Baby #3

By the time most of you read this, I will probably already know and will have revealed the gender of Baby #3...but I'm feeling very convicted to get this post written before my ultrasound appointment tomorrow morning!

Anyway, I'm sure most of you know already that we're unexpectedly, but very happily, expecting Baby #3.  I found out I was pregnant right after my May trip to Annapolis, while Chet was gone on his field exercise.  I was too busy in Annapolis to suspect anything, but the day after we got home I was suspicious.  I had to be very sneaky about buying a pregnancy test during a shopping trip to Walmart with my dad and the girls in tow -- especially since we were sharing a buggy and we were each buying our own things.

As I'm sure you've concluded, the test was positive, and I was a little shocked (I feel like that sounds ignorant to say, but I was).  Chet wasn't scheduled to be home for at least another week, and his ability to communicate was limited.  I didn't really want to tell him over the phone anyway, so the waiting game started.  I was bursting to tell someone, but thankfully I held my tongue.

I can't remember exactly how many days I had to wait, but it ended up being a little less than a week.  Five days, I think.  I had no idea how I was going to tell him, because, like I said, this was unexpected.  When I found out which day he was coming home I really started trying to formulate a creative plan, but, honestly, I had no idea how the news would actually get shared.  I decided to play it by ear.  The day before he got home the girls and I made signs for him:

I didn't photograph it, but after I took the picture I wrote under Lorelei's name "and ?"...as in "Love, Ashley, Sydney, Lorelei, and ?"  I thought if the girls were awake (not napping or in bed for the night) when he arrived home, I would use the sign to tell him.

Well, he arrived home during nap time, so I had to come up with a different idea (because showing him the signs without the girls seemed a little lame, and I couldn't wait for them to wake up).  I thought about just blurting out the news, but I had taken a picture of the positive pregnancy test before I threw it away.  The picture was on my phone, along with lots of pictures from Annapolis, so I gave him my phone and insisted he look at all of the pictures.  He had only been home for about 20 minutes, so this was definitely strange behavior on my part.  When he got to the picture, it only took a split second for him to realize what it meant -- he was thrilled!

Fast forward about 15 weeks, and here we are!  There's not much to report between then and now.  I can't remember being very sick, but I think there were a few days where I felt more nauseated than I would have liked (not even close to tossing my cookies though).  I don't remember feeling as tired as I did when I was pregnant with the girls.  The varicose veins in my legs returned almost immediately and in full force, so I'm sporting the compression stockings with pride in the hot, humid south Mississippi summer weather (yes, I wear them with shorts -- I decided not suffering from heat stroke was more important than fashion at this point in my life).

I started taking belly pictures at 14 weeks, apparently the start of the 2nd trimester (why did I always think 12 weeks was the start of the 2nd trimester?  Can I not do math?).  Poor Baby #3 is already learning its place as third in line:

14 Weeks

15 Weeks

16 Weeks

17 Weeks

Chet left for deployment before it was time to take the 18-week picture, so I attempted to do it myself.  Never again, I tell you.  I wasn't in the mood to try taking the picture of myself in the mirror, so this is what I came up with:

18-Week Attempt

Yikes, right?

So, my poor neighbors are in charge of my belly pictures from here on out.  Or family, if they are in town. 

19 Weeks

Yes, I'm wearing the same shirt as the 17-week picture.  And both pictures were taken right after church.  Pregnant women get away with a lot.

20 Weeks

Tomorrow is my big ultrasound, and I can't WAIT to get it done.  Not only am I always anxious to see if the baby is healthy, but I'm dying to know the gender.  I keep having dreams about finding out if its a boy or girl, and they are long and confusing, so hopefully the weird dreams will stop after I have some resolution.  And since all anyone wants to do is hear about other people's dreams, here is the most recent one (as written in an e-mail to my friend, because she too wants nothing more than to hear about my dreams):

We ended up having this huge gender reveal party, and Chet was there and not on deployment for some reason. The giant cake was in one of those thin white cardboard boxes, and the box was closed, covering the top of the cake, but we still had access to the side of the cake for some reason. Chet felt the need to test the icing (it wasn't time for the actual cake-cutting reveal yet), and he exposed some of the cake, but didn't notice. But I noticed, and I saw a hint of pink, so I thought for sure it was a girl and urged Chet to go ahead and cut a huge piece of cake in order to reveal the gender.

But then we cut into it (the lid was still closed) and the inside of the cake was pink, purple, blue, green, red, orange, yellow, etc... I was freaking out because the baker obviously didn't understand what she was supposed to do.

Chet finally had the bright idea of lifting the box top and exposing the top of the cake (I was inconsolable and unable to think), which is where the gender was revealed, but in a really long message. And it was confusing. It didn't just say, "It's a girl!" or "It's a boy!", but something long, and there was even both "boy!" and "girl!" written within the message, and finally after reading the entire message word for word it was understood that we were having a boy.

Ahh, dreams.

Speaking of gender reveal parties, we're not having one.  BUT, a friend of mine who recently had a baby at the same hospital where I'll deliver had such a party.  At her ultrasound appointment, she had the ultrasound tech write down the baby's gender and put it in an envelope, and then my friend gave the envelope to the bakery to make the gender-reveal cake.  My friend suggested that I also have the ultrasound tech write down the gender and put it in an envelope, and then wait to open the envelope until Chet and I are able to talk on the phone.  This means we will find out the gender together, rather than me finding out alone and then simply telling Chet.  It's the perfect solution, because I obviously want Chet to be the first to hear the news, but I was afraid of letting it slip until I was able to talk to him (or bursting).  Now I can be truly ignorant! 

By the way, we think Chet will be able to call pretty much right away, so hopefully I'll be able to open the envelope within a few minutes.  It will surely be burning a hole in my diaper bag.

I guess that's all there is to report at this point.  What's your guess: boy or girl?