kevin and jenna [dot] com

Picture-less Post. (but still exciting!)

June 17th, 2011

You’ll have to bear with me… My gmail is acting up and not wanting to support my browser right now.  (Just wanted to point out that that phrase never would have been used 30 years ago…   “’supporting’ & ‘browser’ in the same sentence?  Ludicrous!  And what’s gah-mail, anyway?  I don’t want none of that in my mailbox.”)  So since my mail domain doesn’t want to work, I can’t post a picture of our latest and greatest news of the moment.

…which is, Carlee will be a Big Sister.  Yep.  We’re expecting Baby #4!  I’ve been calling it “Cuatro”, to keep with the C/K theme, until we figure out if it’s a boy or girl [on August 4th].

Warning: some of this might be TMI.  Proceed with caution.

Colby has been asking for a baby brother for a long time now, and we felt like we were done having kids of our own (especially after the drama/trauma we had to endure with Carlee’s after-birth).  And, when I had to endure the Mellow Yellow Liver Quiver , my gastroenterologist said something to the effect of “It’s a good thing you had 3 healthy pregnancies already…”, which I took to mean, “It might be impossible for you to get pregnant again.”

So, Kevin and I were looking into some other options, pretty casually.  I’ll leave it at that.  We went on our trip to Washington at the beginning of May, and I took all my Monthly Supplies with me; according to my calendar, I was supposed to start then and I didn’t want to have to buy things there (which was actually moot, since the airline lost our luggage and I had to buy toiletries anyway).  But as we went through the trip, I kept feeling nauseated and really really tired, but I just thought it was because we were up in the mountains (motion sickness?) and because I was on vacation and wanted to sleep.  Plus, my grandmother passed away while we were gone, and I was trying not to think about that.

The kicker though, was that I didn’t want to eat sweet stuff.  That’s pretty much a tell-tale sign for me that I’m pregnant.  I usually have a HUGE sweet tooth and was looking so forward to ordering dessert at these fine restaurants in Oregon and Washington.. but I just couldn’t.  And, Kevin got peanut butter and jelly for us to make sandwiches..  between that and the Gatorade we drank on our hikes, I could barely get through our lunches on the road.  I also kept needing to stop and pee, like every half hour.

While on our 4-hour excursion through the mountains from Carson, Washington, to Seattle, we stopped at a gas station for a potty break and I lost my lunch.. tossed my cookies…  hugged the toilet.  So to speak.  Again, I just thought I had motion sickness.  But I told Kevin, “I haven’t started yet.  Maybe I am pregnant.”  And, Kevin said to me, “Well then we’ll just have to name him ‘Carson’.”  (being the town we just left)  So, we got through the rest of the trip okay [we still need to post pics, ahem, gmail!], and had a very very very VERY bumpy (and nauseating) plane ride from Houston to College Station, which thankfully was only 20 minutes long, but was tortuous for a very newly (and not knowing!) pregnant woman.

The next day after we got back from Washington, I was still feeling sick but still not really knowing why.. Alicia had had a stomach bug, she told me, and I thought maybe I was catching it.  Then Kelsey (our adopted Aggie, now engaged to Tim – whoop!) came over and told us good-bye for the summer – she is again at Sky Ranch Camps, this year as a coordinator, in charge of and leading/directing the counselors and staff.  She mentioned that Tim’s best friend’s wife is expecting and due at the beginning of December, which she thought was so cool, because Tim & Kelsey’s wedding is at the end of December, and there would be a newborn at their wedding!  I immediately thought to myself, “Do I have a pregnancy test handy?”  because that story immediately made me think that I’d need to know if I was pregnant – because my kids are flower girls and ring bearer at their wedding… the due date of this baby is completely crucial, you see.

So, right before Kevin got home that day, and right before my grandmother’s viewing that night, I took a pregnancy test.  I have a picture of that too, dang gmail.  My friend Amanda came over to cook us all dinner, and I pulled Kevin aside and showed him the picture on my phone, which he couldn’t believe any more than I could.  But we were also very very thrilled.

The downside to finding out that information on the day of Grandmother’s viewing is that I felt like I needed to tell everyone right away, even though I have had several friends (meaning 5 now…) who have had miscarriages early in their pregnancies, even after hearing the heartbeats.  The upside is that ALL of my family got to be in the room together to hear the same info.  And, Kevin’s dad came to town for the funeral the next day, so we got to tell him too, followed by Kevin’s mom later that afternoon, and Kevin’s sister & fam that week.  I did tell them all to wait until I at least went to the doctor the first time (at the end of May) so that we could make sure everything looked okay – plus, I wanted their prayers and love and support more than anything in the world.

Another cool fact – according to my calculations, my original due date is January 10, 2012, which would have been my Papaw’s 100th birthday.  (He was my mom’s dad, who died almost 20 years ago to the date we found out we were pregnant.)  So far I’ve been to the doctor twice and had 2 ultrasounds, both of which have given me earlier and earlier due dates.  After Carlee’s birth, we decided we’d go with a hospital birth but I made it clear that I don’t want any unnecessary medical interventions (drugs, IVs, etc.).  I really like my doctor so far (a new one to me) and have heard good things about him in the delivery room.  I think the trick will be convincing the nurses of my birth plan.

My official due date (for now!) is December 28th, 2011, which will make a nice Christmas gift/tax deduction this year.  ;)  I’m 12 weeks + a few days along right now, and so far I’ve been sick a lot at night.  So far I think I’m having a boy, and Colby pegged that Carlee would be a girl, and he says this one is a boy, so I’m sticking with Colby’s odds.  :)  I want him to have a little brother so bad – Colby’s such a great kid and I would love to have another Colby!

I know I’ll have lots of other stories (and pictures.) as I think of them.  I posted this on Facebook about a week ago, if you’re friends with me, so you can see the sonogram picture there.  I have a friend who thinks she already knows the sex of the baby, by the 11 week picture.  I’m saying this sarcastically because it is SO too early to tell… maybe maybe in 1-2 more weeks we could find out, but I’m good to wait another 6 weeks to find out for sure.  Even though the wait is already killing me!  :)

I’d appreciate your prayers, especially as I get through these rough patches of sickness and lethargy.  And, once I feel a little better, hopefully I’ll be blogging more and not overloading your brains with long stories.

Entry Filed under: Carlee, Colby, Faith, Family, Funny, Kennedy, Life