Thanksgiving 2015

Since it's only a week until Christmas, I figured if I didn't do this blog post now I wouldn't do it at all. It was a pretty busy Thanksgiving for us! Sam's parents retired from being missionaries this year after 14 years of reaching the unreached in Kenya and Tanzania, Africa. With them finally home for the holidays, we headed up to Dallas/Arlington to spend Thanksgiving with Sandra's side of the family.

Baby pigtails are the cutest!!

It was a short trip. We left on Wednesday around 1:30pm when Sam got home after working a half-day. I've never really traveled for a holiday before because my family gatherings around the holidays were only an hour drive away.  Man, did we hit some holiday traffic! It took us 5 hours to get up to Arlington. We stopped a couple times to walk around and use the bathroom. My midwife had advised me to get out and walk around as much as I could to avoid the possibility of blood clots. I also wore compression socks and moved my legs around or propped them up when I could in the car.

My little model

Jane did pretty well on the way up there. She only took a 45 min nap in the car which made things a little more difficult. I was hoping for her to sleep at least an hour and a half like she normally does. I think she was too excited to be going on a trip to sleep long! She made it 3 hours really well. (a trip she is used to, since we've visited Uncle Scott and Aunt Anna a few times in Austin) The last hour was kinda rough, but still not too bad and we made it!

Jane was cleaning the leaves out of the cinder blocks.

We arrived at Uncle Mike's house around 6:30pm to a wonderful lasagna dinner cooked by Sandra. We enjoyed chatting with family before heading to bed. Jane did so well sleeping in her pack & play. She is such a good traveler and will sleep through the night pretty much any where we go.

Jane loved all the fence art!

We had Thanksgiving dinner around 1pm and everyone brought something wonderful to eat and it was all homemade! Everyone in the Westbrook family can cook. Jane enjoyed the mac & cheese the most, I think I did too. ;) I didn't get a picture of all the food, I was too busy eating it.

Relaxing with dad.

Jane has always been really friendly and loves people, but I don't think she's ever been around so many people in that small a place before. She kept retreating to the rooms with no one in them. My little social butterfly might have a little introvert in her yet. It might have just been she was ready for a nap and couldn't find a quiet place.

Jane and Akuya

After visiting with family for a couple hours we packed up and headed back home. It was wonderful to get to see family we hadn't gotten to see in a couple years and I got to meet a few family members I never had before.

Jane meeting her great-grandpa for the first time.

Jane was definitely ready for a nap when we left she fell asleep about 5 minutes after we started home and didn't wake up again for 2 hours. It made the trip home really relaxing. We also didn't hit any traffic so we made it home in 4 hours. Here's a few more pictures of our trip.

Jane and Holden watching Finding Nemo together.

It was her first experience with an iPad.

Is it a phone?? Can I talk to Nemo?

All playing together!

The only thing about being in Dallas for Thanksgiving is that I missed Thanksgiving at my parents house for the first time. It made me a little sad, but don't get me wrong I'm glad we went to Dallas. I just wish I could have done both! I love family! I was able to get home in time to go to my grandparent's house for Thanksgiving on Friday, which made me very happy. :) They live just an hour away.

Will you let me pet you??

My grandparents have 3 Maltese and Jane loves dogs! She really enjoyed getting to be with Buttons, Beau and Bandit. I would love to get Jane a dog, but with a toddler, one on the way and working part time from home, I don't think I could handle training a puppy right now. One day!

Peekaboo!

I'm so glad I don't have stairs in my house. I know I would put up gates, but Jane would be asking to climb the stairs all day! She loves to climb. I'd rather take her to the park or to someone else's house with stairs. ;)

Whee!!

I love getting to watch Jane with the family that love her! It makes my heart happy. It also gives me a little break from playing and I just get to sit back and enjoy.

Tickles!

We enjoyed another yummy Thanksgiving meal. I love Thanksgiving food! Mac & Cheese was Jane's favorite yet again. 

Love my girl. (and my boy you can't see yet)

After we finished eating, I asked if anyone would like to go for a walk to burn off a little bit of the delicious food we just ate. We got a pretty good group together to go. Jane loved watching the dogs walk in front of her.

I always enjoy a good walk.

We walked to the park not to far away and played for a little while before walking back.

There she goes!

