Ava is going to be a Big Sister!

The secret is out! I am 20 weeks pregnant with a little girl. We are very excited and now I'm ready to start talking about it. Jeremy and I told our family on Thanksgiving. Ava wore a shirt that said, "I'm expecting to be a Big Sister in April 2009." As people came in and greeted Ava they started reading the shirt and then looked at either Jeremy or myself and asked if this shirt was real. I hid my belly behind the counter until everyone figured it out. I wanted them to read the shirt and not my belly size. It was a lot of fun. My sister-in-law Elise was the first to read and figure it out. Mostly people were surprised we had kept the secret for so long. A couple relatives even said they suspected I was pregnant the last time they saw me, which hurt because I really thought we had done a good job at hiding it until Thursday. But all in all it was a great surprise and a great Thanksgiving.

So, how have the last 20 weeks gone? Well, the last 3 have been great. The first 16 however are a different story. It seems as soon as I find out I'm pregnant I get sick. With Ava it only took a couple weeks and then I felt fine. This one lasted 16 weeks and I was on medication for the nausea. I tried 3 different kinds of medicine, including one for cancer patients, and finally found one that worked. I still felt sick but at least I could somewhat function. I wasn't eating and I lost a lot of weight. I still have only gained 7 pounds. I slept whenever I could and I avoided talking to my family as much as I could because I feared they would never believe that I had a 16 week flu. The medication on top of the added hormones made me a bear to be around. I started not liking the job I once loved and I took it out on a lot of people. I was all around miserable and I really couldn't talk to a lot of people about it for fear someone would slip and tell a family member. But, by the end of week 16 and the beginning of 17 I felt so much better. I stopped taking my nausea medicine and started eating normal size meals again. I love my job again and my kids were just as surprised when I told them. One child said, "You really don't look pregnant, You're so skinny!" She is now getting all A's. I feel much better and now I have energy to take care of me and Ava. If we don't get pressured by family to have a third we will not keep it a secret next time. For now I need to see what life will be like with 2 children and we'll go from there. Pictures are coming as soon as Jeremy is home from being on call.