The Story of our Surprise

 

Yesterday I surprised you all with our big news that I’m pregnant.  I know you were all surprised but you have no idea how surprised and shocked Andy and I were!

A little over a month ago I started having symptoms.  Being overly emotional, super clingy to Andy and in the evenings after supper I’d feel icky all over.  By the second week of all this I started wondering… “could I be pregnant?”  I was on the mini pill and still breastfeeding Tate but I was crying during commercials and every ‘feel good’ news story on Today.  On Friday, October 3rd I texted Andy and told him I needed to take a pregnancy test, I was certain I was pregnant.  He brushed it off thinking I was nuts.  The next day I was out of town so when we went to town Sunday to run a few errands I made sure to grab a pg test at WalMart.  We got home about 2:30, I went straight to the bathroom and took the test.

Thank goodness Andy followed me in to the bathroom.  He didn’t think I was pregnant but knew I’d need his support either way.  I sat the test on the counter and it instantly turned to a plus sign.  Oh shit. Andy and I didn’t know what to do or say, we both just kind of half laughed, totally shocked and surprised.  Then the tears and worries started.  It’s crazy how so many different thoughts can flood into your head all at the same time.  “FOUR kids?!?” “We need another crib.”  “How are we going to afford sending FOUR kids to college?”  “What about Tate? How will this affect him?”  And on and on and on. 

After about 10 minutes we emerged from the bathroom, Andy ever my strong rock reassuring me that everything will be okay and will work out.  We had been toying around with the idea of having a 4th but about a week or two before taking the test I had decided that we were for sure done, no more babies for us.  And then this.

The next morning first thing I called my OB doctor.  She ordered me a blood test and that night I went to the lab at the hospital and had my blood drawn to estimate about how far along I was in the pregnancy.  My guess was 6 weeks because of the symptoms.  I haven’t had a period since Tate was born so I had absolutely no idea when this blessed event had taken place.

The next day I was at a pumpkin patch helping chaperone Brennan’s Kindergarten field trip.  I knew the dr.’s office would be calling me with the results of the test so I kept my phone close at hand all day.  Finally, just before we were getting ready to pack up the kids and head home they called.  Until this point I had been thinking there was still a chance I wasn’t pregnant but the nurse confirmed I was.  My numbers showed I was between 5 and 6 weeks. 

This was 2 days after taking the pregnancy test at home and I was still in major shock.  I wasn’t at all happy about being pregnant and I was still full of worry and concern about how we were going to make this work for our family.  So when the nurse said I was *only* 5-6 weeks along I was crushed.  I had hoped it’d be farther than that so I’d be that much closer to being done with this pregnancy.

I know you are all thinking I am horrible person for not being happy about this in the beginning, and I do too, but it was such a huge shock that I couldn’t see past the scary to the happy that this news was.

That Thursday they scheduled me an ultrasound and my first OB visit, which is just a health history with the nurse.  My cousin is the US tech at our local hospital, she’s the one who found the anencephaly with the baby we lost and she’s the one who did all the US’s with our pregnancy with Tate. It was nice to have her doing this one, too.  When we walked in I told her I didn’t want her to wait, she had to tell me right away if there was more than one baby in there. I just had this fear that there would be two.  She got started, got a shit eating grin on her face and turned towards us.  “There’s just one baby in there.”  Phew.  When she turned to us with that smile on her face my stomach dropped. I thought she was about to tell us TWINS.  After taking a few measurements she estimated that we were farther along than the blood test showed. We were 8 weeks 3 days along.  That was exciting to me!  Then she told us our due date.  May 18th.  That’s our 13th wedding anniversary! 

After that appointment things started to get less scary and more exciting.

The next night we told the boys our news.  They were beyond ecstatic!  Their excitement was definitely contagious!  Instead of thinking of all the scary I started thinking of all the good things this baby would bring.  I still wasn’t excited to be pregnant again (and to this day I still can’t believe I am going to go through all of *that* again) but I was excited to add another little “us” to our family again. 

That weekend we shocked our families and told them the news.  They were very surprised but happy for us.  We have told a few friends so far but really are keeping this quiet for now and letting the news slowly leak out. 

Today I am 11weeks2days along.  I feel pretty good now, had a few iffy weeks up til now.  Nothing major.  Like I said, I’m still not super excited to be going through a pregnancy again so soon but I am very excited to bring this sweet little baby home in 6 shorts months. 

