Hey! I'm pregnant!

10 weeks pregnant in Connecticut, when the news was still our little secret.

Well by golly tomorrow I am 20 weeks preggers and I haven't even posted once about my pregnancy except to tell you that I am, in fact, pregnant.  What kind of a blogger am I?!?

I feel like it took us forever to announce our pregnancy on social media.  I don't quite know why we waited so long, but for some time it felt like a happy secret that I just wasn't ready to share.  Week after week went by and we still hadn't said anything to friends and family, not to mention our online friends and family.  I just wasn't ready to give the news to others yet.  I think I feel like our little family has been through so much the past couple of years and I feel a stronger desire to guard and protect them than before.  So we let the news be our own little secret until finally I know people were starting to wonder at the ever expanding belly and it was time to share.

Another reason why it took awhile to share the news is that I felt so dang lousy the first trimester, it was all I could do to get food in my stomach, let alone think up a cute pregnancy announcement.  I know first trimester sickness is par for the course with pregnancies, but it doesn't make it any easier when it rolls around.  (This is also the reason why I went weeks without blogging in June.  Couldn't get feeling well enough to stare at a screen to type a dang thing.)  With June I was sick the first trimester, but it felt like I could keep it at bay.  This pregnancy I just felt sick from the moment I woke up until about 4:00 in the afternoon.  I never threw up once with June, but this baby had me on a few bathroom trips.  With a little bit of afternoon energy I'd try to take June to the swimming pool-- swimming was about the only thing I did that made my stomach feel not so dang sick all the time.  At about 11:00 at night the sickness would return full force and remind me to get the heck to bed so we could start this really fun process again in the morning.

I feel lucky that my pregnancy lined up exactly with school getting out. I found out I was pregnant the last week of school which left me all of June and July to lay in bed and feel sick.  In August I started to feel better- just in time to get back to my teaching grind!  We weren't exactly planning to get pregnant when we did, but this baby was anxious to join the family, I suppose and jumped at the first opportunity.  (LITERALLY)  Now I feel so grateful for the timing of the new babe and am learning to trust that there is some higher power somewhere who knows what our family needs more than we do.  The moment I saw the second little line come in on the pregnancy stick I cried at how overwhelmed I was.  Greg wasn't home and June was destroying the kitchen and I just didn't think it could be possible that our family was ready for another little baby.  I cried frustrated, stressed tears that turned almost immediately into grateful, happy tears.  There isn't anything in the world that has blessed my life like being June's mom, so getting to do it all again is a gift I didn't know I was ready to receive.

Let's see, what else do you want to know about the baby?  It's the size of a mango!  I feel him or her moving around inside all the time.  Doctor says baby looks healthy and growing like he or she should be.   I am much more tired this pregnancy than the last and I daydream of naps and early bedtimes. I crave salads and vegetables and fruits and gouda cheese and raspberry lemonade crystal light.  I feel like I am the healthiest when I'm pregnant because fried food and junk food makes me sick to my stomach.  Long live tomatoes and cucumbers!  Now that the constant nausea is gone I've been able to go on more walks and exercise more and overall I'm feeling gooooood.

I don't know what else to tell you.  My belly button has popped out already.  It's so hot.  My boobs grew like melons.  None of my pants fit and I haven't been able to find maternity pants I like.  (What's with the full panel pants?  Is there a point where those start to feel comfortable?)  I'm wearing dresses all day eeeryday because that's about the only thing that makes me feel like a normal human being.

June has been passionately pushing a toy baby stroller around and around the neighborhood the past few weeks.  She's ready.