The 1st Tri

On the 3rd of January-- our 8 year wedding anniversary we announced to "the world" that we are expecting baby number 4.

The caption says.... 

"Today marks 8 years of marriage! I ran across the gem of the top photo from our wedding reception last night and couldn't help but wonder what we were thinking when it was snapped. And then it's even funnier to pair that photo with this outtake from our pregnancy announcements we gave our families at Christmas! Haha!! I have no doubt those 2 kids never imagined 8 years ago that they would have 4 children in 8 years. They were probably on some sort of 5 year plan or something..... But God's plans are greater than ours and, in our case, have certainly been way more fun!!  Here's to 8 wonderful years, 3 awesome boys, and 1 kiddo on the way.... And here's to many more years of love, laughter, and wondering what we were thinking.

And now here we are wrapping up our first trimester and praising God for hearing the sweet sound of a precious little heartbeat Monday, and getting to see some images of our little one via ultra sound this past Tuesday.

So far, this pregnancy has been a little different from the last three!  With each of my last pregnancies, sickness and symptoms have gotten worse and worse AND WORSE.  Meaning the 3rd pregnancy was the hardest of all as far as symptoms go.  Of course when I mean sickness, I'm mostly referring to the dreaded "all day" sickness that I experience.  With each pregnancy, it has been so bad that I have had to head to the hospital for fluids and also have had to take prescription medication.  

This go round, as soon as I saw the positive test, I dreaded and feared what might be "worse" this time.   And to my surprise, it hasn't been that bad this time!  Don't get it twisted, sickness  and nausea have still been a struggle, but I'm actually gaining weight and I have yet to go for fluids so that's definitely a good sign!  (In full disclosure, I did break down and ask for meds at the end of last week, but this is still the longest I've ever made it in pregnancy without them and I'm still not even taking a full dose like I normally would.  Mostly I just felt the need because while I am having good days amongst the bad, we were still missing a lot of school work at home and I was having a really hard time "keeping up" on the bad days. Hopefully it will only be a few weeks that I have to take them.)  This pregnancy being very different also brings about a lot of anxiety and worrying that something might be wrong.  Prayers are greatly appreciated in that aspect!

Naturally, the first response when I say that this pregnancy has been different is, "OH! Maybe it's a girl this time!" ..... Maybe it is.  But I'm not totally sold, I'm not buying anything pink, and we're still coming up with a boy name idea too.  I mean, let's get real-- we've had 3 boys, and I'm fully expecting a 4th boy!

We'll definitely be finding out the gender though!  I tried SOO hard to not find out last time, and it just wasn't worth the stress for me, nor the ugly crying.  HAHA! (We should know the end of March and have some fun plans for the reveal!)

With all of that said, our little peanut is the size of a peach this week, our due date is August 7th and all is looking good.  Praise be to God!  I would love your continued prayers that sickness may ease soon, at least enough so that I can resume cooking for my family, that baby continues to grow healthy and strong, anxiety subsides and that my thyroid levels (a chronic problem) don't get too out of control.   

Love from our growing family, until next time!