One exciting thing that will be different this time around is that we’re going to find out the gender of the baby.  This is something new for us since we’ve never found out the sex before but it’s going to be fun to know and be able to plan this time.  I’ll be 20 weeks the Monday after Christmas so I’m hoping I can talk my dr. into scheduling my US the week before Christmas, when I’ll be 19 weeks along, so we can share the news with our families for Christmas. Fingers crossed it works out that way!

So, that’s where we started and where we are now.  This baby is a major surprise, NOT an ‘oops’, and it’ll never be called that or thought of as one.  I want to make that clear.  And I’m happy I kept the baby stuff around instead of selling it like I had considered doing. 

 

Surprise!

 

Hey everyone!  Obviously I’ve been absent from the blog for awhile.  The reason for my absence is I have lost my blogging mojo.  Blogging is fun but also time consuming.  I have let so many things go since having Tate, like reading books, scrapbooking and, worst of all, cleaning my house.  I do the major things, like dishes and vacuuming, but seriously, my house has never been so messy in all my life.  I hate not having the energy and gumption to get up and do the things I need to do and want to do.  So I finally let the blog go for a bit because I felt major stress from it and knew I needed to let that go.  It’s felt so good not having it hanging over my head.  But I have missed writing and missed hearing from you all.  I won’t be back full time but you’ll hear from me here and there so don’t give up on me.  Someday I’ll have my life put back together again and will blog daily like I used to.

In the meantime big news in our house! Tate’s first tooth popped through!  I can’t get a picture of it, he keeps pushing his tongue forward and covering it up when I try. But trust me, it’s there!

We carved our pumpkin last night.  Singular pumpkin.  I had 2 bought to carve but for some reason one of them rotted!  I’ve only had them 3 weeks so no idea what happened to it.  We had fun carving the one, though, and made it super spooky!  I didn’t get a picture, something else I’ve not been very good at lately, so you’ll just have to trust me.

The boys are looking forward to Halloween very much!  They are super excited and it’s all Brennan can talk about. This morning, “Only 2 more days till Halloween, Mom!”  Thank goodness I have him to count down and keep track of these important days for me, ha ha!

Aiden is dressing up as a Night Camo Ninja, Brennan will be a Ninja Turtle and little Tate will be a lion.  I tried his costume on him last week and he loved it!  He was all smiles and couldn’t stop pulling on the hood part to take a look at it.  Thank goodness he has a warm, full body costume this year, it’s supposed to be in the 30’s that night with a strong northern wind which will make it feel like the upper 20’s.  Brrrr!  We aren’t planning on doing any door to door trick or treating, just hitting up family, so we won’t be out in the elements much.  It’s our first night of the season with lows in the lower to mid 20’s so we’ll have a good freeze Friday night, which is super exciting to me. The leaves will be falling like mad on Saturday!

Oh, and another big surprise.  Are you sitting down for this one?  I am pregnant.  Again.  So soon.  Ha!  I’ll tell you the whole story about this tomorrow (promise!) so stay tuned for that.  This post has gotten too wordy already so will make you wait for all the juicy details.

Have a great Wednesday! 

 

Fall Swag Swap Reveal // Link Up

 

Today’s the day we reveal what our awesome partners sent us for the Fall Swag Swap! 

I was paired with Brittany, a super sweet southern gal.  She sent me some really great swag!

In the top picture is a really soft, comfy infinity scarf.  It is soooo soft, I just want to snuggle up with it!  It’ll be so snuggly warm this winter when the temps drop to bitter cold!

The adorable ghost kleenex make me think of my favorite joke of all time:

How do you get a kleenex to dance?

-- Put a little ‘boogie’ in it!  Bah ha haaaa!!!!

My boys inhaled that popcorn ball, I didn’t even get to taste a crumb of it!

And I may or may not have used that big blue mug a handful of times already – yum!

I had a great time chatting with Brittany and getting to know her.  Thanks for all the swag, Brittany!

Add your link of your reveal post below so we can all hop around and see what everyone got!

 

 

 

 

Aiden’s Big Ride

 

Last week on Monday night I got a phone call from our little town’s local volunteer fire department letting me know that Aiden had won a coloring contest for Fire Prevention Week.  The big prize for winning this contest was getting a ride to school the next morning in the fire truck!  Holy smokes, to say he was excited doesn’t even come close to describing how he felt!  (Or how I felt!)

