And Then There Were More Than Three...

 Once upon a time there was a family of three. They lived life happily, yet knew their family wasn't complete yet. The mommy said that their second baby was Daddy's going back to school at UW for a couple years. Then, his graduation date got really super duper close and that longing for an expanded family was too hard to resist anymore. 

 

 While on vacation in San Diego for cousin Katelyn's wedding, the Mommy told her mid-west cousin friends she hoped there would be another little one around by next summer when they hoped to see each other next. But, the mommy quickly forgot about it and enjoyed the wedding in all it's open bar glory! ;-)

 A week or so after returning from San Diego, the mommy just knew that her body was changing. She never gets nauseous on airplanes, yet she needed to smell peppermint essential oil on both plane rides. And there were other noticeable changes too... So a test she took. And a very clear positive result they got! The mommy and daddy were overjoyed!

 

 Then the yucky feeling and the tired feeling and the taking care of an almost four year old while pregnant feeling began and the mommy and daddy had some moments of..."what the heck were we thinking!?" This time the parents knew so much more about miscarriages and difficulties in pregnancies that they were a lot more quiet and reserved and hesitant and hopeful and nervous than the first time.

 During the daddy's graduation weekend, the mommy felt like a total jerk to the rest of the family for being so lethargic and not her normal self. She thought for sure she blew their cover when she almost got sick the morning of the graduation. Thankfully she did not and they were all able to focus on the daddy and his amazing accomplishment.

 

The next day, since they had all three grandparents and an aunt and uncle in town, they decided not to wait any longer to share with their immediate family the good news! First, they had their big kiddo come talk with them privately where he opened up a gift of a t-shirt and a onesie; "Brother Bear" and "Baby bear" on each. The kiddo was excited, yet a bit distracted and ready to go to breakfast or go back to playing with the family. He did come out of the room to share the good news that "Mommy is growing a baby for me!" Because yes, to him, the parents are growing the baby just for him.

 Thankfully the Mommy gets summers off of work and so the beginning of summer started off with a lot of couch time snuggling the big kiddo and the dog. She had almost forgotten how much energy is zapped when beginning to grow a baby and all intentions of maintaining nightly neighborhood walks and daily morning workouts went out the window.

 So by the time they vacationed in Kauai, she was so thankful that she was able to do the big day hike on the NaPali coast! It was definitely a couch to 4-5 mile hike, yet so worth it. She was moving into the second trimester after all.

 The mommy felt like she popped much earlier this time around, but again...the photo evidence is hard to tell.

 It was fun to overlap pregnancies a bit with one of her best friends! Their first kids are 9 months apart and now their 2nd kids will be 7 months apart, which will be pretty fun.

 Life while growing a baby and caring for an almost four year old continued to improve. In fact, the baby seems to literally keep the mom more balanced, since she's had two of the best bowling rounds of her life!

 The mommy started a new job, so it was hard to want to break the news right at the 12 week mark since she felt like she should tell her new bosses first. She was all ready to tell them, but just couldn't do it since they had so much excitement and energy for the new school year. The timing just didn't feel right, but she felt like she better do it before school starts since she felt like her belly was beginning to be pretty obvious! Finally two days before school started, she was able to break the news. They were gracious and wonderful and the mommy wondered why she had been so nervous.

 Baby continued to grow and the mommy continued to feel better with more energy and less blah each day. She was so busy with teaching that the 20 week ultrasound came up before she knew it! The mommy secretly was hoping for a little girl, but didn't want to get her hopes up since she was so so so very wrong about the first baby. Daddy and the big kiddo thought it was a girl and mommy said boy. Mommy's class of sixth graders mostly thought boy too. But, there were already signs of a girl...um, hello pickles!

 

So, they were all very excited when the ultrasound technician announced a little girl in there! 

 The big kiddo was so excited to have a sister coming!

 Here is the mommy at about 21 weeks.

 One of the best parts of this pregnancy for the mommy is sharing it with her childhood best friend. What are the chances that they met because their moms were hospital roommates when they were born and now they are both going to have a baby only a week apart (more or less!).

As the mommy moves into the third trimester, she is so grateful for the family she has and the family they are going to have. The babies movements are getting stronger and stronger. The big kiddo is still excited and loving to the baby and the idea of a sister.

It's hard to believe that baby girl will be here with us in only three more months or so!