Pregnant!

So, yep, we are pregnant!  We are due on February 18th and looking very forward to that day.  We found out over Father's Day weekend and I surprised Cody by signing Baby #2's name on his card.  He was happy!  I took a picture of the stick because I wanted confirmation later when I wasn't sure, since I didn't show Cody right away.  

We knew right away and got to see our first sonogram at 7 weeks.  Everything was perfect, the baby was just a little small.  Heartbeat was perfect and the baby looked healthy.  I got pretty sick from about six weeks on.  And not just a little nauseous like last time.  With Harper in the beginning, I could eat and it would curb the nausea and I survived easily.  But during the third trimester, I started throwing up everything I ate and was put on a strict diet of fruits, veggies, and simple foods.  So after 4 weeks of throwing everything up and not being able to get off the couch, I started on the same diet and life got a little better.  I ate scrambled eggs for breakfast, a smoothie for lunch, and a salad for dinner every single day for about 4 weeks.  It was hard but I was feeling somewhat better.  Then, I got bored, tired of salads, craved food, real food, fast food, yummy food.  And I stopped the diet and started throwing up again.  After about 4 weeks of that, I finally talked to my OB (I know, why didn't I ask sooner, who knows...) and she put me on prevacid.  Finally after about two weeks of that, my body is finally feeling better and adjusting to the meds.  I can eat normal foods (nothing crazy still, but normal) and I am feeling good.  It took 16 weeks, but I am finally feeling better.  

Because I didn't get to gorge on awesome foods like most pregnant women, I didn't actually start showing until about 14 or 15 weeks.  And it was still small enough that I really only looked fat most of the time.  I was even able to wear most normal clothes and hide the bump pretty easily, especially if they were loose.  But I had to wear my A&M shirt on game day and it was the first time I went somewhere in public where my bump sort of showed.  I took a picture, but I know you can't even seen it well.  

Here is the bump that actually looks like a pregnant bump.  We went out on a date, for the first time in months, and I was so excited I showered, got all the way ready, and tried to look cute.  So I made Cody take a picture because I knew that me looking decent didn't happen very often.  It was a great date, too!

Everything is looking great and I'm feeling much better.  I have been working out and that is helping. My hips are already so wide that sleeping on my side at night is hard, so I'm pretty exhausted most mornings.  But I get up and go to the gym and I am so much more productive in one day than I was all summer practically.  Harper is excited, she keeps asking if the baby is already coming.  No, sweet girl, it is going to take a lot longer!  She is a great kid when I'm not feeling good and she understands that Momma is sick.  I am 100% in love with my husband for being so helpful and amazing all July and August before school started when I was down for weeks.  He did a great job of taking care of Harper, making food each day, and even stuck to my horrible diet with me when he didn't have to.  We are so excited to become a family of 4 because all this goodness just needs to be shared.  :)

Baby Hempkins

So this week we babysat a friend's baby while her sitter was out of town.  She is a Nurse Practitioner at the OB office at the hospital.  She texted me this morning at 9am that if I wanted, I could come in at 10:30 for a gender sonogram, as a thank you for watching the baby.  So we headed to the office and got the sonogram.  Within 3 seconds, the sono tech knew exactly what it was.  So she snapped some great pictures and we headed home.  We spent part of the day planning a small surprise for Cody.  This guy loves surprises, so I texted him at 12 that he had a surprise waiting for him.  He asked if it was a new dirt bike...um, no.  But we were all excited!

Here is the baby.  Happy, healthy, halfway done.  :)

The set up.  Cody saw the balloons when he drove up and instantly knew.  We had the balloons leftover from the Frozen party, but you could see the colored confetti through the white balloon.  So Harper had fun getting creative with color on the balloon.    

Even though he wants a boy, he is guessing a girl.  Will he be right?

This is the moment when my surprise went bust.  I had the video camera set up on a stool to get video of it too, and at the moment that he popped it, the video camera fell over.  So I'm guessing it got an expletive instead of the colored confetti.  Arg.  So we decided to pop the colored balloons instead.  

And IT'S A...

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GIRL!  

We are very excited and Harper is SERIOUSLY thrilled to be having a sister.

Because it was last minute, my sweet friend Kara was able to be there with us.  She came up for the day and spent time helping us plan the surprise.  

We finally made it "Facebook official" when we found it.  We hadn't really told the world we were even pregnant, but it wasn't necessarily a secret.  20 weeks seemed like long enough, so we put a bow on her and she made her debut.  We are so thankful for the community of friends and family who love us and celebrate with us on our sweet baby girl!

Leaf Hunt Playdate

We had another preschool playdate this week and got to enjoy talking about Fall.  I'm not sure any of the kids really understand seasons, but they had fun anyways.  We went to Waterloo park and let the kids play on the play ground for awhile.  It was super cool in the morning and suddenly got pretty hot around 11am.  These Texas falls are hard to plan for because it changes so much.  It was still a great day.  For the fall theme, we decided to do a leaf hunt and craft project.  We hoped that being outside running around would be good for them.  

The leaf hunt was only partially successful.  Harper and James picked up a few leaves and then dropped them a few seconds later.  I don't know that many of the kids actually did their own stuff, but I guess that's why we have crafty moms there to help.  So after a bit, we let the kids glue their leaves to make a tree and they did it, albeit reluctantly. 

Afterwards, we had a quick picnic lunch and the kids perked up.  We decided to head down to the pond and let them feed the ducks.  Right as we were going down, a helicopter landed just across the way (for a fire/ems picnic they were having).  The kids were in awe!  They just watched and watched it for the longest time.  

The ducks were especially feisty that day.  They were so happy to be fed by the kids and were up in everyone's face for a good 10-15 minutes.  The kids like feeding the ducks.  Aaron chunks the bread.  Jack throws the whole piece.  And Leaf goes straight for the ducks with or without bread.  And I'm not sure how James handled it, but I know Sarah ended up having to feed the ducks as fast as possible to keep them from eating her.  

After feeding the ducks, Leah and James headed out (it was HOT).  We were headed back to the playground for just a few minutes when the helicopter pilots said we could have a closer look at the helicopter if we wanted.  So we took three excited kids over and let them play on the helicopter.  

We finally headed home, exhausted, hot, and happy.  It was a great playdate with tons of fun surprises, including the firetruck, ambulance, and helicopter.  Preschool is way more fun with friends!

Lowes Workshop

Last Saturday morning, around 9am, we had finished breakfast and were just sitting around hanging out.  Cody was watching College Gameday and I was trying to get stuff done on the computer.  After a few minutes, I figured out Harper was not going to have it.  She wanted our attention.  She did not want to play on her own.  So I told Cody we were going to have to do more, even though we didn't want to.  He reminded me about the Lowe's workshop so we quickly headed out the door.  They built these awesome binoculars and she was so happy.  She loves looking in Cody's binoculars and seeing things far away.  She helped Cody build it and did a great job.  Afterwards, we walked around and Cody looked at lawn mowers that were completely out of his price range.  We saw Buddy and then headed home.  It was nice to get out of the house and enjoy some time together.  I'm glad she made us get off our butts and enjoy the day.  P.S.  She looked so cute and then threw on this awesome hot pink, sequin headband.  And I couldn't get her to take it off because it did, in fact, match her pink converse, she showed me.  So yes, this is how we went out in public and I'm ok with it.