20 Weeks Down, 20 To Go...

To most of the world, this is going to come as a total surprise. To close friends and family, this probably will not. A few of you know of the very strong desire and wish I have had for the past several years to have a fourth baby. But due to my age, I never knew if it would actually be a possibility after I gave birth to Ella at almost 38 years old. Although Ron was not 100% on board to have a fourth child, he agreed to be open to the idea back in 2015 after I promised him that he could buy equipment for a home gym in the basement whether I got pregnant or not. Fast forward three years and two heartbreaking miscarriages in 2015 and 2017, I found out I was pregnant again this past May. Due to my age and history of miscarriages, I decided once again to keep things quiet for several months while I waited on pins and needles to get well past that oh-so scary, first trimester. This past Tuesday, I hit my half way mark of 20 weeks which is a huge milestone and a massive relief for me. I am now feeling the baby kick all the time which is such a blessing as I now get reassured on a daily basis that the baby is literally "alive and kicking." I am finally starting to breathe a sigh of relief and to feel like this baby will really be joining our family this coming January.

Here is a picture of my 20-week bump that Lia took yesterday before my doctor's appointment.

Ron was able to join me for the one and only appointment he ever sits in on during my pregnancies yesterday for the big, 20-week ultrasound.  Pictured above is the adorable profile of our baby that the sonographer was able to get.  Having this mid-pregnancy ultrasound is one of my favorite parts of being pregnant.  To just lay down on a bed in a quiet, dark room for an hour and watch our baby up on the "big screen" is such a treat!  After our ultrasound, we met with my OB and went over the results.  Everything looks good (down to our baby measuring to the exact day of 20 weeks, 3 days that I am pregnant) except for two minor issues with the umbilical cord and heart that my doctor hopes will either not be an issue or resolve itself in the weeks to come.  So, I will just continue to hope and pray that this miracle pregnancy will continue to grow and develop at a healthy rate.

Although I was very cautious about telling our children that we were expecting another one, I realized that we would need to do this before our trip to Hawaii.  This is due to the fact that I never go through the x-ray machines at security in airports while being pregnant and I knew that our children would want to know the reason why.  So, on the evening of July 27th at 14 weeks pregnant, Ron and I shared the big news with the kids two days before leaving for Hawaii.  I decided that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to tell them in a fun way.  Since I had my blood drawn at 10 weeks pregnant for the DNA blood test, Ron and I have known for several weeks that we are having a boy.  As a result, I had a bouquet of three different shades of blue balloons blown up for each of the children.  Hidden inside each of the balloons was a slip of paper containing a word that would form a sentence once the kids put them all together in the correct order.  Here they are posing with their balloons in the living room after we first called them into the room.  They were totally confused and had no idea what was going on.

I then showed them this sign on the table and told them to each pick up a pin with a white ribbon tied to it.

I then told them to pop all three of their balloons one at a time.  Here is Ella getting ready to pop her first one.

As the balloons popped and the little slips of paper went flying out, the kids definitely got more excited and curious about the entire thing.  Here is Lia popping her second balloon.

Lia popping her third and final balloon.

The kids immediately set out unrolling the slips of paper and trying to put them together in the right order.  Ella was so funny as she just kept on holding up different pieces of paper with total enthusiasm although she had no idea what they said.

After a minute or two of frenzied unrolling and laying out on the table, Lia was able to put together the sentence below...

And then the freaking out began!

I was totally unsure how the kids would react to this news--especially Logan and Ella.  But Ron and I were totally blown away by all of the jumping and screaming and overall happiness!  It was so much fun and rather touching to witness.  Ron and I just sat there and laughed over and over again.

Here is a picture that captures them jumping up and down and screaming.

After the kids had calmed down, I showed them the latest batch of pictures I had gotten a few days earlier at my 14-week, doctor's appointment.

The kids wanted to touch my belly and were very curious to know how big the baby was at this time (around the size of a peach).  Logan immediately put his face up to my stomach and started talking to the baby.  He gave the baby the name, "Mr. Baby," and then said two of the funniest things.  First, he said, "I know what I'm going to keep on doing...talking to the bump!"  He then announced that the first word he was going to teach the baby after he is born is, "Arghhhhh," since Logan still loves all things pirate!  Oh, that boy.

And there you go.  That's our big news!