P.S.

P.S. - To keep up with Baby Dos' progress, check out the ticker at the bottom of this page. It will show you how far along I am and what's going on at this point. You might remember it from Ella's blog when we were expecting her.

Big Stone Gap, VA

We traveled to Johnson City, TN and Big Stone Gap, VA last weekend. We left on Thursday and visited with my pawpaw's sisters in TN and then headed over to VA on Friday to visit with all of my mawmaw's family. It's always so much fun to go up into the mountains and visit. It's normally very relaxing. This time, however, Ella was quite a little handful and made the trip a little more stress-full than stress-free. I totally underestimated how hard 20+ hours in the car within 4 days would be on her. She likes being on her schedule and gets a little frustrated when it gets interrupted. Needless to say, we were both glad to be back home. Oh, and Keith didn't make the trip so we were definitely missing daddy!

Regardless of all that, I loved seeing the beautiful fall colors in the mountains and getting the opportunity to visit with family. My mawmaw is the oldest of 6 and all of my great-aunts and great-uncles were there for the reunion. I snapped a shot of them all with Ella and am trying to make that a yearly tradition. Below it is the one from last year.




Here are some more pictures from the weekend. My mom mostly had camera duty (which was pretty nice!) since I was not feeling great so I'll get her pictures and post more later.
Ella off-roading in her coupe:

Stickers sure kept Ella occupied this weekend...do you see them on her shirt?:


When in Big Stone, we always visit lookout point. The view is beautiful!

It was coooold!!

2nd Ultrasound

Ok, I know I've been a bad blogger lately! My morning sickness has been pretty yucky and I've had a lot of prof. sessions lately to proof (not complaining about that!). Anyways, here's the picture from our last ultrasound. I put 2nd, but it was actually the 3rd. The ER ultrasound doesn't count because we didn't get a picture from it.

We were able to see the heartbeat...yay! And everything else looked great...I'm measuring right on schedule and my due date is June 5th putting me at 7w6d today. My doctor said to go ahead and plan on another May baby since Ella was a week early. We get to go back next Wednesday for another ultrasound just to make sure everything is progressing properly. The ER tech. told me that she didn't see evidence of a bicornate uterus (which was a big cause of worry for me with Ella) when she did my ultrasound, but they confirmed it again at my doctor's office. So please pray for another full-term delivery and that Baby Dos turns into the head down position so I'll be able to avoid a c-section. For anyone who doesn't know, a bicornate uterus means my uterus is shaped like a heart instead of a pear causing less room for the baby. Almost always, this means pre-term delivery. And, if you do go full-term, the baby doesn't always turn because of lack of room so a c-section is performed. God is so good and Ella was born at 39 weeks in the head down position which is a great indicator that this pregnancy will go just as long.

So anyways, everything is progressing just as it should! Thank you so much for all of your prayers...we have certainly felt and appreciated them!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well, my birthday isn't actually until this Thursday, but we celebrated tonight. We had a delicious dinner of Chicken Primavera and for dessert...a Cake Designs cake. YUM!! My very favorite! :-) Ella was such a big helper and "helped" me blow out the candles.

Ella's Meemaw bought this dress for her a little while back and since it was cooler outside today, she had the opportunity to wear it. We thought she looked pretty cute in it. Thanks Meemaw!

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Well, we actually went to the pumpkin patch last Saturday, but with everything else that we had going on this week, I'm just now getting around to posting the pictures. We went with our friends the Johnsons and some new friends that we met that day, the Hammetts. A LOT of fun was had by all! Ella and I will be going again this week with our playgroup, but more just for fun and to get out of the house instead of the get a pumpkin. :-) (Ella really did have fun even though it doesn't look like it in the family picture!)

17 Months

Well, the big sis turned 17 months yesterday. I missed taking her picture yesterday due to the 5 hour nap she took (totally not complaining!). So, I snapped a quick shot this morning. She is just changing so much it's crazy! Her most favorite thing is "Baaaney" but she also loves playing outside, playing with the dogs, and getting into anything and everything. She's such a good girl. :-)

16 months and 1 year old...wow what a difference a year makes!

Now for the good news!

Ok...so now I get to do the reveal I was originally planning!!

Yes...I'm pregnant! Ella is going to be a big sis! My unofficial due date is June 9th but we're not positive yet. We had a great visit at the doctor's office this afternoon. The ultrasound showed the sac right where it should be and now there's a yolk sac in there also. So there's been growth since this weekend, meaning that Baby Dos is still in there and doing well! Praise God! The ultrasound doesn't show much...the ultrasound tech told me to tell everyone that the baby is hiding right behind the little blob in the gestational sac.

So anyways, my doctor said everything looks great and I'll go back next Wednesday for another ultrasound and to hopefully hear the heartbeat.

Finally, here's a picture from the night that we told our parents. No, I'm not actually showing yet I just happened to have on a shirt that looks like maternity. :-)

I can't tell you how grateful I am for all the comments, phone calls, and prayers. We felt very loved and cared for during this whole ordeal. Thank you!!

Update

Well, I was going to wait until we found out a little bit more before updating, but I know everyone is getting frustrated that I haven't revealed the big secret. Yes, you all were correct that I am pregnant. I am still really early...due in June. I had 2 rounds of bloodwork done last week that showed high hormone levels that were doubling very quickly (great news). However, on Saturday I started having some bleeding and ended up in the ER with a threatened miscarriage. I haven't miscarried yet but we're still in the wait and see period. I was hoping to get into my doctor yesterday but wasn't able to get an appointment until 2:30 this afternoon. In the ER, my hormone level was great and the ultrasound showed a sac in the correct place and actually measuring a little bit ahead. So, since I'm so early anyways, they couldn't really tell much. They did find a cyst that could be causing some of the bleeding. Hopefully today at my ultrasound we might be able to find out a little bit more and I'm assuming they'll do more bloodwork. The statistics say that 20-30% of women experience bleeding in the first trimester and 50% of them go on to have successful pregnancies so we're praying that I'll fall into that half.

So anyways, thank you all very much for your comments on the previous post. We would really appreciate any prayers during this time that everything will be ok with our little bean and that we would be able to handle it well if not. We know that God's timing is not our own and that his is perfect, so we're trusting in him that he knows the plans he has for us. I'll update again after we return from the doctor's office.

Hmmmm...

Can you guess what it is??

Caroline Elizabeth is here!

Our good friends Kelli and Ben (that we went to the beach with back in June) had their little girl Caroline Elizabeth this week. She arrived around 3:30am on October 1st after a long 24 hour labor for Kelli. She is just a doll and looks just like her daddy! Ella and I headed up to the hospital to take a few quick snapshots for them on Wednesday but I'll get to do a full length newborn session next week. Can't wait!! :-) Congratulations y'all...we are so happy for you!

Ella loves the big purple dinosaur

Ella is totally smitten with Barney. She LOVES him! Anytime we're around the TV now she says "baaaaaneeeeey!!" until somebody puts it on for her. I think Keith's a little disappointed that she's not more of a Sesame Street kind of girl. ;-) (She does like Sesame Street too, but Barney is definitely her favorite)

She also loves to sit in chairs so I found this little saucer chair at Target the other day for just a couple of bucks. She's quite content to sit in it, watch Barney, and brush her hair.