Once they got to school all of the kids were standing outside waiting for the 2 fire trucks that each had 3 kids in them.  As the kids got off the trucks they announced their names and the whole school cheered for each kid.  I was so lucky to be there for that, I had goose bumps and tears in my eyes!  It was really so cool.  I feel so fortunate to live in this little town that does this for our kids. 

Now go practice your escape plan with your kids, and if you don’t have one make one!

Erin

Tate Lately // 8 Months

 

Tate is 8 months old! 

Here’s what he’s been up to the past month:

• crawling!  He’s into everything!  We have to close all the doors down the hallway into our bedroom and the big boys’ room, and the bathroom, so he doesn’t get himself into any trouble.  He’s pretty fast and gets where he wants to go.
• pulling himself up!  This took him no time at all to master.  I was surprised at how fast this happened.  He pulls himself up to anything that stands still.  He will take a couple of side steps but I wouldn’t quite say he’s cruising just yet.  That won’t be far behind!
• wearing size 3 diapers still, but we’re about to finish this package and move onto size 4’s.
• wearing 12-24month clothes. It all depends on the make and style as to which size he wears.  If it’s an all one piece outfit, for sure a 24mo!  Most shirts are 18mo, pants are a combo of 12 and 18mo.
• talking, all.the.time!  He’s a chatty little guy!  He makes sounds like ba, da, dee, ta, tee and sometimes when crying mamama!
• eating.  He loves to eat!  We are working on finishing up our stage 2 veggies and stage 3 fruits and moving on to table food.  He loves muffins, Gerber Puffs and Crunch Um’s, and pretty much any other table food I’ve offered him.  I think after just those few times I’ve offered him ‘real’ food he’s realized he doesn’t love baby food anymore so we struggle through a container of that now.  He just seems bored with it and can find a dozen other things to look at and pay attention to than his baby food.  Give him something he can feed himself, though?  Then he’s not at all distracted!
• playing with his big brothers. He just loves to play with those big boys, especially crawling over them as they lay on the floor. 
• teething.  Still no little white teeth popping through, yet, but he’s a droolie mess these days!  Lots of chewing on things, fingers in his mouth constantly and fussier than normal. 
• sleeping!  Finally he’s back to sleeping through the night!  Once in a while I’ll hear him humming to himself at 4 in the morning but for the most part he’ll sleep from 8:30 at night til 6:30 or so the next morning.  Now if only I could get myself to sleep through the night again!

Now that Tate’s taking a bottle regularly Brennan wanted to feed him over the weekend.  He was so proud of being able to help Tate with his bottle.  I love how he’s holding Tate’s head in this picture! 

Tate is a funny little guy, he keeps us laughing regularly. 

He always has a smile on his face and knows no stranger!  It doesn’t matter if he knows you or not, you’ll get a big smile from him if you talk to him.

We couldn’t be happier to have our little Tater in our life!  We love you, Sweet Po’Tater Pie!

 

Wordy Wednesday

 

This morning when I woke up I was laying in bed dozing when all of a sudden it hit me – THANKSGIVING is NEXT MONTH already!!!!  To say I am excited is an understatement!  Thanksgiving is one of my top 3 favorite holidays (it’s a tie with Valentine’s Day and Christmas) and it’s NEXT MONTH already!!!  Yay for October being here!

Doesn’t it feel like ‘holiday things’ really start amping up this month?  First off is Halloween and prepping for that – you know, getting the house decorated, picking out and carving pumpkins, finding the perfect costume for the kids (I personally hate this part), then the fun of trick or treating. That makes for a fun, full month.  Then all of a sudden, BAM, you’re hit with November and all things family and food.  Once Thanksgiving is over it’s full-bore Christmas time, then New Year’s, the year is over and you’re asking yourself where in the hell did that year go?  *sigh*, I love it!  The last quarter of the year is so exciting!

When you think of November, do you think ‘brown’?  That’s the color I associate with that month.  Do you do that, associate words or scents or colors or images with months and times of the year?  Brown always pops in my head when I think of November. September I picture teacher’s apples.  Can’t help it.

Yesterday my sweet friend Sarah showed pictures of her all decked out in 80’s gear for a neighborhood bunko party she attended.  It reminded me of the 80’s themed Valentine’s party we threw a few years back.  I decided it would be a good time to share a picture of that fun event with you. It’s Wednesday, we could all use a good laugh!

 

Have a great day!