In Which Our Family Grows By 30%

SURPRISE! We're pregnant! On purpose!

She's happy about it, I promise. It's the waiting that gets us!

Okay, this is one of those times when pretending that blog posts for past events were written right after they happened doesn't work. The fiction kind of falls apart when you write an announcement post for something that everyone already knows. So yes, we're having a baby. A second one. Our family investment is paying dividends. We liked our first oven bun, so we're having seconds. Emily caught another boudoir parasite. Our cuter Halloween ideas required another munchkin. We missed the sale on puppies. We wanted our parents to have complete sets.

This last bit is almost true---both sets of grandparents have had bounteous years. Counting ours, all five of Gammie Collier's kids had babies this year, and two of Grandma Fairbank's did (but don't feel bad for Catherine...she had a long head start).

As of this writing, we don't know which flavor of baby it's going to be. We'll probably put up a whole separate post when we find out. But if our copious experience is any indication, our baby will be cute as heck and completely precious. AJ left some pretty big shoes to fill (seriously, the kid's got feet like a Sasquatch), but we're sure whoever comes out of there will be as much our favorite as AJ is. [Tangent---isn't that how it works? You aren't allowed to have favorite children, so they're all your favorite? I know the word implies there's only one, but in fifth grade, I think I had something like four best friends...]

Anyway, Emily's pregnancies are pretty rough on her. She gets headaches, morning sickness, and a touch of scatter-brain, though I have a theory that "pregnancy brain" is a myth made up by women so they can get away with more. Like "cravings." Whatever. I have a "craving" right now for a pile of chili cheese fries, but I'm not gonna send my wife out into a hurricane to get them (ha ha). In all fairness, Emily has her head screwed on pretty straight whether she's pregnant or not. And while little #2 is making Mommy sick more than his/her big brother did (and apparently immune to the magic morning sickness medicine), the little tyke is letting her have her own emotions. That's such a relief for me. No pregnancy-amplified emotional breakdowns.

So now for some details. Emily's due in late May, with a tentative date for a C-section on the 21st. Mark your calendars, but do it in pencil. We're also going to be traveling across the country for the summer around then, so who knows when or where that baby's coming out? [Aside: reading that last clause, it sounds like a morbid game of hot potato...]

Here's what Emily looked like at 3 months:

She's totally pushing her gut out. There's hardly anything there.

And here's what she looks like now:

Yeah, some people just can't handle the pressure of pregnancy...

And just for kicks, here's what she looked like before she got pregnant:

(That's pretty much right before she got pregnant, *ahem*)

And here's what she looked like last time she got pregnant:

How far along was this, Emily? Four months?

See what she's got to look forward to? Actually, this pregnancy should be a lot easier, and it has been in certain ways. Sure, we have AJ to look after, but we have a bunch of friends here, we've already had a baby (so not everything is so scary), we already have some maternity stuff, and we know she's going to need a C-section, so we can schedule the birth.

This will be great. We'll leave for Idaho in May and return in August as a family of four!