Baby Boy: Due Oct. 26!

I guess I haven't officially announced on the blog our incredibly exciting news: we're expecting another  baby boy on Oct. 26!  We couldn't be more thrilled.  We're so grateful that our family is growing.  What a blessing!  Yes, this pregnancy is definitely the reason for my blogging hiatus, and I have a whole list of catch up posts planned to make up for lost time.

We found out I was pregnant just a few days before we left Amsterdam.  The timing was actually perfect--I knew I'd start getting sick about a week after we moved to Texas, so I had a little time to get all unpacked and eat all the delicious food I'd missed before I got too sick.

(Warning: If you don't want to listen to me complain and whine incessantly, go ahead and stop reading now!)  The pregnancy so far has been really rough.  I felt like I was pretty sick with Andy, but it's been far worse this time around.  I'll just preface this by saying I know there are plenty of people who get far sicker than I have. I feel lucky I wasn't in the hospital all the time like my poor mom and other women who have it far worse and literally can't keep anything down.  I've thrown up a couple times a day, and that's if I just eat bread, crackers, tortillas, bagels, etc.  And even those really hurt my stomach.  Zofran didn't help at all.  Most of the past few months, I've probably only kept down 600 calories a day? I've lost a chunk of weight.  And until recently, I couldn't really keep any fluids down.  Maybe 8 oz. of water a day if I drank a sip every couple hours.  The fatigue the first month was particularly horrible.  I couldn't stand for longer than a minute and pretty much spent all my time laying in bed.  It's really hard to manage when you have a busy toddler running around that needs your attention and help. Let's just say Andy has watched a lot of TV!  Cameron was an angel through it all.  He's had to run everything since we moved back.  He had to do all laundry, all cleaning, all grocery shopping, and completely take care of Andy during the weekends and evenings.  All that on top of a stressful full-time job!  I spent most days feeling so depressed, feeling like there's no way I could possibly do it one more day.  Needless to say, it hasn't been our best few months, but we've pushed through!  I'm happy to say I've turned a corner.  My sickness was completely gone by 16 weeks with Andy; I'm 16 weeks now, and though it's not completely gone, I'm doing so much better.  Yes, I still throw up a few times a week.  And if I eat anything other than grains, it makes my stomach pretty upset the rest of the day.  But--wow--what a difference!  I feel like I can do this.  I've never enjoyed drinking full glasses of water so much!  And I have the energy to take Andy to the park!  It's wonderful to finally feel like I can be genuinely excited about this pregnancy and to feel like I can live some semblance of a normal life.

Here are some pictures of our handsome little man!  (Yes, we were impatient and got another early gender ultrasound at 15 weeks and a few days, just like we did with Andy.)

Love seeing how big he's gotten!

Sweet little fingers!  And definitely a boy! 

8 week ultrasound; sweet little bean.