Our Big News

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!

Whew! It is a relief to finally get that news out! We are officially pregnant with baby #5! I am due on July 15 but will most likely be at least a week early - July 8 or earlier. I'm actually keeping my fingers crossed for an end of June baby considering there are already a gagillion July birthdays in our families.


So, here is the rundown. I figure this is the 'ol blog of honesty, so I'll bore you with some of the details. As you know, we have 3 "older" kids. Cayden and the twins are only 2 years apart in age. Then, we had quite a space between the twins and Sadie - 5 years. The older 3 kids are SO wonderful with little Sadie. She couldn't ask for better. But as they get older, we realized that they would all be very close and Sadie would kind of be on her own. We fasted and prayed a lot about it and decided to just leave it in God's hands. This was clear back in May. After quite a few months, there was nothing to report and we thought we may just be done. We really didn't think too much more about it.



In October, as you probably remember, Rob and I were both in car accidents. We definitely didn't realize the extent of my injuries at first. Once we did, I decided to for sure go back on birth control because the LAST thing I could imagine was having 2 herniated and torn discs in my back WHILE being pregnant. Apparently, this is not what fate had in mind. Before I had a chance to go back on birth control, we found out I was pregnant. Ironically, we thought for sure that we weren't pregnant. As you may remember, the great MRI debacle, where they had to do a blood pregnancy test to make sure I wasn't pregnant before doing an MRI. That test came back negative, even though I was indeed pregnant at the time. Fortunately, the MRI they did was okay for the baby and there are no problems there. So, a week after Halloween, on November 10th, when I was "late", I decided to take a home test just to figure out what was going on. 3 pregnancy tests later, and 2 lines of all of them, and we knew it was true.



My first concern was the MRI, but all of the doctors concurred that it was all fine. The second concern was another ectopic pregnancy. I had to do a series of quantitative blood work to make sure my HCG levels were going up like they should. Those weren't extremely high, but okay. The third concern was to get an ultrasound, which we did a couple of. We were finally able to see a heartbeat which was a big relief. The fourth concern, and one we always ask, "HOW MANY!?" We were assured it was only one. WHEW! So, it looks like everything is on track for a very healthy baby.



Of course another big concern we all have is my back issues. All of my doctors are of course concerned that I am carrying a baby with 2 active back/neck injuries already in place. We are just going to have to play it all by ear. I have pretty big babies and I carry them a lot in my back with a lot of joint issues normally. We're just going to take it a day at a time. This is why we can't do a whole lot right now with my back with cortizone shots, surgery, etc. We are hoping it will heal on its own. Time will tell.



So I am 14 weeks and unfortunately, it has been another "Sadie pregnancy". I apparently was very spoiled with Cayden and the twins. I didn't get sick hardly at all with them. I loved being pregnant with them and had great pregnancies and great deliveries. Fast forward 5 years to the pregnancy with Sadie. I was dog sick from the beginning to the end with full blown morning sickness until about 7 months along. NOT fun! I was really hoping that was just a fluke and that this pregnancy would be more like the older kids. Nope. I have been SO nauseous, headaches, exhausted, etc. I'm on my old oncology meds to help with the nausea - Zofran. Unfortunately, it doesn't work completely and one of the side affects is headaches. BLAH! But at least it helps a little. I am really hoping it doesn't last as long this time, but I am out of my first trimester and still waiting for that "burst of energy" crap all the books tell you about. My poor house is a mess, I look like crap, etc. you know, the "joys" of pregnancy! LOL!



The kids are SO excited about it. We just told them on Sunday. This was quite a hysterical dinner conversation. We made them guess our big surprise. The guesses ranged from "Making cookies!" to "going to Disneyland." When I told them it would make me look really different, Ashlee guessed that I was getting a haircut. For such smart children, they can be incredibly dim at times. We were all laughing so hard at their guesses. Finally, the lightbulb went on for Cayden, but unfortunately, he had just taken a big mouthful of food and couldn't talk. He was hysterically laughing, trying to talk, trying to chew, and pretty much gagging because he wanted to say it. It was one of the funniest moments of my life. He finally got the words out, "You're having a baby!" This seriously took my brilliant children about 10 minutes to figure out. They are so very excited, which makes me so happy. Of course Cayden is already praying for a brother. If he gets another sister I fear he may move to another family. We have a hunch it is a boy and will be able to find out in a few weeks. We also informed the kids that this would be our last baby, which for some reason, none of them believe. Of course, they don't know how the baby gets in mommy's tummy etc. so I guess they just think it's like Santa or the Easter Bunny. Rob, ever the scientific one, tried to explain that Mommies and Daddies can make sure there are no more babies coming...this didn't hold a whole lot of credit as Cayden was still gagging on his food and I think had water spewing out of his nose at the time. The kids have since told anyone and everyone who will listen to them. Yesterday it was the drive through window crew at Wendy's. I'm happy they are so excited.



So, that's the big news from us. I'll keep you posted on any developments. Rob and I are really happy and excited. We know it is going to be a lot of work with a newborn and a 23 month old, but we also have faith that God knows a lot more than us and his timing is not always our timing. To quote one of our favorite movies, "We're really doin' it Harry!"

This is Sadie's "surprised" look. Every time we would say, "Sadie, we're having a baby!" She would do her "surprised" face. Oh, if she only knew....