Fantastically Foreign

I am still amazed that we are going to have an another baby, another little human to love on, to hug, to kiss, to watch grow into their own personality. I was not taking any birth control for personal reasons, however; I was monitoring my cycles, and our intimacy with an app on my phone. We were never opposed to have another child but I know from previous experiences that my irregular cycles had the odds stacked against us. My husband travels a lot for his work, so that makes it pretty difficult as well.

Both my husband and I come from a family of 2 kids and the only difference is that my husband has one older brother, and I have one older sister. I can even tell you how many times we asked my parents for little brother! Life just got too busy, we were growing, and somehow it never happened (not like you can choose anyway). I always knew that I want a big family, and my husband is such a cuddle bear and a magnet for kids which made our decision even easer. Having three girls can be challenging as different age bring different problems and boat loads of drama. Although they are very different in their own ways they somehow blend really well together. One of the most commonly asked questions we get is, “Are going to try for a boy?” We would often say that paying for three births, educations, and weddings is probably enough ;). All joking aside we have enough on our plate, but we have always had the “What if” question floating around and I never felt that our family was complete. It would be amazing to experience having a little boy, but we will take a girl anytime too. In the end, it really doesn’t matter as a parent you just want them to be healthy and happy.

As far as my pregnancy is concerned, I am very blessed by not having morning sickness, however; the tension headaches and extreme fatigue have been daily companions for all of my pregnancies (this one is no different). I found out I was pregnant early in my pregnancy when I experienced heartburn from eating sweat peppers which have never caused heartburn.  I automatically knew something was cooking so I asked my husband to buy me some pregnancy tests on his way home. He being the cost conscious financial hawk he is he came home with a generic brand because they cost a third of the price as the name brand. Anyway, I took a test (concerned about the accuracy of the generic test) that night and one test following morning to just be sure these two sticks took over 5 minutes to show what looked like an almost non existent line. We deemed the test to be inconclusive so he decided to buy the “digital” version where it very clearly states “pregnant” or “not pregnant”. I took the test and to our amazement it said “pregnant”, however; I was concerned about having another ectopic pregnancy. The only way to be sure everything is in order is by getting an ultrasound. According to my iPhone app which tracks times of intimacy as well as periods I should have been 3 weeks. We had the ultrasound and to my disbelief without the help of a fertility doctor my “slow poke” egg travel fast enough to settle in the right place. What a relief for now… it was another 6 weeks of waiting to see if everything was developing as it should. Sadly losing a child later in pregnancy was not unfamiliar to me and six weeks feel like an eternity. It’s a humbling feeling to know that everything from this point on is completely out of my hands and all I could do is just keep hoping and praying. The day of our ultrasound came and for the first time we saw our little bundle of joy jumping and full of life. I can’t describe how much weight was lifted from my shoulders. My husband saw how emotional I was as my eyes were filled with joy and tears he took a picture of me so that he could show our child how much he or she meant to us.

Now we are at the end of 12 weeks and I look forward to regaining my energy in the second trimester so that I can keep up with our three little rascals. I guess miracles do happen and we are very thankful and excited to meet our little baby in March, 2016!

My husband took couple of pictures of the girls as well as me, and our older daughter took a pictures of my husband and I to go along with our baby #4 announcement!