I have SO much to tell you. It has been a big week! I think our biggest news is that we are home from the hospital and we are all sewn up. You are sealed in there tight and we are going to make it until 39 weeks buddy. We did our surgery today & heard you twice on the doppler. You were doing great each time. Dr. Bonebrake did say my cervix was starting to show signs of problems so we had good timing again.
Now that we have that big news out of the way, let's backtrack a bit to our "announcement weekend." On Christmas day, your brother Elijah wore his "Big Brother" shirt. Great Gramma said "Oh, Elijah wants to be a big brother?" I said "No, Elijah IS GOING TO BE a Big Brother." She was so excited, Auntie Val screamed she was so excited (and scared the Big Brother into crying), Auntie Kim teared up and Grampa Keith was so excited he texted his friends saying he was going to be a Grampa again! Your Cvilikai cousins were happy & we asked Brandon to be your Godfather. I am not sure when we will see him in person again so we had to jump all over it. :) He was excited and is looking forward to learning what the heck that means to him. I am still trying to negotiate your college tuition to be paid by him but I don't think it will work out. I told Daddy that he needs to pick out your Godmother or I will be accused of favortism towards my side of the family. He is still thinking about that one.
After Great Gramma's house, we went to Gramma Debi D's house for a minute and they got to see Elijah's shirt too! Everyone is so excited for you to be on your way.
The final reveal was on Sunday at Elijah's party. I wore a shirt that said "Baby on Board June 2011." So, all of the rest of our family could see the big news! People were so happy for us and everyone is praying for a girl. To be honest buddy, your dad and I don't care if you are a girl or a boy. Just healthy & full term. We will love you to pieces either way. Personally, I would like to find out your gender and not tell anyone just to torture them. But, your daddy is vetoing that idea :) Here is mommy in her shirt. Gramma Debbie sent us this picture.
We are having some problems getting our blood sugars regulated. We are on new meds to keep them down and they seem to be getting too low. Dr. Bonebrake likes the lower the better and I think you like the lower the better. But, we had 4 episodes this week where I was pretty sick - shaky, incoherent, and just plain out of it. I don't like them that low. I remember when Elijah was cooking in there, if they got too low, he would get upset at me and remind me to check them or eat. When you get a bit bigger, you can do that too because these episodes were completely unexpected.
Another piece of excellent news (see, I told you there was a lot!) is that I emailed Kelley Ryden tonight and she has a class on June 29th. It is PERFECT for your arrival and I am asking her to pencil you in. WOOHOO - Kelley Ryden photos just like Elijah and during a baby posing class. This is so exciting. I had to run out to your daddy as soon as I got the news and say "BABY 2 HAS RESERVATIONS FOR KELLEY RYDEN. DID YOU HEAR ME? KELLEY RYDEN AGAIN." :) As you may have heard (I will have to double check because I don't know if you can hear yet), I was completely excited and daddy was grinning ear to ear too. Few things of note BABY 2 - this really puts pressure on us to keep you in cooking until a minimum of June 19th. So, as we get to that 37th week (June 9th) and I am whining, I have to tell myself that you need to make it until June 19th for KELLEY RYDEN PHOTOS. (Among the other reasons that I want you in there longer - this just adds to it) She only takes newborns 10 days and younger so we are on a tight deadline. You will have to cooperate with us as well because you can't come earlier than scheduled. She does have a class on June 14th but that is too early - we want you in there longer. As we get closer, your daddy and I will teach you how to pose, make sure you make weight and all sorts of other silly things that we did to your poor tortured brother before his Kelley Ryden photos.
Finally, I have something deep to share with you today because it was so exciting to me. Ever since we knew you were on your way, I have been saying that we are tying my tubes when they cut you out. I can't remember if I told you that Bonehead hasn't approved but I am fighting him on that :) Your daddy has agreed but he hasn't been 100% behind the idea. He was of the mindset "What if we change our mind?" Well, I knew for 110% I would not change my mind. For one thing, I would like to avoid medicines for the rest of my life to make sure Baby 3 didn't appear. I also knew that 2 is my limit. I want to give you & Elijah so much in the world but if I keep having babies, there are only so many resources to go around. I am also getting older - remember that Advanced Maternal Age stuff? Finally, that last 9 years or so have been consumed about babies. We were talking about having babies, deciding what to do to have babies, making babies, losing babies, talking more about what to do, etc. I never felt any peace or relief about the topic until 11/08 when we decided to officially close the chapter on babies. Well, God laughed at us and blessed us with Elijah and we were back on the baby merry go round - do we have another? When? How long should we wait? Should we try naturally? It started all over again. Our lives never move forward because we are always thinking about the next step in the baby process.
I do have a relevant point to all of this, pipsqueak. It is just taking me a long time to get there. So, today, I mention all of that to your daddy. "Do you realize that when this baby comes, we will have been dealing with baby issues for 9 years? I am so glad that is going to be all behind us and we are going to move forward." He kind of ignores me and we go to lunch. About an hour later, he says to me "You know, I finally get it - I finally understand why you want your tubes tied. When you said that in the car about the last 9 years, I finally got it. I am also ready to put this behind us and move forward." Seriously, pipsqueak, this was the best news ever! While your daddy would never stop me from tying my tubes, it was just the knowledge that we were on the same page 100%. It was so exciting that he was on the same wavelength as me. He went on to talk about waiting for you 2 to be older so he can teach you to scuba dive (another topic for another day - my heart already started palpitating at the words), to go to the amusement parks with him and to (hopefully) have financial stability that we can do that with you both. YAY for all 4 of us!!
Well, I think that is all of my news for you for this week. This upcoming week is a BIG week. We are going to relax and recover on Friday & Saturday - unfortunately, you might also be a bit stoned for a couple of days as we manage the pain. We have book club on Tuesday and, finally, we are going on Thursday for our checkup. Bonehead will check to make sure his surgery looks perfect and we will hopefully get to see YOU! When Elijah was 15 weeks, we knew for sure that he was a boy so we are really, really hoping you will cooperate and show us your parts. It would be so awesome to know for sure if you are a boy or a girl - even though we still don't have a girl's name picked out.
Take care in there this week, pipsqueak! Feel free to flutter it up and move for me and we will talk to you next week. Maybe, just maybe, we will get a good photo to share with you too!