Oh ya, I'm pregnant!

So...a friend requested some "belly" pictures. I swear the desire to takes these gets less and less with each child. However, I'm always glad that I have them after the fact, so I decided to take a few. But when I look at these all I can think of is the Hippo song from Madagascar 2- "I like 'em big & chunky." (Have you seen it? You Tube it if not- seriously hilarious).

News Flash: Pregnancy doesn't really get any easier the more kids you have. I laugh now to think I had the time or energy to do stuff like read What to Expect... books with my first pregnancy. I honestly can't even tell you how far along I am right now. Somewhere in the 7.5 months range, but who's counting? (Due Feb. 23- that I do know).

This pregnancy has been um.... eventful? Come to think of it, I have yet to have an uneventful pregnancy. With Jace, we had a scare in the ultrasound (that turned out fine in the end), I worked full time and was serving as Primary President in our ward at the time-(both counselors were dealing with life circumstances- new baby for one and a husband's brain tumor for the other. Plus the primary program was only a month after Jace was born.) Then with Rylee, we moved, were living with my parents, built a house and I was potty training Jace just to name a few. And now all of recent events have played into this pregnancy.

As mentioned before, this pregnancy wasn't exactly "planned" (by us at least). "What? I'm having a baby? I already have a baby!" was pretty much my response. I had planned on a year of a little R&R- but life had a different plan. Go figure!

So... instead, this little guy got me out of a lot of yard work, traveled to San Diego and Bear Lake with us- (I got into my swimming suit, but was not the most comfortable.) I had to sit out on most of the rides at Legoland and pretty much quit working out due to morning sickness (3 months worth) and exhaustion. Then we got the news about Rylee & I would be lieing if I said it has been easy.

The biggest challenge is that I'm not at my best. Pregnancy has caused me to be sick, exhausted, uncomfortable, & suffocated at times. The combination of traveling, going to a million Dr's appointments (Rylee's & mine), holding/comforting a child on my "limited seating" capacity lap, packing a nearly 30 pounder around (now in the snow too- trying not to fall, all while trying to pull those blasted maternity pants back up from sagging.), getting nauseous from the smell of the chemo, all while taking care of a 4 year old, a house and all the other stuff us mom's do has been difficult at times. I'm not complaining, I'm just keeping it real. If life were easy, it wouldn't be hard though, right?

Needless to say, I'm excited to have the pregnancy part over with. However, I must admit that I get a little bit of anxiety with the reality of adding something else to my plate. Sometimes I honestly wonder how I'm going to do it. My best guess is with a lot of help. We'll have a few issues to deal with- Jus will be in tax season, I'll be trying to recover from a C-section, Rylee will just start an intense treatment cycle, besides the fact that we'll now be outnumbered and have a few more Dr. appointments to go to.

But...if there is one thing I know, it's that the Lord works in mysterious ways and he'll never give us more than we can handle. So, I'm just trusting in that. I try not to get too bent out of shape over things that are out of my control. One of the most distinct impressions I had the day that Rylee was diagnosed was the thought, "If I didn't give you everything at once, you'd have too long to dwell on one thing." Well, I've always worked best under pressure. There is no doubt in my mind that our baby boy has a purpose and that this is the right time for him to come to our family. So..put the shoulder to the wheel and push along. We'll get through it one way or another, there is no other choice.

Now if we could only come up with a name for him. Any suggestions?