One of my old favorites at the park

Jane loves just about everything at the park

Once we got back, I asked if anyone wanted to watch the ultrasound video that I brought of baby boy. My grandparents really enjoyed getting to see it. They hadn't gotten to see an ultrasound in 4D before. We visited for a while longer and headed home. Such a great few days with family. I loved it. Just a few more pictures of our Thanksgiving.

Playing with Pappaw

Hangin out with Marmee, Great Papa and Buttons

Hello??

We're ready for Christmas!

Jane in the same chair 1 year ago

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks;

 for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Baby #2 Weeks 18-25

It's a boy!! We're having a little boy this time around! Which is really exciting. It's funny though, after I found out it was a boy I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to use all the cute girl stuff I have again this time and that Jane wouldn't have a sister so close in age. (We'll more than likely have more kids so I'm holding out on getting to use my girl stuff again.) But don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I was really hoping for a girl. If the baby had ended up being another girl I would have been excited, but then I also would have been disappointed that I wouldn't get to go buy cute boy clothes and get to enjoy the whole new experience of having a son. I'm hoping that Jane and our little boy will be able to have a brother-sister relationship like my brother, Scott, and I had. So I think I was going to be super happy and yet just a tiny bit sad with either result when I found out it was a girl or a boy.

So can I talk about for a minute how awesome the ultrasound place was?? First off, I've only had 5 ultrasounds total over my 1 1/2 pregnancies so far. The first ultrasound for each baby was around 8 weeks when they are just a little bean baby and you can't see much other than the heartbeat. So there's not much to compare because it's done just to make sure the baby is in the right place and it's heart is beating. My 18 week ultrasound with Jane was alright. It was great to see Jane's face, arms and legs for the first time, but the screen was super tiny and the ultrasound tech wouldn't tell me almost anything. Any question I asked she basically said "I'm not allowed to say." She said she thought it was a girl but wasn't 100% sure. So we kinda had that "Well, it could be a boy..." feeling for a while. The ultrasound tech also didn't give me any pictures of her face which was a little disappointing.

This is pretty much all I got. "I think it's a girl..."

I had my final ultrasound with Jane at 36 weeks to make sure everything was good and she was in a good position for birth. (And to verify that she really was a girl) It was much better than the my 18 week ultrasound, but the area it was located in was a little shady and they had the ultrasound screen positioned so I couldn't really see it very well over my huge pregnant belly at that point. Also the bed I was lying on seemed really uncomfortable, but that could have just been because I was so pregnant at that point. Also, they were telling me "Oh look at her purse her lips!" To me, it looks like she was sucking on her hand instead. I did get a couple pictures of her profile so that was cool, but that was it.

That's totally her hand over her mouth and not her lips...

Alright, now on to the lovely ultrasound place. It's called Inside Story. Isn't it a great name for a place that does pregnancy ultrasounds? So cute. They have a nice little waiting room and they let us wait about 10 minutes after my scheduled appointment time to let Sam get there from work. They have a large viewing room with room for lots of family to watch with you. There are a couple of large TVs around the room for everyone to have a good view. They also had a few toys for older siblings to play with while we're looking at the new baby. Sam, Jane, my mom, Sandra and Joseph were all able to come and experience it with me. The ultrasound tech said she was able to tell the gender almost as soon as she put the doppler on my belly. She said "'It's a boy and he's not shy!" :)

Yay! We have a son!

We all said "Yay!" I just love finding out the gender. I can start calling the baby he or she! It makes it more personal. I feel like I can already start bonding with my baby in a way I couldn't if I waited to find out. The ultrasound tech switched to 4D to give us a peak at baby boy. It was really cool.

His legs and feet. You can also see the umbilical cord.

I'm pretty sure he was trying to sleep, because as you can see in the picture below he has his hands over his ears and is pushing his face into my placenta.

So adorable!

The ultrasound tech was trying to get him to move so we could see his face in 4D, but he wouldn't budge. At the same time Jane was wanting to be right next to me and wasn't settling for sitting with anyone else. So we let her up on the bed with me and she started pushing on my belly. As soon as she did that, little brother responded and moved so we could see his face!

It's pretty incredible that you can see this detail at 19 weeks.

I actually got more than two pictures from this visit! They also gave me a video of the whole session that I can watch over and over again. It's awesome! The best part is I got all of that and they were the cheapest ultrasound I've ever had. My ultrasound tech was so nice too. I would definitely recommend Inside Story to anyone looking for a affordable and enjoyable ultrasound experience.

