What to expect...

(Dug this up from October 2007. A blog I wrote to my friends and family announcing the conception of our 2nd child!)

Wow... what a surprise! I should write a book titled more appropriately "What to Expect When You Weren't Really Expecting..." !!! Fortunately for us, we had no doubt as to whether or not we wanted to grow our family-- it was more a battle of when! And that battle is now settled and over and neither of us won so, one less thing to waste our energy debating about. Shortly after we realized I was pregnant again, we created a mental list of pros. Let me re-phrase, I wept about the cons and Cory kindly issued a list of the pros of this unplanned timing. Much to our amazement we found that in fact, there was no better time to pop out Baby 2, the list of pros far outweighed the cons in number as well as validity. (most of my cons consisted of selfish, irrelevant points -- I'm going to be fat, I'm going to be fatter, we're not going to Mexico now for our 1 year anniversary, we have 2 kids in diapers... this baby is not going to be a summer baby like the 3 of us... wait a minute... this child is due less than 2 weeks before our anniversary. Sleepless nights, stitches and engorged breasts are not romantic at all!!! What have we done?!?!?!)

Now, close to 3 months later (try not to be offended that I didn't tell you earlier, I have plenty of reasons!) I have entered that favorite 2nd trimester only to realize that-- I have no idea what to expect when I'm expecting! I still have the book, thank god, which I read before bed when I have time. My favorite book, A Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy, was the only thing that could make me laugh or smile for about 2 months... so happy to be out of that stage too! So far, I have learned that all the horror stories are true for the most part. The second baby will try to kill you and if you survive, you deserve a flat screen TV, Lobster dinner and couples massage immediately after you are wheeled out of the labor room (and before they bring the newborn back to start breastfeeding). The morning after I took the test my clothes did not fit, my bras did not fit, I was ill and paranoid that everyone was staring at me. I have been extremely short on breath and dizzy-- more often than not which causes some concern in public places.

Today, closing in on 16 weeks pregnant, I have given up 90% of my closet, I eat hopefully enough for 2 and often forget I am harvesting a fetus. (Please note that does not mean I neglect my divine duties of creating a healthy baby, I'm not that retarded!) Simply put, there is a huge contrast between my pregnancies, neither is really better than the other-- they are just very different. When I had Shane, I had started making a Baby Book Journal for him within hours of seeing his little heart beat inside his little limabean self. This time, I have managed to buy the book... When I first started showing with Shane, I was also glowing and happily browsing the maternity sections. Now I am repulsed by the thought of those clothes and the glowing, is more like a Pro-Activ commercial-- the before photo is there, but the after photo is not in sight! With Shane on board we spent hours researching baby names, even though we already knew we had picked a winner. Cory and I have vowed to not speak to anyone about names of this child because we can't agree on anything and anytime anyone asks, there is a public fight that ends with the silent treatment... the list goes on. I didn't' miss an hour of work during the months leading to Shane's birth... I've missed so much work these past few months, I will lose my job if I miss 2 hours or more. I won't say that I wasn't a basket case some days with Shane, but I definitely wasn't so emotionally disturbed that I couldn't sleep!

The Holidays are right around the corner-- my favorite time of year, and each day that passes is one closer to the newest phase of our lives. I spend 0 time worrying about the differences in my pregnancies. I already know my kids are going to be different, and I am a different person now than I was pregnant with Shane. So its ok. It doesn't mean I'm less of a Mom to one than the other, or that there is favoritism. That Baby Book will get started before it's born, we will have a perfect set of names and the second baby will be born into just as welcoming of a home as Shane was. (I hope as swiftly and fortunately as he was too!) The truth is-- I simply hate being pregnant and would rather drive to the hospital the day of birth and bring home our new little bundle of joy. But that doesn't mean much of anything, especially when the little one is finally here. :)

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Noah Nicolas arrived

April 19th, 2008

9lbs 1oz 21"