Earlier this week, we mailed out a bunch of cards to our close family and friends.
The front looked like this:
And the inside looked like this:
Yep. We're going for round 2! I'm officially due on Valentine's Day.
If you're interested in the nitty gritty details and all my personal opinions, read on...
I'm just over 7 weeks along...half way through the first trimester. So far, I've been feeling fine. I pee even more than usual now, I seem to have gotten a free breast enhancement, and I'm exhausted by 9:00 every night, which for someone who usually doesn't hit the hay until 1:00 AM, that's odd behavior. When I was pregnant with Sonnet, I got "morning sickness" at night-- and the same thing seems to be happening this time. Every evening about 6, I start to feel really nauseous, but usually if I just kind of take it easy and don't each much, it's not all that bad. I only threw up a handful of times with Sonnet. I'd like to think that I'm one of the lucky ones and that maybe this pregnancy will be similar, but I'm sure I just jinxed myself.
With Sonnet, I craved lemons and cold cereal. This time has been exactly the same. For some reason, those are the only things that sound good to me when I'm nauseous. I've driven to Hot Dog on a Stick for their lemonade several times and downed a few boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. :)
We waited until the first trimester was over before we announced our pregnancy with Sonnet. I'd had some bleeding early on, and I was worried something else was going to go wrong. But this time, well, I'm taking the risk. I always feel like telling early makes the pregnancy seem even longer, but I'm just too excited to keep the secret anymore. And a few people knew we were getting ready to have another one and I hate lying when they ask me if we've had any luck.
Turns out, we were very lucky. With Sonnet, it took us almost a year to get pregnant. I wanted a baby so badly and I was so sad every month when that darn period showed up. I was not very regular and I felt like I had no control over anything. But since I delivered Sonnet, my body's been running like clockwork. We decided we were officially ready, so I pulled out a calendar, picked a day, and voila. I must say I'm very grateful I didn't have to go through the heartbreak of the waiting game this time. (And my heart goes out to anyone out there who is currently experiencing that).
And I'm SO excited about my due date. Valentine's Day! I mean, how cute is that?
Yes, I probably will compare this pregnancy to my first one over and over again. I know that no two pregnancies are alike, but it's the only frame of reference I have. Plus, it's fun to reminisce about the things I experienced with Sonnet and sort of re-live it a little. She grew up too fast.
Let's be honest: I'm completely terrified to go through labor and delivery again. I was terrified the first time and it was pretty much as bad as I expected it to be. My recovery sucked and I was so sufficiently traumatized that it's taken me four years to be willing to sign up for that again. But, I've finally gotten to the point where I ache for a baby- where I want one bad enough that I'm willing to do what I have to do to get it here.
I know several people who have recently become pregnant or had a baby and have vowed not to turn their blogs into "baby blogs." As anyone who has been reading my blog since the beginning knows, I have no such qualms. My family is the most important thing to me and it's where I spend the bulk of my time, so you know if I'm writing about something, it's probably them. Besides, I figure most of my friends are in the same boat. So if you're looking for stimulating non-child related prose-- go somewhere else. If you want to hear real thoughts from a real pregnant mama, you're in the right place.
Sonnet has a good understanding of what's happening. My friend gave birth last year around Valentine's and Sonnet was so intrigued by her pregnant belly. She wanted to know how the baby got in there and how it was going to come out. We explained it all-- in very simple terms-- and as soon as Valentine's rolled around, she was dying to see that baby. When my friend brought the baby over, Sonnet said, "Oh, the baby came out so now her belly is not big anymore." She seemed to kinda get the process. It's nice that the timing of my pregnancy is similar. She knows that my belly will get bigger and bigger and then when Valentine's comes, the baby will come out and come live at our house. She keeps telling me we need to bring the crib in from the garage and that we need to "buy bottles at Walmart." Haha. She keeps coloring big paper hearts because she thinks if she makes valentines then it will BE Valentine's and the baby will come out. She's pretty excited. And she is convinced we are having a girl.
I have to be honest: I'm kind of hoping this one is a boy. Of course, we'll be happy about whatever we get, but I think it would be so fun to have one of each. We're planning to find out the gender as soon as we can. I don't like surprises. I keep visualizing a baby boy, but I won't be surprised if Sonnet turns out to be right. We have a boys name already picked out (but no, we're not telling). If it's a girl, we're stumped. I think it's hard to pick a name that goes with "Spears." For all I know, we could be having one of each. Fraternal twins run in my family. [Insert freak out].
Sonnet will be almost 5 when this baby is born. We waited that long on purpose. It's no secret that babies kind of scare me. Sonnet was a good baby, but it wasn't until she hit about 9 months or so that I really started to enjoy having a kid. Once she started walking and talking, we started having a ball. That's the time that most people end up getting pregnant again. I think they figure that they're already changing diapers and cleaning up messes, so they might as well get it all over with at once. Or maybe most people just really like babies. I'm pretty sure I'm the weird one.
Also, other people like to have their kids close together so they can be good friends. I look at it from a different perspective: I only have one brother and we are 5 years apart. (My mom wanted more kids, but couldn't have them). I adore my brother and always have. We've always been good friends and we always got along well because we had nothing to fight about. We didn't have to share anything, we never got compared to each other... in a way- we were both only children, but not. :) We never had an argument, I've never resented him (even though he's gorgeous and funny and insanely talented)... if anything, I've always felt protective of him and really proud of him. For us, I think the space between us actually made us closer. Plus, I'm kind of a loner. I don't like to share things and I don't like to be around big groups of people, so I was always glad that I didn't have a lot of siblings.
Neither Nate nor I want to have a lot of kids- 2 or maybe 3 will probably be about it for us- so we didn't feel like we were in a hurry. And once things started getting fun with Sonnet, we didn't want to mess it up by starting all over again. We decided to just enjoy every moment we could with her and wait until we really felt ready to have another one. It's been a good decision for us. (I'm not saying everyone should do this. I'm just saying it was right for us). We love and adore Sonnet and I feel like I've been able to savor every second of her childhood without being worried about other things. I am just not a multi-tasker. Now that she is older and more independent, we're ready to start again. I think she will be a huge help and it'll be fun to have her experience this with us.
Over the last few months I've started to feel like someone is missing... I look around for my other kid when we go places. And when I see people holding a newborn or hear of someone announcing their pregnancy, I feel jealous. So, we're ready for round 2! And we're excited that our little boy, or girl, or both, is coming soon.