Yay!

At the very beginning of my pregnancy I thought this baby was a boy, then I went back and forth between boy and girl for a while. Right before the appointment I guessed boy. I didn't even realize I had wore a blue shirt until after the appointment was done. Jane was also dressed in blue unintentionally. I used the picture below as our gender announcement.

This is the dress jane wore to the appointment as well.

Jane is reading a Berenstain Bears book in that picture. Most of you know that those books are all about Brother and Sister bear! :) I didn't do that on purpose either... It worked out! The shirt for our little boy that I used for the gender announcement I bought when I was pregnant with Jane and didn't know that she was a girl yet. It was on sale and seemed so perfect since Sam always wears plaid and has been called a lumberjack many times. So I just had to get it and I thought, "Even if this baby is a girl, I will just keep it until we hopefully have a boy one day." I'm so glad we're having a boy this time who will be able to wear it! :)

18 Weeks!

A lot of people have been asking me for our baby boy's name and it's not that we're keeping it a secret or anything, he just doesn't have one yet. I got to have my favorite name for our first girl, so now it's Sam's turn to have his favorite for our first boy. He's not in any hurry to settle on one name right now. Our little boy might not have a name until he's born and that's totally fine with me. Before we knew Jane was a girl, our boy name choice was Uriah, but we're not settled on that one this time. It's still in the running though. I like the name Malakai and I would call him "Kai". Eli and Gideon are a couple of my other favorites. I'm a lot less particular with boy names than girl names. I have a lot of favorite boy names. I think the name Flynn would be cool as a middle name because it means "Son of the red-haired man". :) Just last week Sam said his favorite name right now is Atlas. It means "to endure" which we think is pretty cool. We're still not settled on it, but it has first place right now.

22 Weeks. Really starting to show!

Our baby boy is getting very strong and very active! Pretty much anytime I'm still he's moving nowadays. Also, I can feel and see him kick from the outside now! I felt his hiccups for the first time just the other day as well. Such a fun time. I loved it last time and I'm loving it again this time. I'm feeling great. Morning sickness is long gone now and I made it through without throwing up this time, which I'm pretty happy about. I love the second trimester! It's the best. The only thing that I can complain even a little about is some lower back pain which is probably because I have to pick up and carry Jane throughout the day. I've been walking, stretching and trying to lift with my legs more and it's helping. It's hard to believe the third trimester is just 3 weeks away! Man, this boy will be here soon!

I don't think I've mentioned yet that I have two other close friends due within 3 weeks of my due date. We call ourselves the sisterhoodies since we all met and became close friends when our brothers were on a baseball team together 10 years ago. We all showed up to a game once in hoodies.

The dawn of the Sisterhoodies! I think this was taken in 2005.

3 out of the 4 of us are pregnant right now. Super fun! We got together recently and had sort of a baby supply exchange. Liz lives in China right now and Melody wasn't able to make it because one of her kids wasn't feeling well. But at least I got to see Katie and all our wonderful mothers!

2 Sisterhoodies, 3 grandmother-hoodies and 3 babyhoodies.

I got a bunch of boy clothes!! I love hand-me-downs. Liz had already been given a bunch of hand-me-down boy clothes before she found out she was having a girl and Katie found out she was having a girl too, so I got all of the boy clothes. I gave Katie some maternity clothes that were passed on to me and either didn't fit me or didn't look right on me and said it was cool for her to donate whatever she didn't want. I was going to pick up a double stroller from Mel but she couldn't make it. Just another excuse to get back together! :) Pretty much the only thing I need before baby boy is born is a car seat for Jane so he can have Jane's old one.

I'm 24 weeks and Katie is 21 weeks here.

It's such a blessing to have such wonderful friends to experience life with. Love you girls! Can't wait to get all 6 of our babyhoodies together next year!

John 13:34-35

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Two are better than one,

Because they have a good reward for their labor.

10 

For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls,

For he has no one to help him up.

