It's Official - 32 Weeks

As of today, I am officially the most pregnant I've ever been! After delivering Grayson at 31 1/3 weeks, 32 weeks is actually a pretty big milestone for us.Brad keeps saying that he feels like we're just living on borrowed time now.

Despite sporadic moments of paranoia where I convince myself I'm in labor and random anxiety attacks where I wake up insistent that we take a birthing class despite the fact that I've already given birth but feel like I learned nothing, I really am loving being pregnant, just as much as I did the first time around. Yes, I have my back pain, heart burn and restless nights, but its not enough to take away from the thankfulness I feel every day I am still pregnant.

I get asked the question alot why I delivered early with Grayson, and medically speaking, no one knows for sure. While spotting through my first 14 weeks with Grayson, and thinking for sure I was miscarrying at 11 weeks after waking up gushing blood (sorry if this is TMI, but welcome to pregnancy!), a sonogram showed a clot on my placenta. At that time, my doctor said that most women who have clots on their placenta (which is apparently more common than you think) go on to have completely normal pregnancies, which is what we all assumed was the case when I stopped spotting. He said a very small percentage end up having late miscarriages (we will forever be thankful that God spared us from that) and a small percentage deliver early. Of course, this conversation came quickly rushing back when my water spontaneously broke at 31 weeks, and 3 1/2 hours later our precious angel entered the world (although despite his early arrival, his NICU stay was the longest six weeks of our lives).

Because of Gray's early arrival, we have done certain things a little early this time around. For starters, the nursery for the most part is already complete. And, believe it or not, I've actually already packed a bag for the hospital (surprisingly by my husband's request). Because of how quickly Grayson came and because I have occasional visions of delivering on the side of the highway tying to make it to the hospital, I'm actually researching private ambulance companies that I could call if worse came to worse and I couldn't make it in time :) (Don't laugh, if you were in my shoes, you might be doing the same thing)

Despite the anxiety of it all, we are so excited to meet our little girl (even though we don't really want to meet her for at least another 5 weeks) and I have a feeling it's going to be totally different than having a little boy! As we've already discovered just through marriage, boys and girls are each wonderfully unique in their own ways and each have their own set of issues! :)

Pregnancy Pics

We had plans to take maternity photos when I was pregnant with Grayson, but that obviously got scrapped when he made his early arrival (along with the birthing, breast feeding and child care class :) so we took advantage of the opportunity to take them this time around!

A Nursery & Shower for our Little Girl

Her nursery...so far. The big space above the crib will be where letters for her name will go once we have one :)








A special thanks to Carrie for sewing the beautiful chair covers and helping me make the mobile! I can't wait to see her bed skirt!

Just a few from her baby shower...Melissa has the really good ones on her camera, but for now, just a few from my sister's camera.

Must Be Pregnant

5 Months (23 1/2 weeks) and I must officially be pregnant. I finally started getting the "stranger" comments this week...the when are you due, how far along are you, do you know what you're having yet from random strangers. This is incidentally almost exactly when it started happening with Grayson.

It all started with the receptionist at our vet's office. As I was trying to pay, Grayson was being his normal rambunctuous self, running up and down the hallway, when she looked at me with this "I feel really sorry for you" look and said, "And you have another one on the way???" (Thanks alot for the encouragement lady!)

Besides all of a sudden looking obviously pregnant to the outside world, the scale has started to pick up some of the pounds from this baby bump, also something that didn't happen until now with Grayson. For whatever reason, I gain very little weight in the first half of my pregnancies, but when it finally starts coming, it comes at a frighteningly rapid rate. Although it could be partially blamed on the pretty seriously addition to kit kats I have going on right now. (Luckily a friend of mine informed me recently that kit kats are apparantly one of the most low-fat/low-calorie candy bar because of the wafers, which I don't plan to Google just in case she's wrong.)

Overall, I'm feeling great and loving being pregnant with first trimester nausea gone and not quite to third trimester aches and pains. We still don't have a name and at the rate we're going, we may still be calling her Baby Girl Smith when she's 13! But, as my husband so annoyingly likes to remind me, we still have time.

The Progression...

11 Weeks

15 Weeks

19 Weeks

21 Weeks

23 Weeks

Majority Wins…

Baby Smith is a GIRL!!! 

Congrats to the 63% who voted girl (including Grayson and me).  And I think most everyone who admitted what they voted or told me what they thought picked girl.  And most people said they picked girl because Grayson did, which is pretty funny.  I guess our son really does have the gift of prophesy!

It’s funny, even though that’s what I voted and even though that’s how I felt my whole first trimester, I still expected to go in and hear boy.  For whatever reason, I’ve always had in my head that I would have all one gender or the other, either a house full of girls or a house full of boys.  I just never really considered the possibility of having both (what a crazy concept!).  And while I LOVE having a boy, I know there was always a tiny part of me hoping to have a girl at some point and scared that I might be the slightest bit disappointed if we found out we were having another boy (even though I hated to admit that I might feel that way and knew I would love to have another boy).  After all, we waited and prayed and begged for this pregnancy, so how could I possibly hope for anything but a healthy/on-time child.  So, when I heard the word “girl” today, I was shocked.  And I started crying before repeating at least ten times, “We’re having a girl?!”  Before the lab tech told us what she was, she asked me if I thought we were having a girl because I kept calling the baby a “she” (which I didn’t even realize I was doing).

When we told Grayson that he was having a little sister, he didn’t seem to shocked.  I guess he thought, “Duh, that’s what I’ve been telling you people!”  When we showed him the sonogram photos, he asked where the baby’s teeth were.

Needless to say we are rejoicing over this perfect, healthy little baby girl!  Let the planning begin!

