Baby #2

Since announcing that we are expecting our second little bundle of joy, we have gotten quite a few questions from people.  I thought I would address some of them and fill you in on this crazy story.

1. (The most common question) Did you plan to have them this close together?
We definitely did not.  I was actually very content with just having Robby.  Although several members of our family informed me of their strong opinions of not wanting Robby to be an only child, I really was considering keeping it just him.  I have a few reasons for that.  First, I wanted to focus on just him.  There are so many milestones that he is and will accomplish and I wanted to be able to enjoy them all without anything else needing my attention.  Second, I didn't want to short change a second child.  So many have told me that their second one spends a lot of time in their swing or in their crib, because the first is so active and requires so much constant attention.  The thought of that is sad to me.  I want to be able to focus on this second baby just as much as I was able to focus on Robby.  I loved the quiet times of just holding and staring at Robby.  I cherish the mornings when we would snuggle and roll around on the bed after Tim left for work.  I won't be able to have as carefree of mornings with this second baby as I was able to have with Robby.  I know that people have second, third, and fourth children all the time and they make it work, it's just not how I pictured things.  I am just praying that Robby reaches all of his baby milestones before this baby arrives so I can at least feel like I could focus on and appreciate all of them.  Third, Robby has literally been a perfect baby.  Does he cry?  Yes.  Does he scream?  Yes.  Does he get upset when he's tired or hungry?  Yes.  But that's really about it.  He's a very adaptable baby.  After several days home after being born, he was sleeping through the night and putting himself on a schedule.  His days are predictable and he loves to get out and see people.  If he screams or cries, it's for a reason and once that issue is resolved, he's happy again (except for right now while he's teething!)  Lots of people have told me that since he has been so great, the second baby will be quite the handful (why people say things like this to people - just like feeling the need to share their horror labor and delivery stories or worst case scenario baby stories - I will never understand).  I pray this won't be the case, as it will be quite overwhelming the first several months after this baby is born.

2. Did you know you were pregnant?
Again, no, I didn't!  When I was pregnant with Robby I never had any typical pregnancy symptoms, and this pregnancy has been the same.  I haven't had any morning sickness or anything.  The only thing is that I'm tired (but I was tired before, so I don't know that being tired is actually from being pregnant!) and extremely hungry.  The difference between this pregnancy and the last is that we were trying with Robby, although not that long, so I was paying attention and could track back to exactly when I got pregnant.  With this one, I have no idea!  The timeline is a little fuzzy.  I nursed Robby until late June when my milk suddenly dried up overnight.  My friend, Catie, actually asked me that day if I could be pregnant.  I believe my response was, "Heck no" or something like that!  After I could no longer nurse, I went ahead and started birth control.  I started out taking it just like I did before I went off of it to get pregnant with Robby.  I took 3 months worth straight through at a time.

3. How did you find out you were pregnant?
It wasn't until 3 weeks ago when I went off of the birth control to have my period that I thought something was funny.  I was on a trip to Arkansas at the time, and being pregnant couldn't have been further from my mind.  I did tell Tim over the phone that it hadn't come yet, so he said before I started my next round of birth control I needed to take a pregnancy test.  As soon as he picked me up from the airport and we got home, I took the test.  Y'all, as soon as I peed on that stick it turned positive.  The control line took longer to show up than the positive line did!  All I could do was yell Tim's name.  He ran in, holding Robby, and got the biggest grin on his face.  I just had to sit there for a bit to let it "sink in", even though I don't know if it still has or not!

4. How far along are you?
Well, I assumed that I was somewhere between 6-10 weeks just because of how quickly the test turned positive.  I was only 3 weeks along when I took the test when I was pregnant with Robby and it took about 30 seconds to a minute for the line to show, and it was quite faint.  I assumed that I got pregnant when I was on birth control, because we didn't take extra precautions once I started taking it and probably didn't give it time to actually get in my system.  I was very anxious to get to my doctors appointment on Tuesday to make sure the baby was healthy, as I hadn't been taking prenatal vitamins, had been taking strong doses of ibuprofen for headaches, and had been taking birth control regularly.   When the doctor was ready to do the ultrasound, she first did an abdominal exam.  She looked at me quite surprised when she could already feel my uterus and said that I might be further along than we thought.  She proceeded with the internal ultrasound.  Tim and I nearly fell on the floor when she told us the baby was too big to see internally.  She started the abdominal ultrasound and found the baby right away. We were able to clearly see the head, body, arms, legs, and even fingers!  The baby was just bouncing around and waving like crazy!  We could not believe it when the doctor informed us that we were 14 weeks along!  I am completely out of the first trimester and didn't even know I was pregnant!  When we track it back, I got pregnant before I even stopped nursing, and that was probably the reason my milk dried up.  Our due date is March 6, 2012.

5. What do you think you are having?
Well, I never had a gut feeling with Robby, but for some reason, I just have this feeling we are having another boy.  I have no idea why.  Everyone in our family is pulling for a little girl.  Of course we would be thrilled either way.  I don't know if I'm feeling it's a boy because that is a comforting thought to me.  I know what to do with a boy and we could reuse everything.  Thankfully, we don't have to wait long to find out if it's a boy or girl, we will know at our next appointment in 4 weeks!  How crazy is that?  If it's a girl, we will be naming her Abigail Lauren (which is what we had picked out for a girl the last pregnancy).  If it's a boy, we know the middle name will be Edward (my grandfather's middle name) but haven't been able to decide on a first name that we both love.  Picking Robby's name was so easy.  We knew several years before we even got pregnant that if we ever had a boy we would name him Robert, after our sister-in-law's brother who was killed in Iraq.  And William is a common family name on both sides of our families.  I love that it is part of both of our brothers' names, as well as Robby's paternal grandfather's and maternal great grandfather's name.  We just want to pick a first name that is meaningful to both of us.

6. Will you be having anymore?
Heck no!!  Either Tim or I will be taken care of to no longer be able to have anymore children.  We are happy with two and are excited that they will be close and be best friends, but we have no desire to have any more.

I haven't had the chance to take any belly pictures this time around, but I plan to starting next week at the 15 week mark.  Most of my jeans I can no longer button.  I have two pair that I can wear, other than the maternity jeans that I have.  I'm going to have to buy some maternity shirts at some point, because I already got rid of the 5 shirts I had when I was pregnant with Robby!  I have one shirt that Catie got for me, but other than that I don't have any.  I'm hoping to be able to do what I did last time and still wear some of my non-maternity tops for a long while!

Thank you, everyone, for your encouragement and sweet comments on Facebook and emails.  We are very excited about this new baby and are ready to get started on this crazy adventure that God has decided for us!