Yeah, I'm an Anime Nerd

I love Anime! I thought it was about time for a blog post about something other than babies. ;) I know some of you reading this might be like "huh? What is Anime?". If you've never heard of Anime it stands for Japanese Animation. They are basically cartoons, but usually the animation is far superior to typical american cartoons. Also the content is normally much deeper and more mature that the cartoons most people are used to. By mature I don't mean like the Simpsons or Family Guy or the like. I guess some Anime can be like that, but that's not the type of Anime I watch. (I hate the Simpsons or anything like it, just FYI.) What I mean by mature is that the content can be much too scary or sad or complicated for young kids. Most Anime's advise viewers be over the age of 14 or in their older teens at least.

Before Pacific Rim there was Gundam!!

I think around 13 or 14 is about the age when my brother and I started watching Anime. Toonami on Cartoon Network all the way! All of the shows on Toonami were censored for young teens. I remember if there was blood in the original scene then it was colored out so you couldn't see it. Any curse words like hell or damn were normally substituted with heck or darn. I can't remember if the first anime I watched was Dragon Ball Z or Gundam Wing.  I loved them both!

I used to act out my own stories of Dragon Ball Z on my trampoline.

A couple more of my favorites growing up were Outlaw Star and G Gundam. I specifically remember thinking the show Sailor Moon was lame and such a girl show. I would always roll my eyes and change the channel whenever it came on. I thought the show Hamtaro was cute and liked to watch it when I caught it on. All of the shows I watched growing up were dubbed, but now if I watch an Anime it's hard for me to watch it dubbed. I always choose subtitled over dubbed episodes. The american voice actors never seem to be able to sound anything but lame compared to the Japanese voice actors. The only Anime I will watch dubbed are the shows I watched as a kid. I remember whenever my dad was around while Scott and I were watching Gundam Wing he would always make fun of it and make up his own dialogue for the characters. Haha!

Seriously, it's a show about Hamsters.

I'm very careful with the Anime I choose to watch. There's a lot of Anime that has content I don't want to see. Anime has such a variety of shows that the content can range anywhere from PG to unrated. I'm very leery when starting a new anime. It takes me some time to really get into one too. It's like a good book, but once I get hooked it's hard to not read the next chapter and in this case watch the next episode. Normally, the only way I start a new anime is if Sam tells me I might like it. He has great judgement in what I will like to watch.

The show is named after the main character. Naruto Uzumaki.

A few of years ago Sam said he thought I would like watching an Anime called Naruto. I watched a few episodes as he watched it, but only here and there. Gradually I became more interested and before I knew it I was hooked. I told Sam he couldn't watch any more episodes without me. :) Even as I write this I'm watching old episodes that I missed when we first started watching Naruto.

The show is about Ninjas. Need I say more?? It's awesome. It has great character development and the story will keep you guessing about what's going to happen next. It will keep you laughing with it's silliness, but then also be quite serious at other times and cause you to think deeply about life and the choices you make.

We watched the entire first series and started on the next series called Naruto Shippuden, but didn't get too far. Then we took a break for a couple years. (you know, had a baby and all that jazz.) Just a few months ago we got back into it. We watch a couple episodes together almost every night. We love it.

They get a little older and cooler in the second series.

The other night we were talking about our favorite characters in the show. I've always been torn between Kakashi Hatake and Shikamaru Nara. I mean Kakashi has a Ninja Pug named Pakkun, that's pretty hard to beat in my book.

Kakashi & Pakkun

In a recent episode I realized that Shikamaru is my favorite character. Shikamaru hadn't been in an episode in a while and when his character was highlighted on an episode, I was like "yay! Shikamaru!" I started to wonder why Shikamaru was my favorite character. I mean he's a cool character, but there are lots of cool characters in the show.

Shikamaru

I started to consider Shikamaru's personality and characteristics. He can be seen as a lazy Ninja because he doesn't do anything that is unnecessary. He doesn't care to do something just because someone else thinks he should. He also doesn't care much about what others think of him. All the superficial cares of those around him don't mean anything to him. His catchphrase is "what a drag." or "What a pain." But that doesn't mean that he won't do what is needed to protect his friends or village. He is very protective of his friends and will do anything for those close to him. He is extremely intelligent and is known for his great strategic mind. He sees straight through the enemy's attempts to deceive him. I really like his quiet confidence. His confidence doesn't come off cocky. He is aware of his strengths, but doesn't gloat. He is a very steady guy and stays calm in stressful situations when everyone else is freaking out. Because of that he doesn't show many emotions, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have them. A lot of times it seems like it would be too much trouble to him to try to explain his feelings so he doesn't waste his time trying.

