Four

Josh, Ava, and I are elated to announce that we will be adding a new member to our family in late March!  Today I'm officially through my first trimester and we are so excited to share the news with the world.  The little card below is how we told our family about the new baby.

On Tuesday, July 17, my office ordered takeout from our favorite Thai place.  The top half of this picture was my fortune.  I was cautiously optimistic, but didn't think there was any way we could have positive baby news this quickly.

Sure enough, on the morning of July 18 I saw the most amazing two pink lines!  We found out about this little one one week before Josh took the Bar exam.  Nothing like a little real-life perspective.  

We found out on Friday, September 7 that Josh, of course, passed the Bar!  He's officially a lawyer now.  

Joshua Luke Lockett, Esq.

Now back to the baby news.

Ava has been begging for a sibling for almost three years now.  At first we decided not to tell her about the baby until after the first trimester, but it just didn't feel right.  We ended up telling her early and I'm glad we did.  She is so excited and all about being a big sister already.  When we first told her she was kind of quiet and smiled sweetly at the news.  Within a few minutes she was asking a million questions about when it would be born and if it was a boy or girl.  She goes back and forth on what she wants, mostly she just wants "a healthy baby"... not sure where she's heard that.  I have several pregnancy apps on my phone and she checks them often.  She loves to see what size the baby is compared to fruit and what it looks like each week.  She fusses at me if I try to lift anything at all, even a salt box to refill the shaker.  She's already an awesome big sister.

This pregnancy has been SO different.  With Ava I was nauseous maybe three times and just had to avoid pork.  Since week six this time I've dealt with pretty hard-hitting waves of nausea.  Most meat, anything spicy, and bananas really make me green.  Morning, afternoon, night - it doesn't really matter.  The SeaBands have helped some.  I've also had some scary non-baby related complications.  Everything is fine now, just having to rest a lot (which is super easy when you are moving and have an active 5-year-old).  Josh has worked tirelessly to move us out of Xanadu and into The Hundred Acre Woods.  I have logged my hours on the couch while Josh leapt tall stacks of boxes and took the very best care of Ava, baby and me.

My other two saviors:

I'll leave you with a few ultrasound shots of our new little one.  Due to my issues, I've already had three ultrasounds.  A little silver lining in all the scary.  We are praying for a healthy remainder of this pregnancy.  I'm starting a poll on the right-hand side of the blog where you can vote on what flavor you think this baby will be.  For the record, we really don't care what it is.  If it's a girl we won't have to buy a stitch of clothes until she's at least three.  If it's a boy, well, I hope he likes showtunes and baking!  Josh and Ava both think it's a girl; I think it's a boy.  We hope to find out early to mid October.

5 weeks

7 weeks

(I tried to post an audio file of the sweetest little heartbeat, but I can't find a way to do it.  Any tips?)

We are so excited about this baby!