I'm Pregnant!

I can barely contain myself as I utter those words. Yes, this is the fourth pregnancy, and it's still as exciting to me as the first time. I absolutely love my babies, and I love being pregnant (despite the nausea, vomiting, etc.). So far, I've felt 100% awesome with this pregnancy. Now we only found out last Sunday night (a whopping 10 days ago), so I still have time to start getting sick. But with the other girls, I was already sick at this point. I'm praising God for every day that I feel so great!

For baby number four, let me tell you how we found out about you. About two weeks ago now (around September 20th or so), I started eating mounds of food. Now, I do love to eat, but I do normally eat like every other person. Anyway, Matt casually said that maybe we needed to make a Walgreens run. That's code in our house for picking up a pregnancy test. On a sidebar, every test I've ever taken (and I've taken quite a few) are the First Response ones, and they've been purchased at Walgreens. All except Abby's were purchased at the Walgreens off Swinnea. Anyway, I digress. We didn't get a test then. I figured that it was just the pre-menstrual munchies. I've been known to eat us out of house and home the day before I start. So a couple of more days passed. On Saturday morning (Sep. 22), I got out of the shower and told Matt that I thought my period was late. I went and checked the calendar, and I was three days late. Not usual for me. I'm pretty much regular at 28 days. So I said I was going to Walgreens. Want to know his suggestion? Why don't we wait a couple of more weeks, and then we can get a test if I don't start? Oh, Matt....let's be a month late before we take a pregnancy test! Crazy!

So I said I'd wait a few days. Sunday I began to wonder if maybe I really might be pregnant. Could God have really given us another child so quickly? Ali Kate is only 8 months old, so this seemed pretty sudden. Well, Sunday afternoon, I went to the grocery store and made a quick Walgreens run. I didn't mention to Matt that Walgreens was included in this outing. So I came home and made a beeline for the bathroom. I didn't tell Matt anything other than I needed to go to the bathroom. Well, I took the test. Let me just say that this was the most pregnant I've ever been when I've taken a test. As soon as I took it, both lines turned up bright pink. Usually, the control line turns up bright and then another very faint line appears after a couple of minutes. Not this time! They both turned very bright very quickly.

Well, I always envisioned how I would creatively announce our last child to Matt. I'd thought about creative visits to his office, a romantic dinner, a package sent in the mail that contained the test, etc. However, I was so excited when I saw those two lines that I literally ran out of the bathroom screaming and jumping up and down. I was a wild woman! Matt and the girls looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Perhaps I had. Matt didn't say anything for several minutes. This was the first time he hadn't jumped for joy with me. It was a very hard moment for our family. I was thrilled before I even took the test at the possibility of having another child. Now my dream was real, and I could not contain my excitement. Matt, however, was having visions of more children to care for, a bigger mortgage, more late nights, etc. He was truly scared I think. By the next morning, I think the Lord had calmed his heart....and I'm now so glad to say that he's genuinely excited about our new baby.

We were going to wait to tell people so that we could tell them creatively, but Matt decided to ruin that. My mom called a couple of hours later, and Matt said to her, "Your daughter has something to tell you." I gave him the evil eye, but he just smiled at me. When she asked me what I needed to tell her, I said nothing. But I have a persistent mother. My "nothing" was not good enough. After she pestered me a few minutes, I finally broke the news. She screamed in excitement. Then of course I called Andrew to tell him. The next morning I told Laura and Dad. We then kind of slowly told people one by one last week until I got to church Thursday. After I told a few people, everyone knew. Leave that up to a bunch of women! It was fun telling our big news. Of course, we got some "Are you crazy?" and some "Was this planned?" But all in all, I always love announcing pregnancies.

In MOMS, I handed out announcement cards that had a place to vote boy or girl. We had two votes for girl and the rest for boy. I think everybody is rooting for that boy. We've also had lots of mentions of twins from people. I couldn't even imagine having twins with three young ones already! I could easily do twins the first go round but not with three little ones.

Anyway, I go to the doctor Monday, and I can't wait to see my tiny baby on the ultrasound. I love having ultrasounds and getting to peek at the baby. Woo hoo!