I admire all of Shikamaru's characteristics and after thinking through it, I figured out why. Everything I just explained about Shikamaru also explains my husband almost to a tee. :D Sam also happens to be my favorite person.

So basically I married a Ninja. WIN!!

We love Fall

I took a bunch of pictures of Jane outside the other day and looking back at them I love them all! I'm not sure how they all turned out so well, but I figured they deserved their own blog post. Also I haven't been blogging about Jane much at all since I got pregnant with the new baby. I can't let Jane lose all the attention before this baby is even born! ;)

Looking like a little model here.

She's growing up so fast! She's holding her little Mario action figure here. She loves him and will give him kisses. I'm already passing on my love of Nintendo. :) She likes most things around that size though. My mom set up my old dollhouse in Jane's room at her house and there are several little babies that go with it and she'll carry them around too, kiss them and call them baby. She will call Mario baby at times.

She came and laid down on my leg

Jane has become so affectionate. She loves to give kisses and hugs. She will give me a hug almost every time I ask for one. It's the best! Just yesterday, when she was running around outside she stopped, looked at me and came over to give me a hug and then she went back to running around the yard. She repeated this several times. I have to be honest though. She is a toddler and we are trying to learn not to hit or bite or pull hair, but the hugs make all of it worth it and she'll learn one day!

The lighting was so great on this beautiful afternoon

Walking is now second nature for Jane. She is now on to running! I try to keep her from running too much on concrete because I don't want her to skin her knees. She's already had a couple skinned knees just from loosing her balance when she wasn't quiet the pro walker she is now. It makes me so sad to see any kind of scratch on her. I try to remember all my skinned knees and scratches from exploring when I was young. They never bothered me growing up. I would take bumps and bruises over not exploring! :)

Inspecting a tree

Jane has already acted like she was going to climb a tree or two. I already have a monkey on my hands indoors! She tries to climb everything! I think she can climb up on every chair in the house now. She has learned there are things she is not allowed to climb on. Like the coffee table and the subwoofer. She is obedient when she realizes I'm serious and I stay consistent. It's amazing how much obedience is about the parent staying consistent and strong.

So much love

I love that Jane likes to sit in my lap while we're outside. We'll watch the cars go by or the planes in the sky. I will make bird noises with grass and Jane will pull up a piece of grass and put it to her mouth and try to imitate the sound. It's so cute!

Giving me a kiss

Her kisses are so sweet. She will get close to my face and make kissing noises with her mouth several times. She will give Sam kisses goodnight. It melts my heart! :) She sometimes tries to kiss the characters in a book. It's so fun.

Watching the busy world around her

She decided to lie down in the grass and watch the world go by for a minute. About a month ago Jane started to fall asleep on her own for her naps without me even trying to get her to go down. We would just be sitting on the couch and she would just fall asleep in my arms or right next to me. I guess it was around the same time I stopped nursing her. Strangely enough, sleeping seems to have gotten better all around for Jane since she stopped nursing. Some days I have to remind her she needs to nap so she can feel better and keep playing. She takes her naps on the couch now while I work. It works out great for us.

Serious face

Silly face!

Well, I need to wrap up this up. Jane is growing up so fast and is making this pregnancy go by so fast! I can't believe I'm almost halfway through already! I'll leave you with a few more pictures from our fun day outside! We are loving the beautiful fall weather and are enjoying the outdoors as much as we can.

Riding on mom's back is so fun!

Love these hugs

And those smiles

Got a nice pose on this one

Love this girl so much!!

Baby #2 weeks 10-17

Searching for a health care provider for your pregnancy is not an easy task! There are so many choices. Because of the enormity of choice, it becomes hard to find someone in the multitudes that will be right for you and your pregnancy. It's important to find someone who you are confident in and comfortable with so they can help enable you to have the birth you want. For me, I would like to have a natural birth with no pain medication. That's the birth I was blessed to have with Jane, after a bit of suspense and a transfer to the hospital that is. I would like to have that again, minus the suspense and a transfer to the hospital. ;)

The first choice I had to make was whether to have a home or hospital birth. If money was not a factor I would choose a home birth over a hospital birth. Because I had a birth center bill and a hospital bill with Jane, I ended up paying to have two babies and obviously, I only had one... The reason for this is health insurance companies do not list birth centers or midwives who provide home birth services as in network providers on their insurance. Which is ridiculous to me, because home birth is much less expensive and a safe option, but I digress. I won't be convincing any insurance companies that home birth should be in network...

