lucky

It's been a busy couple weeks, lots of pics to share, hopefully I'll get them posted in the coming week! We took the kiddos to the ScienceCenter in Ithaca, including Em (last time she got to spend the day with the Outman family, as she previously got terribly overstimulated at the museum) and this time she did wonderfully! She was looking around, playing in the huge "red blood cell" ball pit LOL, and was generally happy and curious. Dawson, on the other hand, decided it was his turn to spin my perspective and when he wasn't trying to desperately launch himself back into the ball pit (who can blame him, everyone loves swimming in red blood cells!), he was whining or crying. Hopefully those two get better handling their emotions/sensory overloads as they get older! ^_^

So, for today's post ... it seemed like it was time to explain the crumb left at the end of my last post. ^_~

It maybe doesn't seem grand (or even surprising!) but to us it's pretty BIG, as always! The picture below was taken almost 3 weeks ago and I've been dying to post it. :)

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.




That's right, we are expecting lucky #7! O_O

I'm due on February 19, so as if our fall/winter birthday lineup wasn't packed enough, we'll now have two sharing a month! ^_^ It wasn't quite planned and was actually more of a one month, let's-see-what-the-Universe-wants before calling our family complete and doing something to make that happen. I had an appointment on June 9 to go over my options and well, decided to test that morning before going. Needless to say, I got to cancel it. ^_^

We're feeling very happy and far too blessed and though going from 6 to 7 means big changes for us - a full-size van (!) and soon, some remodeling or looking into getting a bigger house - the positives of having another little life to enjoy far outweigh any negatives.

Do we know what causes it? Yes!
Don't we have too many? Maybe!
Are we crazy? Probably!

I'm 9 weeks today and so far all is going well. I'd had the ultrasound because of some spotting which was likely due to a very small Subchorionic Hematoma (SCH) and just a few days ago I got my new doppler in the mail and we found the heartbeat right away - 177 bpm, and that sound never gets less amazing! I've been feeling those early little flutters and popping corn sensations for a couple days. Luckily, I have only had mild nausea here and there and occasional headaches - easier even than Holden's pregnancy!

Although we've always declined all prenatal screenings other than the level II ultrasound around 20 weeks, and we still would never terminate, we have decided to have the NT scan this time around (just the scan, not the related bloodwork). While we'll accept whatever we are given, we're hoping to have some reassurance (or some advance notice) of any issues we might expect. I am planning another homebirth but this time, another stroke of luck - the NY Legislature just passed the Midwifery Modernization Act and I now have a midwife lined up! I'm happy to have the extra support this time around.

We recently told the kids and although Cade first gave an Oscar-worthy, "Oh no!" they were then all immediately thrilled, placing their orders for a boy or a girl and asking when the baby would be here. :) We're announcing to our families now, and are ever-grateful for having such a wonderful support system.

We are busy, sometimes precariously balancing everything it seems on the head of a needle, but still - very lucky indeed.