Finally Announcing...

So, to MOST of you out there, this is definitely old news, but to those few of you that hadn't officially heard yet...  

We're expecting our 4th baby!!!  

And now that I'm over the sick, nauseous, miserable part, I'm getting pretty excited to meet the little guy!

So lets see... Where to begin?  Well, I'm now 25 weeks pregnant & counting down to our November 29th due-date (the day after Thanksgiving!).  This pregnancy has already been SO different than my other pregnancies, in SO many aspects...

Last September, we felt prompted that it was time to start thinking about our next baby.  So a few months later, I had my IUD taken out (which I'd never tried before) & figured that I'd be taking pregnancy tests within a few weeks.  Well, weeks turned into months & I could tell that hormonally & physically, my body was totally messed up from the IUD.  I wasn't sure whether it would even be GOOD for my body to get pregnant in the current shape it was in!  Every week was full of ups & downs, but I still held out hope that things would work out, sooner-than-later.  Long story short, after saying many a prayer to Heavenly Father, I finally explained to Him what I was hoping for & when & why, and then I turned it over to Him & said that I knew that He knew what was best for our family & for my body & that we would try to accept that.  Apparently that was the humility that God felt I needed to show, because it was only a few weeks later that the pregnancy test finally showed up POSITIVE!

But, getting pregnant hasn't been the only hard thing about this pregnancy... By 5 weeks, I was SO sick that I pretty much couldn't do anything but lay on the couch.  But what a blessing it was that Skyler was so much older this time around & SUCH a good little helper!  He didn't go to school until the afternoon, so in the mornings I would just throw up, then go back to the couch, while he attempted to get the girls dressed, turn on movies for them, play with toys & even make them lunch occasionally!  I don't know how I would have survived it without him!  And maybe it was all in my head, but I swear I was more sick with this pregnancy than with any other one before, but maybe it was just because I've never had 3 other kids to take care of while I've been sick & a kid to drive to school everyday & my hormones were out-of-whack to start with & it was my 4th pregnancy & because it was what I was experiencing NOW!  My father-in-law even talked me into trying Acupuncture this time around, which I was desperate enough to try twice, but I'm still uncertain whether or not it helped at all.  Either way, surviving those 2 1/2 months of misery was about all I accomplished in life until I got to about 15 weeks pregnant.  And then things slowly got back to normal around here...

And then we had our most exciting doctor's appointment... The one where you find out the gender :)  As our little family all waited in the office for the doctor to come in, Laron asked them what they were hoping the baby would be, a boy or a girl?  They all suddenly started chanting together, "BOY!  BOY!  BOY!"  Skyler was really hoping for a little brother that he could finally play with, and somehow he'd talked the girls into thinking that would be cool over the last few months.  Laron & I had also had felt like this one was a boy from the very start, so we didn't try to discourage their thinking... And we were right!  It's a BOY!!!  And we couldn't be MORE excited about it!  He'll help balance out some of these little girls around here!

And so now, I'm finally onto the 2nd Trimester & MOSTLY enjoying it.  I've now been diagnosed with Hypoglycemia (basically low blood sugar) this time around (again, something I've never been told I've had before), so it's been a journey just to try to figure out how to EAT differently so I can FEEL BETTER (mostly just focusing on eating complex carbohydrates & eating protein anytime I eat something sugary seems to help).  But wow!  I've been literally AMAZED at how much FASTER my body has gained weight & started looking pregnant & started having heartburn & all the other aches & pains associated with pregnancy this time around.  I suppose this IS my 4th pregnancy, but wow!  I just hope I can endure another 15 weeks of this!

But for now, I've suddenly felt an urgency to start getting things ready for the little guy to arrive, which THIS time around means changing ALL the kids bedrooms... After much discussion on the matter, we finally decided to move ALL the kids downstairs, so that the baby can have a room all to himself (which after having 3 kids upstairs sharing a bedroom when we had Bailey, ONE baby in a bedroom all to himself seems HEAVENLY!).  So first we switched Skyler into our old Guest Bedroom, then the 2 girls & a bunk bed into Skyler's old room (which also meant suddenly transitioning Bailey into a "Big-Girl Bed!"), and now the final step will be to prep & paint the baby's new room (which is currently purple & definitely not BOY-worthy!).  It actually has really helped me to have some big projects to work on, with a looming deadline in November helping to keep me focused & on task.  I've enjoyed having something fun & exciting to work towards, which I think has also helped make me that much more excited to meet the little guy... Because by the time he gets here, all the kid's things will have been freshly organized, their rooms newly decorated & the baby's room will feel incomplete until we bring HIM home into it!  And then maybe I'll be more okay with accomplishing nothing else for a few months while we just snuggle with our new little baby & enjoy his sweet little spirit in our home.  

And so, the COUNTDOWN begins... Thanksgiving still seems SO far away & yet SO close when I think of all the little projects I still want to get done before his big debut!  But mostly, we're just grateful that Heavenly Father has allowed us the privilege of inviting another one of His precious little children into our home.  We couldn't be more thrilled!!!  :)