Oh, Baby!

I think most of the people who read this blog know me personally, but I'm 100% sure, so this news won't really be news to most of you. Mike and I are expecting baby #3 in early December. I am a little over 16 weeks along, which translates to about 3 and half months for those of you not as familiar with the whole "weeks-along" calendar that OB/Gyns and pregnant ladies use these days. So far this pregnancy has been pretty good, though I can tell I'm older than I was the first and even second times that I did this whole pregnancy bit. I'm still doing kickboxing and running, and up until a few weeks ago, when my season ended, I was still playing soccer. So I'm staying active, which feels good most of the time. I'm keeping an eye on my heart rate, because if it gets too high for too long, the baby doesn't get enough oxygen. The first trimester I was really tired, but that seems to be getting a little bit better now. Aside from that, about the only complaints I really have would be the headaches (which may or may not be pregnancy related), and the newly formed varicose veins in the back of my right leg. I'm really not happy about those veins. They're gross looking and sort of tender, and I feel like I'm getting 80 year-old woman legs. The only other tricky thing about right now is that I'm just starting to show (which is definitely earlier than the last 2 pregnancies), and the boys want to be at the pool a lot. Being at this point and in a swim suit just is not ideal. I would like to wear a sign that says, "I don't just need to do more sit-ups; I'm pregnant!" The last couple of days I've felt like a character in a TV show, where they don't want to write in the actress's pregnancy- I've carried around Drew's little basket of toys in front of my stomach like a prop to hide the growing bump. I shouldn't complain, though, because soon enough I'll have a big ol' belly and probably not like that, either.

I started this blog post way back in early April, when we found out that I was pregnant. We found out the day after Easter, and I told Mike just after I arrived at our Monday night kickboxing class, as we were getting started with the workout. That was the first pregnancy test I think I've taken where Mike wasn't right there with me to find out the results, and it was torture to go 5 hours and not tell him or anyone. I told the dogs, because I knew my secret was safe with them, but I didn't want to tell the boys yet. But the dogs just didn't seem that excited about the news, to be honest. We decided to go ahead and tell the boys right away. We knew we'd want to tell our families and closest friends, and we thought it might be hard to keep it from Zach (let's be honest- at age 2, it really doesn't mean much to Drew that Mommy has a baby in her tummy), so we told them that very night or the next night. We figured if I were to miscarry, the boys would notice something was up, so although it might be hard to explain, things in life sometimes are, and we would deal with it if it happened.

So here is what I wrote way back in April, because I wanted to remember some of the things the boys said about the big news:

Monday night I said to Drew, "Drew, do you want to be a big brother?" He said, "Yes!" Then I said, "So Mommy should have a baby?" Drew said, "No thank you. Line McKeen... baby." I said, "Lightning McQueen is your baby?" Drew said, "Yes."

When we told Zach we were going to have another baby, his eyes got big and he said, "Really?" Then after a minute he said, "I think you guys are playing a trick on me." After I told him that instead of having just one little brother, he'd have either two little brothers or one little brother and one little sister. He put his hand on his forehead, got big eyes, and said, "That will be a lot of jobs for me to do!" Bless his heart!

When we got to Curt and Linda's, the idea was that Zach would give them the news. Drew was waiting at the bottom of the front steps saying, "Annuh-er one baby! Annuh-er one baby!"

Wednesday morning I heard Zach say to Drew, "Drew, do you think Mom should have another baby?" Drew said, "Yes!" Zach said, "I do, too." So sweet. Then a minute later I heard Zach say, "Drew, when the baby comes, Mom will have to help the baby a lot, but Zach-Zach will help Drew."

That's all I wrote back then, even though we shared the news with my family and Mike's dad and step-mom. I know everyone was pretty surprised, so that made it fun. It's hard to believe how quickly the first 3 and a half months have flown by, and scary to think about how quickly the next 6 months will fly by. There are still plenty of days where I think, "How on earth am I going to handle 3 kids?!" I guess we're in for an interesting ride! Unlike the first 2 pregnancies, we're not planning on finding out the gender this time, so we will have quite the surprise come delivery day. The first two times I knew I would be happy with healthy babies, although I did sort of want a girl each time. I absolutely adore my boys and love that each of them has a brother, so this time I feel perfectly fine with a third boy or with a little girl. My only hang-ups about having a girl now are:

1. She could be a total girlie-girl, into make-up, princesses, dancing, etc., and that is just not me. I need more of a tomboy, I think. At this point I feel like I know how little boys work, so a little girl would be a switch!

2. She won't have a sister, because this is our last baby, and considering my sisters are my best friends, I'd feel bad that she wouldn't have that connection. However, my brother-in-law Will and his siblings (two brothers and a sister last) seem very close, and they are my sort of go-to example for the kind of relationship I'd like my kids to have if we end up with two boys and a girl. She'd also be the only girl cousin/grandchild on my side (thus far, anyway), so she'd be stuck with 5 older boy cousins/siblings. Maybe that would make her more of a tomboy?

3. If we have another boy, we've got all the clothes and toys we could ever need, so it'd be a lot less expensive. Girl clothes shopping sure would be fun, though!

Either way, I will be happy to have a healthy baby, and I'm looking forward to the surprise and the anticipation. At this point I had one dream that the baby was a boy, but I don't have any real feelings one way or the other.

So that's the latest news. I'm glad to finally be able to publish this blog post and have the news out there.