Last week I wrote about our plans for 2011 and some of the things we’re looking forward to this year – Blue’s new tricks, continuing to work on our house and starting out doing some farming. HandyMan and I are looking forward to all of those things, but while writing that post, I intentionally left out one, rather large, thing that will be happening this year.

HandyMan and I are going to have another baby!

Blue's going to be a big brother!

In mid-December we were pleasantly surprised to learn that we are pregnant.  We struggled to get pregnant with Blue (even using some mild fertility drugs) and were worried that it would be a struggle again. After the emotional ups and downs of trying to get pregnant the first time around we were shocked that this pregnancy happened so easily. In fact it happened so easily and I have been feeling so little pregnancy symptoms, that I doubted the accuracy of the home pregnancy test. I was hesitant to tell anyone about the pregnancy for fear that we’d had a false positive, but I went to my first prenatal appointment right after Christmas, had the pregnancy confirmed by my OB and I was even able to hear the baby’s heartbeat! While I was lying on the table in the doctor’s office, the Doppler on my stomach, the doctor looked down at me and in a hushed voice he said, “Do you hear it?” Sure enough I heard the soft thump of the heart beating. It was amazing and a little fear inducing. My words to the doctor were, “Wow! This is really happening. I’m really pregnant!”

So, Lord willing, HandyMan and I will be adding another member to our family on or around August 1, 2011.

I’m excited, scared, nervous, worried and several other emotions when I think about adding another child to our family. I’m excited to have another baby and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m kind of hoping this baby will be a girl (although HandyMan and I really struggle to find girl names we like). I’m also nervous about having 2 children under 2 and worried about how Blue will adjust to having a brother or sister. Blue will be around 22 months old when the baby comes, too young to really understand what’s happening or why HandyMan and I can’t focus all of our attention on him anymore. However, Blue has always been an easygoing child with a very pleasant temperament so hopefully (and prayerfully) the adjustment will go smoothly.

The thing I’m worried about the most is just caring for another newborn while taking care of a toddler at the same time. I struggled emotionally after Blue was born and I’m worried about experiencing the same things this time around, but my wonderful mother-in-law has promised to take time off work to help out after the baby comes. I’m confident that, with her help, the adjustment will go more smoothly and I have promised myself to talk to my doctor about the “emotional issues” I had with Blue so we can take the appropriate actions if I begin to feel that way again!

It turns out that 2011 is going to be a much more eventful year than HandyMan and I had originally thought it would be!

~ guest blog post by MRS

Hungry for more? Related Posts:
Blue, Snow & Christmas Trees
The Giving Season
Celebrating a Milestone