Someone asked me why I didn't choose to go back to the birth center I went to with Jane. One reason is because where I was living at the time I was pregnant with Jane was much closer than it is to Kingwood. It's quite a drive from my house now. I don't want to make that kind of drive while in labor. The other reason is my insurance changed and it is now too expensive for us.

Because I didn't want to pay for two births again, I started to lean towards a hospital birth. Then I would be assured I wouldn't be transferred to the hospital since I would already be there! I talked to a few people who are supportive of natural birth about natural hospital births. Some were midwives, others doulas and some who have just had babies of their own. (I don't really have any experience, because the doctors didn't have a chance to do anything to me since Jane was born almost as soon as we arrived.) Pretty much everyone I talked to told me how hard it is to have a birth in a hospital without them pushing some intervention on you and that it's a fight to have the birth you want. It was disappointing to hear.

So I was back to square one and I wasn't sure what to do. My mom then told me she felt that I should contact a midwife that was referred to me by a couple of friends back when I was pregnant with Jane. I took my mom's advice and got in touch with Sallie. The reason I didn't contact this particular midwife when I was pregnant with Jane was because the house I lived in at the time wasn't close to a hospital. Also, I wouldn't have felt comfortable giving birth in that rental house.

From the first phone call with Sallie I could tell she was going to be a great midwife for me. I'm not much of a chatty phone person, but Sallie and I ended up talking for about an hour. She had lots of insights to my labor with Jane and ideas that we could have tried to help things along and not end up in the hospital. Of course, I'll never know if it would have changed anything. I learned a lot through my first labor experience and everything worked out in the end, but it was good to hear how much knowledge she has and how many natural ideas she has for helping labor progress.

The only thing that would have held me back from choosing Sallie as my midwife was the possibility having to pay for two births again if some complication should happen to arise. What gave me peace about choosing Sallie is the ministry she's done and continues to do. She has been going to abortion clinics for about 30 years and convincing women not to have abortions and choose life instead. The reason she became a midwife was so she could offer her services free of charge to women considering abortions and give them another option. One day she would like to go to villages around the world and teach women to be midwives and give them the ability to deliver babies safely. So even if I end up being transferred to a hospital for some reason, I know that at least some of my money will be going to someone I respect and can enable her to continue with her ministry.

That pretty much wraps up my search for health care provider for my pregnancy. I am very happy with my choice. She's been calming, encouraging and informative each appointment I've had with her. I feel that my baby and I are in good hands.

Little bitty bump. 14 Weeks.

As far as my pregnancy is going so far, everything is great! Baby's heart rate is healthy and he/she is already very active. I've been feeling kicks for the past week or so now. A lot earlier than with Jane. I didn't feel Jane until almost 19 or 20 weeks. The baby's heart rate is slower than Jane's was which might indicate that it's a boy, but of course, you never know! Similar to last time I don't have many cravings, but I always love a good burger! I do feel like I have more food aversions though, but I'm doing my best to eat healthy!

First item bought specifically for Baby #2

Second trimester is always my favorite! I love the feeling of little baby kicks. 17 weeks seems to be the time when I start feeling a lot better.  We'll be finding out whether we're having a girl or a boy in just a couple weeks. :)

My Babies. :)

Deuteronomy 30:19

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 

Baby #2 Weeks 5-9

When I was pregnant with Jane I hadn't started my blog yet. So I blogged about my pregnancy experience after it was all over. I'm glad that I did. It's fun to go back and read it now that I'm pregnant with my second. This time I will get to blog throughout my pregnancy. I'm looking forward to it!

Let's start at the beginning! I decided it was time to take a test when I went to the Astros game with my company on July 1st. The burger I ordered was way overdone and charred. I ate about half of it then let it sit in front of me. I couldn't even stand the smell of it! I had to wrap it up, so the smell would stop bothering me. A couple of other symptoms were that I was exhausted almost everyday and I was wanting to snack all the time! Oh and of course the obvious, I was late. (This might be TMI, but I only had two periods between having Jane and getting pregnant again. I could get used to that!)

