number two.

After five ultrasounds, eight appointments, and a heartbeat as further assurance, I can finally and officially confirm that baby number two is on the way! It has been a roller coaster ride the past three months, with some extreme nausea and vomiting, miscarriage scares, and utter fatigue, but we could not be more excited about our new precious bundle. I am finally feeling much better as I enter trimester number two and I am looking forward to the next few months. I love being pregnant. But I especially love the second trimester.

So, for documentation purposes, here are some facts about this pregnancy thus far. This pregnancy was a complete surprise. I know, I sound like that dumb high schooler that doesn't know what causes babies, but I finally understand those "surprise" stories you hear about. For those of you that know me, you know that I am a planner. But God's plans for us were different. We now know that God's plan was much better than ours. Phoenix and the new little rice cake will be about two and a half years apart in age, and I really think their age difference will be absolutely perfect. We could not have asked for better timing. I am due 10/10/10, which is really cool. I doubt I will actually give birth on my due date, since P was five days early, but, hey, you never know. So, that makes me 12 weeks, 5 days today. This pregnancy has been completely opposite from mine with Phoenix. With Phoenix, I was not very sick, had zero cravings, my only aversion was meat, and my skin remained blemish-free the entire nine months. With this little peanut, I was miserably sick for about five weeks, I crave a bizarre variety of foods but I can only eat something once and then that craving flies out the window, and my skin is an absolute mess. I must get back to the dermatologist in the next few weeks. I need some serious help. My sense of smell is also sharper than a razor. Almost all smells made me sick, including my husband's soap. That was interesting. I even made him move his coffee pot to the garage because the smell of fresh coffee brewing makes me green. But once I reached week eleven, most of these crazy things have dissipated. I even let my poor hubby make coffee in the kitchen this morning.

And, of course, I must include some ultrasound pictures. I know these may be quite boring and basically look like a satellite image of Hurricane Katrina, but to me, they are very precious. This blog is my baby book for these two kiddos, so I must include them.

We got to know the ultrasound tech quite well, and she always cracked me up with how she described the images of our baby. So in Ms. Ultrasound Tech's words, here is our baby blob at 5 weeks, 1 day. We finally got an image of the embryonic sac, yolk sac, and a fetal pole! This was the first time we heard our baby's heartbeat. I"m tearing up just typing this. It was the sweetest sound.


And here is our baby tadpole at 7 weeks, 4 days. You can kind of distinguish the head from the body.


And we went back yesterday for our twelve week appointment and heard the baby's heartbeat on the doppler. It was nice and strong and reassurance that this baby is alive and strong. So, do you think it's a boy or girl? I have a hunch, but I'm not quite ready to share my thoughts on this. Just for fun, answer the poll in my sidebar. It will be interesting to see what you think. And, FYI, our family friend that has been an obstetrician for thirty plus years swears that every pregnancy is different and that it has nothing to do with the sex of the baby, but all to do this the mother's hormone levels before and after she got pregnant.

We could not be more excited about our baby on the way. Phoenix cannot stop talking about his new brother or sister. We are overjoyed and thankful for this blessing God has given us.