July 13th finally came around...it was difficult not to tell the girls! Ryan came to my appointment because I was also going to get an ultrasound. During the ultrasound, the tech kept saying, "Man! You are early, early, early!" And below in the picture you can see why she said so...just a tiny speck:
The most amazing thing though was that we got to hear the heart beat!! She determined that I was about 6 weeks and she said it was extremely rare to hear a heart beat that early...but we did. God is amazing!
So we told the girls that night. I think at first Alexis was a little upset...but that only lasted about 5 seconds. Then we were bombarded with questions....they're so sweet. Now they are both really excited about their new little brother/sister. Kaylee says she wants to make video diaries for the baby and Alexis asked if she could write a blog for the baby. So keep your eyes open for Alexis's new blog!
Tomorrow, I begin my 12th week. I have already had to go out and buy maternity clothes. I'm pretty sure that's happened a lot earlier than with the girls. I'm beginning to get over the morning sickness, which as typical for me has been just nausea mostly in the evenings except for the worst weeks. Ryan was such a big help. He cooked, he cleaned, he ran the girls to appointments, he went grocery shopping, he did absolutely everything! I'm very, very blessed! But since I've been feeling better I've been taking back over.
I also started exercising again. Of course Crossfit is a little too intense for the pregnant set, but I've been using a sister site called Crossfit Mom. They scale the exercises especially for pregnant and post-partum women. My hope is that continuing to exercise will help keep my energy up during pregnancy and help me bounce back faster after delivery. I will be 36 when this baby is born, but I think I'm in better shape now than when either of our other two kids were born. Also, due to my "Advanced Maternal Age" as my Dr. put it, this baby is at higher risk for chromosomal defects. So we opted to have a level 2 ultrasound done at a special clinic that will take a lot of measurements that might be markers for those defects. I'll probably have that done in about a month. We'll also get to find out the sex of the baby at that time...hopefully.
We kept almost nothing from the girls' stash of baby things. But I think that is fine because at this late stage a lot of the items are probably not considered safe any more. Both Ryan and I think it will be nice this time around to actually be able to afford to buy whatever we need for the baby. That being said, he says I can do all the buying without any input from him, ha! I guess I've proven over the last 13 years that I have agreeable tastes.
We thank God for blessing our lives with this miracle. It was hard fought for and very hard to wait for. But God's timing is perfect and in hindsight, that is very easy to see. Don't give up on hope...have faith that God wants the best for you in your life. One of my favorite verses over the last year plus has been Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
