18 weeks preggeroni!

First of all, it's really hard to take a decent pic of yourself in a mirror! I was shocked, but with Reid out of town and Piper not the best photog yet, I was left with little choice but to grab the camera and document this peanut's journey on the start of week 18. Number 2 is well on his/her way!

And before we get back to being very happily and excitedly pregnant again, I need to back up and post Piper's 2 year stats. This poor kid (and the next one, let's be honest) are kind of screwed in that I'm just not a baby book type of person. I don't even own one for Piper, but I do want to keep track of these things, so very belatedly, here are her stats from July ...

Height: 34.5 inches - 75 percentile
Weight: 30 pounds, 8 ounces - 50 percentile
Head circumference: 19.5 inches - 90 percentile

Okay, back to the present and my poor attempt at documentation of our children's lives. I realized the other day that we started taking pictures of Piper (in my belly of course) when I was 16 weeks pregnant with her, and from there, they were almost weekly. I think the time period became a little spread out in the third trimester, but the fact is, she now has a nice little timeline of pictures where she gets to see my belly get bigger and bigger. When I was thinking about that, I felt guilty about this time around and not having taken any pictures OR documented any sort of commentary about this pregnancy yet. Maybe this kid won't care - and maybe Piper won't care about her well-documented, and at times embarrassing, journey - but we should at least give it another shot this time around. So although I will end with our Christmas card pic in typical 'Ode to Piper' fashion, the rest of this blog gets dedicated to her little sibling and its journey so far.

We first found out we were pregnant on labor day ... and from there, the real nerves set in. To be perfectly honest, the whole process, although short, was super nerve racking. Even before we started trying, I was terrified of it being a long, difficult process (actually getting pregnant, that is). Much to our surprise, that was not the case. We got pregnant the first time out (thank you, ovulation kit!) and therefore avoided all of the stress that getting pregnant can entail. But as soon as we found out we were pregnant, the stress of staying pregnant set in. I knew I had an increased risk of miscarriage due to some anatomical changes that have taken place (thanks ligaments, for failing to do your job years before that should have been the case) and we were also at an increased of another molar pregnancy. I considered both of these facts daily and the first trimester slugged slowly by.

Our 8 week ultrasound went well. No signs of any blood pockets and the heartbeat was nice and strong. Prognosis? Who knows. Sit tight until the 12 week ultrasound. So the next month SLOWLY dragged on and the next ultrasound finally arrived, where we were met with a beautiful wave of a hand - hooray!!

All of our fears and trepidations disappeared and joy and excitement were allowed to set in. I can't describe the feelings of relief I felt. We've had happy ultrasounds and we've had nightmare ultrasounds ... but the experiences you simply can't shake when going into the unknown are those negative ones. Well, that is, until you see the little miracle happily living inside of you. It's simply amazing.

And since then, the time has absolutely flown by. I have a hard time believing that this pregnancy is almost halfway over, and I'm sure the next 22 weeks (well, hopefully a BIT less than that, but who knows) will keep going by pretty quickly. I first felt the little peanut kicking me the night of Thanksgiving. I was shocked. I was barely 15 weeks, but there was no mistaking it, and since then, pretty much daily, I can feel him/her moving around in there. It's such a wonderful feeling, and I can't wait until Reid and Piper are able to feel this one too. I know this little guy/girl has a big sister who is very anxious to feel him/her!

And yes, the annoying "it", "him/her", etc will continue because we aren't going to find out the gender until the day this one enters the world. I don't love calling it an it, but that's ok. It's all well worth the wait.

And as promised, I'll end with the picture we used on our Christmas card ... the funny part is this is the only snow we've had all year and it was almost 60 degrees when we were making the snow man. Piper's wearing her winter coat only so that we don't look negligent. Happy holidays to all!