Tower in Chicago):
8 Weeks:
15 Weeks:
17 Weeks:
Another question is, "Are you sure there is only 1 in there?" Okay, so this is the question I keep asking my doctor. I'm just so much bigger than I was with my other 2 pregnancies! (See 17 weeks with Alex and 16 weeks with Declan). Dr. Gosser (my new OB since Dr. Bale retired) said that it is normal for the uterus to stretch out sooner after having had a few babies. Plus I had an ultrasound at 6 weeks and there was definitely only one in there:
I was also able to hear the heartbeat at 12 weeks and 17 weeks and it was strong at 150 BPM.
I am scheduled to have my big 20 week ultrasound on January 6th. So excited to be able to see the baby again! I'm planning on bringing Alex along and maybe even Declan too. We shall see. Hopefully I will find time to post the pictures from that ultrasound but of course that will all depend on when I can squeeze some non-existent time to do it. We shall see! If I do have time to do that I will also post more pictures of my belly. It's getting bigger and bigger. No one even questions whether or not I'm pregnant right now.
We are thrilled to be bringing another life into this world. We can't wait to meet you our precious little baby!
