The Baby Story

If you weren't patient enough to stick with my last long, rambling, random post, you may have missed the big news that we are having another baby! We are very excited that we will welcome baby number two in June! Although we are excited, I don't think our excitement can compare to Camryn's! In case you haven't heard, this is her baby, and Jason and I really have no claim to him or her. And, according to Camryn, we are having a baby girl named Annalise ... which is news to us since we won't find out the baby's gender until February and since we haven't discussed names with her at all!


It really has been so much fun finally letting people in on our secret (I took the pregnancy test Oct. 26!) It's also been fun for me to hear the reactions we are getting from different people. I especially love hearing, "Ohhhhh, I was wondering when you would finally have the next one! I just knew you wouldn't have just one!" Every time, I want to laugh and say, "Really!? Because we weren't sure there would be another one!"


And, really, we weren't. I don't know if Camryn was a particularly tough baby (I'll let you know, maybe around August, when I have someone to compare her to!) or if we just weren't fully prepared as new parents because we had not really been around babies, but those first few months were haaaarrrrrrrddd! I mean, really hard. And once we got past those first few really tough months, and Camryn started to grow into a little person, and we started to have more fun with her, we just weren't 100% sure we wanted to do that all over again. I know some people will never understand that, because they would have their house busting at the seams with kids if they could afford it! I also know that may make us sound as if we don't like kids (which couldn't be further from the truth), or some people may even say that makes us sound selfish. But, for a while, I think we were feeling that God's plan for our family may only be one child. And, for some families, I think just one child is His plan. He is definitely aware of what we can and cannot handle!


I am not sure when I started to become more open to the possibility of having another baby, but if you talked to Jason a few years ago, you know he was done. No more. I wanted to know where he really stood on that - if he was serious, or if he was being that firm to keep people from nagging us about when the next one would come! I remember driving back home from Anderson one Saturday and having a very serious discussion in the car about whether or not we felt our family was complete. We talked for a long time about money, Camryn, our fears, our relationship, etc., and came out on the other side of the discussion deciding we really did want to have another baby ... just not right then.



At the beginning of the summer, the timing finally felt right for us. I stopped taking my birth control, but we decided just to leave the rest up to God. We weren't counting days on a calendar or anything like that - it was just going to happen when and if it happened. Even so, when Oct. 26 rolled around, and we saw the big "PREGNANT" word on the test, there was definitely some shock! There was lots of shocked silence in the house that night and by 3 am that morning, I was laying awake in bed wondering how in the world we were going to do this all over again. Oct. 27 was the day of crying - almost all day long. Yes, we knew what we were getting into when I stopped taking my birth control, but when it actually happens and slaps you in the face that there will not be just one but TWO little bodies in your household, it is HUGE! By Oct. 28 we finally started to get ourselves together and decided we could handle this. Of course, by November 5, when we went in for our first appointment and saw that tiny little heartbeat, we were all smiles. How can you not be when you see that on the screen?



Both of our sisters knew by the first week, because we had to tell someone! We waited until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to tell Camryn. The first thing she wanted to know was what were we going to name the baby, and she immediately followed that by placing her order for a little sister. Camryn wore her "I'm Going to be a Big Sister" shirt to both my mom's and Jason's parents' house for Thanksgiving, and we let all of our friends know that day as well.


I think it is an understatement now to say we are excited. It is so much fun to share this with everyone - especially Camryn. She prays and thanks God every night for her little sister (bless her heart if this baby is a boy!) and kisses my tummy everytime I leave the house. We are really just enjoying every week and every minute of this pregnancy, because it is likely we'll be done after this. But, who knows ... we may be traveling in the car again and have another serious discussion that changes our minds. I guess it will all depend on how loudly the baby is screaming in the backseat that day!