Number Three

Come February, Henry will have another notch on his Big Brother Belt and Maren will hold two titles simultaneously-- "Little Sister" and "Big Sister." Yeeup. Randy and I decided it was time.

I'm 11, almost 12 weeks. We heard the heart beat on August 1 for the first time. It was pretty exciting. Pregnancy always blows my mind. What a miracle! We're all excited to meet this little guy.

It's kind of fun talking to Maren about it. She doesn't quite get it. The other day I was looking at my big, bloated gut in the mirror. Maren noticed and walked over to examine it for herself. After she poked my tummy, I put my shirt down and told her there was a baby in there. She looked at me and pulled my shirt up, peeking under it. "No," I told her. "There's a baby inside my stomach." She put the shirt down and stared at me hard with her mouth open for a few seconds. Then she pulled on my elastic waste pants to look down inside. I said, "No. There's a baby inside my tummy." She looked at me a little longer this time, mouth still open, and then let out a little, "Ahh!". It was her "I'm freaked out" yell-- like when she sees someone fall and get hurt on TV or when a big dog passes by us.

Here's one from Henry: He was at the sink brushing his teeth when I again pulled my shirt up to look at my big fat gut. Henry looked at it and said, "Ew. Why do you have hair on your stomach?" (I swear it's just little and you can barely see it unless you're inches away and I usually shave it, but haven't bothered for the last little while.) I told him to shut up and that some girls have a little bit of hair on their tummies and to not say anything about it because it was kind of embarrassing. Henry said, "Oh, because guys have hairy stomachs?" I kind of rolled my eyes and said, "Yes, Henry." He went back to brushing his teeth again and a second later started to smile so big that it was physically impossible to brush anymore. I asked him what was so funny and he said, "When the baby comes out instead him saying, 'Mama!' he's gonna say, 'Dada!'" (Get it... because my stomach is hairy like a man's?) That kid's a real laugh riot.

I've got a "regular" ultrasound scheduled for the end of September. I go back in to see the doctor in a few weeks and at that time we'll schedule the fetal echo to make sure there's no funny business going on with his heart. I'll post when I have any updates. Yay for third and final kids!