I took a home pregnancy test on July 3rd and it was positive! The same dark blue positive line that I got with Jane. I was so happy! I thought I would be more relaxed waiting for the results than I was last time, but I felt the same nervous excitement that I did last time. I told Jane first. :) Of course she had no idea what I was saying, but when I told her she was going to be a big sister, she gave me a big grin! I'll take it as a good sign. :) I told Sam at lunch time, he smiled and said "Yay!" It's the same for us as last time, we need to get that confirmation from the doctor before we can truly let go and really celebrate!

We discussed whether we would tell anyone before the doctor's appointment. We decided that we had to tell my mom so that she could watch Jane for us. My mom can't keep a secret from my dad, so I told him too. I showed my mom a picture of this shirt and let her read it and figure it out.

She looked at me with wide eyes and said, "What?! Really?" Then she gave me a hug and said to Jane, "You're going to be a big sister!" I showed the same picture to my dad and he studied it for a while... looked at me suspiciously then looked down at the picture again. He said, "huh? Oh my... Already?" They are both excited to have another grandbaby to love on. :)

The shirt is even cuter with a toddler in it!
Just a little harder to read.

I wanted to keep Baby #2 a surprise from most people until I had an ultrasound picture, but then morning sickness hit me like a ton of bricks! I was about 6 weeks and I felt terrible, almost not able to function, way worse than last time. So I figured if I saw anyone I wouldn't be able to act like I felt ok. So pretty much anyone I saw during the time my morning sickness started and before I announced it, I went ahead and told. I made sure that they knew not to spread it around quite yet so we could still let everyone know ourselves. Feeling pretty bad is also the reason why I haven't been very active on my blog.

Scott and Anna had the best reaction so far. I showed them the shirt I got for Jane and they jumped up and said, "YES! I knew it!!" and gave me a big hug. Apparently they had both suspected a baby would be on the way soon. Anna's sister has a daughter 4 months older than Jane and is pregnant with her second which will probably be about 4 months older than my second baby. :D Anna had a hunch our kids might be the same distance apart again. She was right! Scott and I have a sort of twin telepathy thing even though we're not twins. So somehow he knew too. :) We are pretty much Irish Twins.

I am feeling much better than the first week my morning sickness started. (I think I was writing this segment around 8 weeks.) I realized I really needed more sleep. So I'm going to bed earlier, sleeping in longer and taking naps when I can. My morning sickness is still hard to manage and I am eating snacks and drinking water constantly to keep it at bay, but at least I can function like normal for the most part!

I had my first appointment on July 27th with a doctor I hadn't seen before, but had good reviews on the internet. (I had to get a new OB/GYN because I had new insurance.) I was not a fan of her's at all. For one thing, obviously, I'm pregnant and also drinking water all the time so I don't throw up. So I needed to pee pretty badly once she finally came into her office to meet with me. We talked a little while about my first pregnancy. I told her I was considering a home birth and she quickly responded saying,  "Oh, I wouldn't." In a tone that said to me, "You're crazy for considering that." She continued with, "No one in the medical industry would advise a home birth, they are just too unpredictable." I also told her I would like a natural birth and she said, "You can labor anyway you want, but there is nothing wrong with an epidural." She went on to tell me that she had epidurals with both her pregnancies and she loved them. I felt like she was already trying to talk me into one! (I don't think there is anything wrong with someone getting an epidural, I just would like to avoid one personally.) She also said I had to have an IV and she would induce me at 41 weeks no matter what, if I hadn't already gone into labor. I really seemed like just another pregnant lady to her. Like I would just be another statistic and she wouldn't give my pregnancy an individual touch at all.

After we finished our chat she said, "Ok, let's go do your ultrasound." I was like, "Uhhh, is it alright if I go to the bathroom first?" She said, "After your ultrasound." I then assured her I wasn't sure if I could even make it through the ultrasound. She replied, "Well, let's see if I can see it from the top then we'll let you go." UGGG! Really??? You won't let me go to the bathroom? Are you my mother?? If this is any indication of further care, I do not want you to be my doctor for the rest of my pregnancy and labor! (I didn't say that but those were my thoughts.) I mean I know she was trying to avoid a vaginal ultrasound, but I would rather have been given the choice. I would have chosen the vaginal ultrasound just so I could go to the bathroom first and not be afraid of peeing my pants.