Also, thank you to all of you who left comments, sent texts, called and prayed over the progesterone issue.  The FDA stepped in on Thursday of last week and ok’d pharmacies to make a cheaper version of the injections and I received my first of 16 today! (http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/articles/2011/03/31/health-highlights-march-31-2011)

P.S.  They are by far the most painful shots I’ve ever had in my life!

Cast Your Votes

Monday is the big day!  Will Baby Smith be another boy or a girl?  Go to the left column of our blog and cast your vote, and leave us a comment telling us what you voted and why.

So far, I only voted for Grayson, who is the only one in our family who seems pretty confident in his guess for a girl.  Brad and I both initially thought girl when we first found out I was pregnant, but Brad’s feelings quickly went away and he has no idea one way or the other now.  I was pretty confident throughout my first trimester that we were having a girl, but in just the last 4 weeks, I’ve wondered if maybe it’s another boy.  And now as it gets closer, I have no idea.

With Grayson, from the beginning, both Brad and I thought boy.  I had about one week at the end of my first trimester that I thought, maybe it’s a girl?  But by the time we walked into our appointment, before the sonogram even began, Brad and I both informed the doctor that we knew it was a boy.  Not that knowing stopped me from crying my eyes out once I knew for sure (I had always planned on a house full of girls….and yes, I might just be a horrible mother for that.)  But now, I don’t think you’ll find anyone out there who loves having a little boy more than I do.  And even though he exhausts me to no end, I’d be happy to have three more just like him!

I know it’s the PC answer to say, “We don’t care,” but since when have we ever cared about being PC?  And we certainly weren’t concerned the first time around when we unapologetically answered, “Brad wants a boy and Haley wants a girl.”  But, this time, I think it’s safe and honest to say that we truly don’t care.  We want a healthy baby and we pray that baby is born on time, and that he or she gets to come home from the hospital when we do!

Monday is also the day that I am/was scheduled to begin progesterone injections (which are proven to reduce a repeat pre-mature birth from 55% to 37%).  However, due to KV Pharmaceuticals gaining exclusive rights to these injections (now renamed Makena), the price per dosage has risen from $10 to $1500, making the price per pregnancy go from $300 to $30,000.  While there is a chance of receiving financial assistance and insurance covering part of this cost, it could still easily cost $5,000 throughout a pregnancy even after insurance.  This issue is so new (this month actually!) that even doctors aren’t sure how to direct their patients, and alternative treatment really isn’t available from what I’ve read. 

http://blogs.forbes.com/davidwhelan/2011/03/11/is-kv-pharmaceutical-a-flat-out-evil-company/?partner=yahootix

(The answer to the title of this article is yes BTW!)

After stressing and crying over the issue the last few days, and with reminders from my always calm husband, we have come to the conclusion (even though we knew it all along) that we trust in the LORD and not in science or in medicine.  So, if I am to have these shots, he will make a way.  And if not, he still has this baby in his hands!  Even as Brad and I were praying about this last night, for the first time Brad felt the baby move (I THINK I have been feeling him/her for the last 2 or 3 weeks) and it was just another reminder of the miracle growing inside me, and that God is still in control!

14 Weeks

Grayson is going to be a Big Brother! We are scheduled to welcome his little brother or sister into the world somewhere around Sept. 6, 2011!

He amazingly seems to understand exactly what is going on. As soon as we told him that there was a baby in my tummy, he responded, “the baby is still growing!” I guess we had had enough pregnant friends at that point that he had the concept down.

In the hundred of times we’ve asked him by now if he is having a little brother or a little sister, he always answers with a confident “a little sister!” (we promise no one brainwashed him.) We were wondering if maybe he had the gift of prophesy, but he’s also told me a couple times that there are “two babies in there” (which we know is not the case), so we’re not taking his prediction too seriously. He also keeps telling us that the baby is going to be a giant (because why else would it take so long to grow?)

Tonight Brad asked him what we should name the baby and he said, “Zacchaeus!” (who he learned about at church two weeks ago and has been asking us to sing the song every night at bedtime). We thought a little girl named Zacchaeus Smith would be pretty cute!

Pregnancy…

We found out Jan. 3 that we were expecting our second little miracle (which I found out later was ironically the same day my parents found out they were pregnant with me…which my Dad remembered crazily enough). It was an answer to prayer and a wonderful way to ring in the New Year and celebrate our 5th anniversary!

So, why wait until 14 weeks to finally blog about it? Well, for starters, because of a very scary pregnancy with Grayson and his early arrival, and then experiencing a very early on miscarriage trying to get pregnant this time around, we don’t take pregnancy lightly! Aside from our own experiences, we have precious friends and people we know who have experienced late miscarriages, still births, infertility and trials that are a constant reminder that life is fragile and we are not promised tomorrow!

After Grayson was born and we were assured by our doc that we had no reason to think that whatever happened to cause his pre-mature birth would happen again, we prayed that next time around, we would get to experience a no-scare, routine pregnancy, bringing a healthy baby home from the hospital with us. As crazy as it sounds to women who spend most of their pregnancy throwing up, I actually prayed for the nausea and all the text-book symptoms that go along with pregnancy (not matter how not fun they might be). I needed that confirmation, and I got it! (another reason for the scarce blogging these days) Even with our prayers, we didn’t know if bleeding during pregnancy was just my norm (because it is for 20-25% of women) but we’ve been thankful to find out this time around that it’s not. In fact, this pregnancy has been night and day different from my pregnancy with Grayson so far and we’ve been thankful.

And it has been an even stronger reminder of what a miracle he is!!! Because had it been up to my body, he would not be here! He is a constant reminder of God’s faithfulness and sovereignty!

And this baby is already a constant reminder of God’s perfect timing & plan for our lives!