the pregnancy post.

during my pregnancy with mack, I made it a point to hide (or hide from) every picture taken.  as a result, I have a total of about five pictures from the entire pregnancy.  now (just like everyone told me), I am sad.  I wish I had a better record of that time.  so, I'm keeping track this time.

here are a few thoughts on this pregnancy so far:

1. it couldn't be more different than the last one--in so many ways.  while I was pregnant with mack, I was so nervous that it overrode a lot of my other emotions.  all I could think about was whether or not we'd made the right decision and whether I was ready to take this step, even though we put a lot of thought into the decision, and felt a confirmation that it was right.  to put it simply, I was incredibly excited to get pregnant, and the second I found out I was, I completely freaked out.  I tried to hide it, but it was the prevailing emotion my entire pregnancy.  in contrast, I was fighting the thought of  getting pregnant this time, but we want our kids to be close in age, and DJ had been talking about it for months, so after some prayer, I begrudgingly accepted that it was time.  however, when the test came back positive, I had an overwhelming feeling of peace, and most of all excitement.  neither of those feelings have gone away.  we're so excited for another baby to join our family.  I can't wait to hold this little one in my arms. 

2. the physical symptoms.  don't worry, I'm not going to delve too deeply.  :)  here's the short story.  mack: sick the entire pregnancy, but not down-on-my-back sick.  not a desirable condition, but it was doable.  baby #2: horrible sickness the first 16 weeks.  zophran was my favorite friend, and I was still out for the count by about 1:00 each day.  that time progressively got later and later, until the sickness disappeared completely.  thank heavens.  right now, I feel lucky.  with the exception of a late night here or there where I don't feel great, I feel like myself.  I never felt this well with mack.  my energy is returning, and (*gasp!*) I'm actually kind of enjoying pregnancy... as much as I can.  if you know me, you know that's saying a lot. 

3.  mack is so cute about everything.  so far, he hasn't shown any jealously when I hold/pay attention to other babies.  he just wants to hold their hand, and "say hi to baby."  I'm crossing my fingers that continues.  :)

4.  the bottom line: we feel incredibly blessed to have another baby on the way.  happiness and excitement are the prevailing feeling around our home right now. 

a few pictures of the pregnancy so far:

8 weeks: the first picture of the pregnancy.  this was the day DJ kept telling me my shirt was bunching up under my shirt.  I finally told him that was not my shirt--it was my baby bump.  yes, 8 weeks people.  I didn't even kind of start showing until at least 15 weeks last time.  depressing.

10 weeks.  can you believe it?  full on baby bump already (excuse the poor quality cell phone pictures). 

big jump.  this is 16 weeks.  not a huge change, right?  all I'm saying is I got really big, really fast, then I stayed about the same.  weird, eh?

18 weeks

20 weeks (current).

*photo set up by yours truly, taken by little sis, and retouched by me*

baby says hi!

oh yes, would you like to know the gender?

say hello to baby boy #2.  :)

we're counting down the days to may 22nd.