When we did get to the ultrasound the doctor started moving the doppler around on my belly and said, "If you look real close you can see the arms and legs starting to grow." I did see them, it was so cool. Then she said, "There's a strong heartbeat!" "Yay!" I thought, along with "I still really have to pee..." She followed with, "Yeah, that's what I tell everybody, you're the proud parent of a blob with a heartbeat." I wanted to say, "No, that's my baby not just a blob, thank you." But I let it go. Then she said, "Wow, your bladder is really full! I'm impressed!" NO, REALLY?? Did you think I was lying??

I'm really glad I didn't see her with my first baby. She would have taken all the joy out of seeing my baby for the first time. The second time around I knew what to look for on the ultrasound and wouldn't let her steal the specialness of my little bitty baby. Also, she didn't try to listen to the heartbeat, which I thought was strange and a little disappointing. Anyway, after all of that, it almost goes without saying, I would be looking for a new provider for my next appointment. (By the way if you live in Kingwood and want to know who this doctor is, shoot me a message and I'll tell you.)

We did decide to announce on Facebook the weekend after my appointment. I'm always so relieved once everybody knows. I don't like keeping such a big secret. Here's that ultrasound picture!

Little blurry baby. :)

Anyone have any suggestions for books about a new baby or being a big sister? I know Jane won't understand much of it, but I also know that kids can pick up on a lot more than we realize.

Next, I began my search for either a midwife or a doctor that was supportive of natural birth. I was also trying to decide whether to have a home or hospital birth. I will expand on that in my next post.

John 16:33

"These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Here comes Baby #2!!

Just in case you missed the announcement on Facebook, you might like to know that we are expecting baby #2!! :D We are elated! Jane is going to love having a sibling and I think she's going to be an awesome big sister.

Early morning just found out pic!

With that said, if you haven't already read my blog, 10 Things TO Say to a Pregnant Lady, maybe you should go check it out. ;) Haha, but seriously, I will be trying hard to be the same person pregnant that I am when I'm not pregnant. That way you won't have to worry so much about what you say to me. I don't want to let the hormones get the best of me this time around. So I'm gonna say it right now, (and I might regret this, but here goes) call me out if I'm not being loving or maybe if I'm being a little too honest to the point of being harsh. Those were two things that I had trouble with last pregnancy. It might be something else this time, but I want to be aware of my shortcomings so I can work on them and be a light and imitate God as a dear child. (Eph. 5:1)

Oh and just in case you were wondering, we were not "trying", but we were not preventing having a baby. So it wasn't a surprise, but it also wasn't planned. I feel like people have to have it one way or the other. We are still believing that God knows what he's doing when he blesses us with more children.

We are praising Him for this new life. We know our little bitty baby is in God's hands. He has a plan for this pregnancy, no matter what happens. Please join us in prayer as we ask God to help our little baby to grow strong and healthy. That he/she would be ready to meet the world on his/her birthday, whenever that may be.

Baby #2! 8 weeks along. I could see the little leg and arm beginnings!
I'm not sure how everyone else seems to have great, clear ultrasound
pictures. I never seem to...

Let me get a couple other questions that everybody usually has out of the way. I'm about 10 weeks along, so still pretty early! Baby #2's due date is March 9th, 2016. I'm kinda doubting since I already had one baby come exactly on their due date that it will happen again. (little stat for ya, only 5% of babies are born on their due date) This baby has three chances to be born on a family member's birthday, because the baby's due date is pretty close to Sam's birthday, February 23rd, his brother Travis's birthday, March 5th and my mom's birthday March 2nd. Oh and if you were wondering, Jane will be around a year and 9 months older than Baby #2.

Yes, we plan to find out the gender. No, we won't have a gender reveal party. If you know us, then you know we're not the kind of couple to do that sort of thing. Just a regular old ultrasound tech telling you "it's a girl!" or "it's a boy!" is exciting enough for us. Don't get me wrong, I think those parties are cute, they're just not our thing. If I'm doing the math right, we should be able to find out the gender sometime in October.

Next question everybody has is do you want a boy or a girl?? Well, I feel like I can honestly say that I'm neutral this time around. I think it would be super fun for Jane to have a little sister that is so close in age, but I also think it would be very cool to have a boy next and have one and one. Either way I'm excited!

I think that covers the basic questions most people have. Let me know if you have a question for me that you think everyone might like to know too.

Ephesians 5:1-4

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. 

But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.