I'm about 13 weeks along now, just entering the 2nd trimester. The baby is officially due Dec. 15, but both my boys were born 2 weeks early so we'll be ready for it to come by the end of Nov. That's three Dec. birthdays! (I think we're going to start celebrating half-birthdays instead.) I've been feeling pretty sick, but it seems to have subsided a little so I'm hopeful that stage will be over soon! The ultrasound picture is from 11 weeks. I was having a hard time really 'connecting' with this pregnancy. My last pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 11 weeks (the baby had died at 6 weeks) and I just couldn't get over the fear that this one would end the same way. So the ultrasound was purely for my reassurance that everything was okay. I can't tell you the relief I felt when I first saw the baby on the screen and it was moving! The heartbeat was strong and it's growth on target, even a little big (this is my family after all.) After that I felt confident enough to tell the boys. They were/are soooo excited! They immediately told everyone. My older ds keeps saying "I can't believe it's not a dream!" I think he's more excited about the baby than about Christmas. It's really cute. This next part may be TMI, if you're not into NFP or other fertility stuff. You've been warned!
This baby is actually sort of a surprise. I say sort of because we've been trying for another child for over a year now, though without much hope. I use NFP and my charts were showing that my pre-peak cervical fluid was not of the quality or quantity so important to fertilization. We finally went to see a fertility specialist who uses the same NFP system in her practice that we use to see what our options were. The first step was to do several blood draws at different times in my cycle to determine what my hormone levels were. After some thought (and prayer) we decided that it was too much to undertake right now and that maybe adoption would be the best option for us. So that's where we were when, to my amazement, we were pregnant! My cervical fluid hadn't changed at all, and according to our "timing" I really shouldn't have been pregnant. So this is our miracle baby, there's really no other explanation!
I'll let you know in 8 weeks if it's a boy or a girl
