3.12.2010

backstory

ok let's do this thing:
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1. stats. i am 5 weeks pregnant. due date 11/13/2010. i am going to try to convince the doctors to move it to 11/15 so that my new weeks will start on mondays instead of saturdays because that's what it was for judah and it makes things nice and neat and this kid will probably come early anyway since my very first one was a week early so due dates don't really matter anyway.
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2. telling. i realize that we are telling people "very early," but that's how we roll. we were about 5 minutes pregnant when we told the world about judah. i know that lots of folks wait until after the first trimester to spread the good news because the risk of miscarriage drastically decreases after 13 weeks. i totally understand this thinking, but for us, we are have decided that even if, god forbid, a tragedy like that happened to us early on, we would want to heal in community. personal pref. but hey, enough of that.
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back in january when we decided to stop stopping it, and went ahead and stocked up on tests. judah snatched the box out of my hand and gave me a look like, "excuse me, WHAT is the meaning of this? am i not good enough for you?"

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3. clues. i gave y'all crazy hints. if you go look in the archives (hallowed annals) you will see that the first word of the posts this week spelled out "yup, we're having another baby." the second hint was that i was barfing at serenbe. y'all should know that 2 pounds of pimiento cheese wouldn't normally be a challenge for me.
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4. proximity. our kids will be less than 18 months apart. holy crap. we weren't really trying, but we had definitely decided that we felt pretty ready and knew that we wanted at least some of our kids to be really close in age. so we "pulled the goalie" around new year's, and just like judah, the second month was the winner.
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this pregnancy we are going to take a belly picture every week with the item that the babycenter.com newsletter compares the size of the baby's growth at that point to. at 4 weeks, its a poppyseed. i am not thrilled at having my stomach on film in this manner right now, but in the interest of journalistic thoroughness and collecting all the fruits, veggies and seeds, i am putting it out there. (technically i should also have some leftover watermelon from week 39 of judah because it is contributing more substance to this belly pic than the poppyseed is, but whatever.)


5. gender. yup, i still want another boy. at least 70%/30%. i won't be as crushed as i would have been if judah had been a girl (that was 99%/1%), but the proximity of these two really makes me want a boy so they'll be best buds like jesse and jake who are 26 months apart (and it still took them a good 16 years to get over the big/little brother syndrome). plus, geez i don't want to have to buy a ton of new clothes. and of course because i just have never really wanted to be a mom of girls. i would be pleased as punch to have 4 boys. i'll clean pee off the toilet seat for 25 years to avoid the drama that i caused my parents (although that may be a keight issue more than a vag issue). i think there definitely won't be tears if this ultrasound shows girl...just a lot of intimidation.

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6. symptoms. since finding out i was pregnant i have lost 2 more pounds. hmmm. i am not sick anymore; though that first night of nausea at serenbe was violent enough for a few weeks worth. i don't feel pregnant at yet. with judah i was nauseous and stupidly tired from weeks 5-10. since i am officially 5 weeks tomorrow maybe it will start soon and it was just the inordinate amount of dairy sparked it last week. even before the nausea though i knew i was pregnant. i have a really weird, super early sign that has happened both times now. it's kind of gross: my pee smells like maple syrup. there you have it.
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flashback. this was when we first found out we were 4 weeks pregnant with judah. (he first put the pee end up to his mouth but fixed it before the pic)... and then the apple failed to fall far from the tree...

7. how we found out. well. i have been taking pregnancy tests all week because if there is one in the house i will pee on it. i test so early sometimes that jesse says, "why don't you just go ahead and pee on a 5 dollar bill?" i was expecting my period until sunday or monday, but of course i started testing as soon as i smelled aunt jemima on wednesday. 0 for 3 on the tests once we headed out to serenbe on friday. after the horrid retch-fest we decided to test again on our way to take judah to my parents house.
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i went in CVS and bought one and then asked the guy to let me in the bathroom. tres juno. i always feel the need to tell the workers when i am buying these that it's a good thing and not an "oh hell no, please no" situation. he said "good luck, mama" and let me in the bathroom. the line was so so so faint at first that i got to discover my true feelings because i was so very disappointed. then after a few seconds i saw that there was something there. i gave the guy a thumbs up on the way out (so he was the first to know! maybe we'll name this baby javarius in his honor) and went to tell jesse. i ahd planned to do something super creative like making judah a shirt that said "1 of 2" and making him crawl to jesse and waiting for him to notice. i had even planned to fake my period to throw him off for a few weeks. this all went out the window since i am horrible at lying and secrets. i got to the car and just nodded. jesse couldn't believe it. it was pretty cool.
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aaaand just like daddy, here was judah's reaction when i told him and showed him the first mark his little brother or sister had made on the world (aside from the seren-vom). thank god for the inventor of the pee cap. still pretty gross.

