The Facts of Life

I think the picture speaks for itself, but just in case you missed it, or the 30+ congratulations on Facebook, we are expecting baby number 3! Baby is due to join us mid May just before Michigan starts getting hot.

The boys chose their costumes this year without any help from mom, they just so happened to coordinate, and then this picture idea was formed, it was too cute not to do, and I never could have "planned" something so clever!

Now that the secret is out, I wanted to share some of the "statuses," funnies, and woes that have been itching to be shared in cyber space over the last 8-12 weeks. This post will be a bit random, but hopefully you will find it entertaining.

First of all, I would be remiss if I didn't start out with a giant HOLY MOLY the Lord's done it again! What a huge blessing it is to be pregnant again for our fourth time.  I know that each and every baby is a blessing and miracle from the Lord and I am just so grateful and excited to be here again, anticipating the swelling of my abdomen and those first tiny flutters of movement. Each of our boys were born with a huge testimony to the Lord's goodness and faithfulness (here and here), and even Toby(i) whom is awaiting us in Heaven was a sign from the Lord that we would have more kids even after Brian's cancer treatments (which one doctor had concerns about). So much joy and love. I'm so excited to see what this little bear's story will be. So blessed.

My husband, in his eagerness to show he was excited and praying for the baby, prayed for him/her at dinner just a few days after we had found out. When he finished his prayer he looked at the kids and said "Did you know that, that your mom is going to have a baby?" I wish I'd known so I could have recorded Owen's response. His eyes turned into quarters and he just lit up like the sun, "Mom your pregnant?" After much laughter and excitement I explained that we needed to be praying for the baby every day because sometimes babies go to heaven before we get to meet them and then we meet them when we get there, we also emphasized that this was a secret.

Boy, did he surprise me! I was so worried about the secret part but for about a month he kept his lips sealed tight. Once we were in the car and he said "Mom, you probably shouldn't talk about the baby with the windows down, someone might hear you."

Micah prays for the baby all of the time. "Thank you Jesus for the baby in moms belly." However, every prayer Micah John says starts that way. "Thank you Jesus ... for the cup, ... for Owen's school bus, ... that mommy is sick." Interpretations: "I need something to pray for so I will say cup, ... that mommy gets home before the school bus so that Owen doesn't get scared and mad if we aren't home yet, ...that mommy isn't sick anymore."

I love analyzing my babies while they are in the womb and then comparing those behaviors/assessments to their real personalities. Both Owen and Micah were dead on. Owen a go getter, a fighter, spunky and always let me know he was there. Micah a gentle lover, movements were much more subtle like a hand caressing my belly he was probably whispering "I love you too" or "I love you more, no I love you more, no I love you more" right back at me. This baby, too small at 12 weeks to let me know he or she is there by movement still stands apart as vastly different than my other two and really all three pregnancies. While I've had nausea and exhaustion before, I have NEVER EVER lost weight while I was pregnant. Granted I only lost 4 lbs but as I normally gain about 10 lbs in the first 12 weeks I feel like that was a pretty significant difference. I've been sick a couple of times, (but I've also had a stomach bug, an intestinal thing, and now this plague by cough) my biggest issue hasn't been loosing my food it's been not wanting food or changing my mind about food. For instance, baby says it wants salad with a certain dressing, and then baby hates said salad (at Elephant Bar, not a cheap salad baby!) baby does not want tacos, at all, ever, then mommy takes a bite and baby wants to eat every single ounce of that pound of meat, until wait, stop, that last bite was one bite too many. This has happened over and over again. Husband says he's not spending any more money on my cravings ;)

If I had to guess, I would say this baby has a woman's prerogative  but maybe that's just wishful thinking ;)

Things are getting better though, I'm wanting to eat more and being grossed out by fewer foods, so that's a bonus.

Owen told us the other day that he wants to name a baby girl "Captain Underpants" yes you read that right. Then he also supplied Susan from Monster's Vs. Aliens because he likes to mimic Bob when he say's "Suuuuuuuuuuuuuusaan, oo I scared myself." We actually like Susan, so it's kind of a contender right now, though Brian wont seriously discuss names until after the big gender reveal which isn't for a few more months. . . I like Susan, but not Suzanne, and I don't like and wont entertain Suzy as a nick name so we'd have to come up with an excellent alternative... We shall see, we still have all the time in the world.

One last note, again about Owen. His teacher told me yesterday that she was seriously impressed by Owen when they were doing their pumpkin lesson. Apparently when they learned that a pumpkin starts out as a seed before it grows big, he raised his hand and compared that to my belly because I'm growing a baby and it started out small kind of like the seed and it takes time for it to get bigger before the baby comes. She didn't tell him how close he was, replacing the word seed with egg, probably best not to go into the Facts of Life with a room full of Kindergartners!

Surprise, I lied. I have another one. :) This one is about Brian, I share this because it made me laugh and smile, and I'm sure many of you (those who know him personally) have the same question, and would hopefully enjoy his answer as much as I did.  Brian told our pastor, and good friend, that we were expecting number three (while things were still hush hush, in the middle of church, lol, boys.) What I've been told is that Tim said "is this a good thing, or a bad thing?" And Brian said "If you'd asked me a year ago, I would have said bad, but I'm actually really excited about it now." Tim's reply was "She wore you down eh?"

So there you have it friends, we are all so excited about this journey and cannot wait until spring when we can hold our sweet little teddy bear.