July 29-Our baby news!

This has been a long time coming…I am so happy to announce that after two and a half years of trying, we are going to be having a baby! It has been a long hard road for us, especially coupled with learning about Aaron’s back and his surgery. Because it has taken so long and because we were dealing with Aaron’s stuff, it has been really hard for us to let ourselves believe that it is actually happening and start getting excited about it. We have been going through an awful lot. My first trimester was pretty rough. We were in school, and teaching a whole day and then coming home to Aaron was just exhausting, I was in a grad school class, and we had the stress of the Aaron stuff. Yes, I was pregnant all through Aaron’s pre-op appointment where I was trying hold him down alone and through the hospital stay after his surgery. I had so much fear and dread about his surgery that it was hard to balance the excitement about our baby, and for a long time I was sure that the stress was going to get the better of me and be really bad for my and our baby’s health. I asked my OB for advice about surgery day…how I could help calm my anxiety. She said chamomile tea, deep breathing and back rubs. I thought…are you kidding me? I don’t even know how I will keep myself from sobbing…CHAMOMILE TEA?!?!?! Turns out that I was stronger than I thought, and was able to stay very calm. I wanted to for our baby’s health, but most of all for Aaron, and that was all the motivation I needed I guess.

Although we told all of Aaron’s big sisters about the baby after our second ultrasound at the beginning of June that showed us moving arms and legs, we didn’t want to tell Aaron until his surgery was over and he was back to his old personality. Chris thought it would be a bad idea to give him anything else that could cause anxiety. It was hard not to talk to him about it, and once we did, it certainly helped make it more real for us.

Today was our BIG 20 week ultrasound day and everything looked great, so we are going public. Unfortunately, we did not get to bring home any pictures. The tech said that the lady before us wanted so many pictures that their paper ran out (?!!?!?! have you ever heard of such a thing?!?!?!?!) but I have to go back next week because they want to get a profile shot, and they will give me a CD of all the images then.

My parents and Ashley were waiting at home, dying to find out what we were having, and it turns out that Aaron’s wish came true…he is going to have a baby sister! He made that clear the night Chris and I told him that a new baby was on the way :)  I have been recording all the funny things he has said about the new baby and will most certainly be scrapping them.

The ultrasound went well, everything looked like it was supposed to (you better believe my eyes were trained on that little spine) and I was just so relieved to have another confirmation that our baby was growing fine.

Here are some pictures that we took to celebrate our good news. I hope to be back with ultrasound pictures next week!

Our due date is Christmas Eve…Chris feels certain it will be closer to the middle of the month…what a crazy time to have a baby, but that’s what we got and we will figure it out!