Now Announcing Little Bit!

It has taken me quite a while to announce however, better late than never, we are pregnant with our second child ! I am 16 weeks pregnant this week so about 4 1/2 months along.  We are over the moon happy and thrilled to be adding to our little clan.  We found out that I was pregnant on December 14 and it was quite a surprise to us both because we had taken two pregnancy test several days earlier that were both negative.  However, after taking several more tests and getting confirmation from the doctor, it was official Little Bit was on the way (For some reason, we started calling the baby Little Bit and it has kind of stuck).  We planned on telling my parents on Christmas morning, but we could not wait so we ended up getting Noah a Big Brother shirt and inviting them over.  Both of them were thrilled and happy.  We told John's mom and brother the same way, but on Skype.

I was feeling good but a little bit nervous until the second week in January, so about 6 weeks pregnant when I became sick.  I was never really sick with Noah, but my goodness this was different.  I was sick all day long, nauseous, tired and just sick.  I would feel best when I did not eat anything, so if something anything sounded good, John would run out and go get it for me.  I have basically become a vegetarian again however, I am eating red meat, but mostly just hamburgers.  Chicken grosses me completely, however, this did happen with Noah, and went away after a while so I am hoping that I will be able to eat chicken again soon.  Some strange food cravings I have had so far are dill pickles, crackers, Sprite, Greek yogurt but only the honey flavor and I cant get enough fish, even tuna, which I hate, hate, hate when I am not pregnant.  Its just too strange.

Cooking anything was out of the question as the food smells made me sick.  Noah and John were (and continue to be) amazing and ate take out or whatever I scraped together.  Thankfully, my wonderful mom cooked us some meals too which really helped.  During January, we had a bout of stomach flu go thru the house too so not only was I sick, but poor Noah and John also got sick.  I didn't get it until February thankfully.  Some days Noah and I spent lots of time cuddling in bed, making forts and just resting.  He is an amazing little boy and is going to be a wonderful little brother.  He has determined that he is having a baby sister and you can ask him twenty different ways he will always say that the baby in mommy's tummy is a girl, his baby sister Ava.  He kisses Ava every night and every morning and has even named one of his dolphins that he sleeps with every night, Ava.  Its is so sweet it makes me cry and I am so blessed to be his mom.

During the last week in February, I started to feel better (which was about 14 weeks so right around the end of the dreaded first trimester).  I still have some days when I don't feel myself and chicken is still the enemy, but hopefully soon I will be enjoying chicken nuggets again and wondering what was so gross about chicken.  I am still tired, but its hard to tell if that is just a reflection of having a very busy, but wonderful two year old or the fact that I am growing a human, maybe it's a combination of both factors. 

A real but constant worry that lurks around every doctors visit is Noah's IUGR condition.  It's kind of like the elephant in the room, John, my mom and I worry about it, but don't really talk about it too much. I have read and read and the doctor tells me its a 50% 50% chance of this baby having it.  We will know more at 26 weeks, but I cringe every time I hear the dreaded "you are so tiny" words.  I know every pregnant mother wants to be small, but its hard when you know what being small means for your baby.  I did lose weight in my first trimester, it was really hard to eat I would force myself to at least get something down.  Now that I feel better, I am trying to up the calories and put on some pounds.  I am hoping that someday some random person will tell me that I look huge, I think I will hug that person.  Anyway, enough with the pity party, if the baby has IUGR, so be it.  Noah is perfect now and I know how to take care of a little baby, lots of love and prayers, lots of food and cute little clothes.  I also trust Dr. Webb and I know that he will take good care of us.  Here are my ultrasound pictures.  The first one is from our first visit to the doctor and the second ultrasound was taken because on our last visit we could not hear the baby's heartbeat (just the first in hopefully a very short line of heart attacks for Mommy and Daddy). We all love you my Little Bit, thank you for letting us take care of you and welcome to our family, we are blessed and honored to be your parents.  Oh and I am due August 20!

January 13, 2011: Little Bit at 8 weeks and 5 days.  

February 10, 2011:Little Bit at 12 weeks and 5 days.