Dec 02 2012
Baby # 2 is on the way!
I am sorry I have been so ROTTEN about posting. I’ve been pretty sick the last 3 months. Okay, really, horribly sick. But I’m not complaining – I’m pregnant!
7 Week Ultrasound
Right now I am 17 weeks pregnant and the baby is the size of a sweet potato. A few times a day I can feel the baby kick or spin around (at least that is how it feels). I am so very, very grateful.
Triple checking!
We found out on August 30, 2012. Marc and I had both pretty much given up hope that I would get pregnant again. In April I had surgery and found out I have tubal disease. My doctor told me “It would take a miracle for you to get pregnant. But you already have one miracle, so no one can tell you for sure.”
Warning, this post is going to have a lot of pictures. In this case, I think they tell the story better than words.
After seeing that blessed second red line (3 times – we were afraid to trust one!) we called my doctor’s office and went in for a blood test. I know the nurse was laughing at us for taking a picture of a blood draw but I’ve probably given blood over 100 times in hopes of conceiving. This was the one time I don’t want to forget! I think most of the staff were there to give us hugs and cheer for us. Some nurses even popped their heads around the corner and said, “I just wanted to see you!”
Once we got back the comparative HCG results and everything looked good we decided to tell Annada. We both struggled with when to tell her in case we lost the baby. But if that did happen, we didn’t want to be sad and have her not know why either.
Plus it seemed like Annada already knew. She had been praying for over a year for God to give us another baby. We never encouraged her to pray for a sister or brother. We knew the odds were low, so her prayers broke my heart. Then, around the beginning of August Annada started thanking God for the baby instead. I didn’t know what to say but I told Annada I didn’t think there was a baby. She just stared at me, like I was saying the sky was green.
A few weeks later I was walking up the stairs with her when she pulled up my shirt. “I can’t see the baby!” she exclaimed. “Annada there is no baby,” I said. Again, she just stared at me. I got her playing some games then went up in my room to cry. It hurt so bad that she wanted a brother or sister.
Mr. Pail is giving Annada the first clue, to go look in the sandbox.
After all that, I was excited to tell Annada there really was a baby. She loved Blues Clues, so we set up a Blues Clues game. First we had pancakes for breakfast, her favorite. Marc put a face on a pail to make Mr. Pail. After breakfast Mr. Pail asked Annada if she wanted to play Blues Clues and sent her to the sandbox where she found glue sticks and a note asking her to make a book to put on the fridge.
Hard at work on her book.
Once the book was made we went over to the fridge to find the first Blue’s clue. It was a picture of our family.
Annada then carefully drew a picture of our family in her thinking notebook. She tried to guess but had no idea what the clue meant yet.
Then she found a note on the polar bears. “Please read us a special story,” it said.
Annada went over to the bookshelf to find another Blue’s clue. It was a book called, “God Gave Us Two.” We already had “God Gave Us You.” We read the book together (complete with my tears) and then Annada drew a picture of the book in her notebook.
Then Annada found a note next to one of her dolls. “Ouch! My foot hurts,” it said. Annada got her doctor stuff and fixed up the doll. Once the doll was all better he told her to go upstairs and check out Mommy’s tummy too.
I had run upstairs and was lying down when Annada came in ready to play doctor. She lifted up my shirt to find the last clue on my tummy.
She drew a picture of my belly and then jumped in our chair to think. “Family, story, belly, hmmm,” she said over and over, just like in Blue’s Clues. She made a couple random guesses, but I figured she was being coy.
“Annada, do you know what we are trying to say?” I asked. And Marc caught the exact moment above, “You have a baby in your tummy!” she said.
At first she seemed happy. But then she got kind of mellow. “How do you feel about being a big sister?” I asked.
Crying for a few minutes about being displaced.
Really quietly she said, “I am afraid no one will like me when the new baby comes.” I realized she had been thinking about this for a few weeks. Annada balled up in my arms and cried for a few minutes. When she stopped we reassured her that we will always love her and she seemed relieved.
Now Annada has fully embraced being a big sister. I let her pick out a big sister shirt and Leanne bought her one too. They are her favorites. And often when I walk into a room of people Annada will jump in front of me and loudly announce, “You have to be gentle to my mom. There is a baby in her tummy!”