8. reactions. we told my parents a few minutes later when handing off the bug. i said, "y'all take extra good care of him because he's going to be a big brother." my dad said, "lord have mercy" and my mom said in a trembly little voice, "you're pregnant again?" they are so funny. after the shock they were really excited for us.

we told the dukes that evening when we got back to fayetteville. we were in the ER (for a little family health scare that turned out a-okay) and we told bob first because linda was out of the room and he immediately ran out of both automatic glass doors, sprinted into the parking lot and started howling out his celebration (bonus points for knowing not to start screaming in the ER). i told elena next that she was gonna be an aunt again, but i forgot to tell her to keep it a secret. so she told linda when we weren't around, but luckily linda thought she was talking about already being an aunt. so we told linda in the car and she emitted a high-pitched piercing squeal of delight at becoming a grandmother (lulu is the newly OFFICIAL name our kids will call her) of 4!
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for the godparents i called lena in hawaii to tell her...mostly because we have to cancel our trip to new york with them in april since i'll probably be sick and tired by that point and not up for travelling and gallivanting, so i had to tell her and elliot STAT, but the news of another godchild was totally worth it for them (more on that later). and then i randomly dropped the bomb in the middle of an email to danielle and she and lukas immediately called us from chile. sigh, i love these 4.
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so there you have it. i think i covered all the questions. there will probably be a little more to come in the next 35 weeks. hooray for 2 swimsuit seasons in a row where people cant judge me because i was 6 weeks postpartum and then 5 months pregnant!

10 comments:

  1. Btw, you look freaking skinny in that picture! And I should've seen the clues.

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  2. Yea for baby bunching!!! If you really wanted boys, you should have married into the Franck family... no girls in 2 generations. Peeing on sticks is the most expensive hobby I've ever had... we used to buy in bulk online. The double line ones SUCK because they line can be faint and indistinguishable from an evap line when you pull it out of the outdoor garbage to double-check hours later. The best are the CBE digital ones that can pick it up from a beta of 18.5 (super duper early) and it says "pregnant" or "not pregnant". Soo excited!!

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  3. Thank you for being thorough. Very exciting. I'd like our kids to meet someday. Mine will be here in July.

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  4. You do need to get the docs to change the due date because the 15th is when Tripp was born (and the not quite as famous Katy Baker).

    I really wondered about the vomiting thing, but no one in their right mind gets pregnant again before the first baby even crawls (totally kidding here).

    Coming from someone who ONLY wanted boys (only 1 penis to worry about instead of 3 billion), having a girl is amazing! I was actualy bummed at first when I found out Tripp was a boy.

    You look great! And you're right, it is so nice wearing a maternity bathing suit.

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  5. Congrats! I'm glad you guys were trying and it wasn't a shocking "oops" moment. I was concerned for a second! I have always said I wanted more than one kid, but this first one knocked the wind out of me. I got an extremely stern warning from my midwife NOT to come to my 6 week check-up preggers (NOT that I'm in the mood right now anyway). But it's nice to know there's a chance I might actually want to do all this again someday! (Do you like how I accidentally turned this entire comment into one about me?)

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  6. Glad to get the details--we definitely need more time to talk! Exciting stuff! We dearly love girls and boys (and I figure God knows better than I do anyway, so it's really great that He gets to pick!)

    Welcome baby #2 whether you come in pink or blue!! Love and kisses from your LuLu

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  7. CONGRATS!!!!! I swear when I read you were pukey at serenbe that my first thought was..."awwwww i bet they are pregs again!"

    Couldn't be happier for the 2 of you because you create ridiculously beautiful children.

    Love you!
    -Erica

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  8. WHAT??? i don't know how i missed these last posts and am just now seeing them...CONGRATS!!! i can't believe it. you're gonna be a busy little mama!! i've got some major poundage to work on before i want to start trying again. i have lost about 19 lbs., though....anywhoo..YAY FOR YOU!!!!

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  9. Yay! This is so very exciting! Second comment post-delurk and its on such a very important post. I am super intimidated and impressed by your venture into a family of 2 on 2 (as in two kiddies and two adults). You are clearly wonderful parents, so lucky baby #2 has a good thing going on. Congrats!

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  10. "Lesser known Katy Baker???!!!"

    I'm officially in a fight with Mariah, and I decided to declare it here on your blog.

    Mariah, you better watch out. Haven't' you seen the lightening bolt with my name? Clearly you don't know who you're messing with.

    ps - Mariah only had Tripp on MY birthday because she is obsessed with me. Ask her what she named her daughter for further evidence.

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