Our Little Secret

One of the most fun parts of pregnancy is picking a name. We always knew what Walker's name would be so we didn't have to search through the baby books. Chris always said he wanted his son to be named after him and I wanted to give that to him.

One of the worst parts about pregnancy is that everyone seems to have an opinion about everything. It's amazing how many people offered their opinion to me on anything and everything from how they "would never breastfeed" or by making jokes and calling Walker "Texas Ranger", which ultimately led me to resent his name because I told Chris I did not want people to call him that.

I know - it's silly.

But when we found out we were pregnant with baby number two, we discovered just how hard it is to pick names that we both agree on. I like strange names with Asher and Archer as just a couple of the boy names that Chris quickly veto'd. Chris didn't throw any names out that he loved but he was quick to say "no" or "maybe" or, "I kinda like ________"

We bought a book of 100,000 baby names and started going through them. Of the 100,000 baby names, we have three complete boy names and two girl first names. We have the boy names in order of 1-3 (and Chris and I actually agreed on the order!) and the plan is to see which name fits him or her best.

We are not telling anyone (ANYONE!) the baby names so please do not ask us. It is nothing personal. I just don't want anyone's reaction (good or bad) to influence the names that we like.

Our baby's name will make it's debut when our sweet baby makes his or hers! : )

Walker's Nursery

As we prepare for the arrival of our second baby, we are also preparing to move Walker from his nursery into his big boy room. We are working hard to move all my crafts out of the craft room and begin the transition of turning it into Walker's room. When we were pregnant with Walker, we were pinching pennies trying to save up for the purchase of our house. When we brought Walker home, we were in the process of buying our house and were living with Chris's parents until we closed on our house. I didn't get to put a lot of time or effort into his nursery since we were living in one bedroom at Chris's parents house.

We had talked about not finding out the gender of baby number two but I am craving the nesting experience that I did not get with Walker. Don't worry though - this time I get to nest in not only one but two rooms - Walker's big boy room and baby Wills' nursery! Walker's nursery theme is vintage vehicles and will be the theme of his big boy room as well. Here is the bedding I have picked out for his toddler room:

And my dear Walker - because soon you will be in your big boy room with your big boy bed and memories of your nursery will belong only to me and Daddy, I decided to go through your nursery and take pictures so that you could remember your first room.



This airplane shelf holds some very important items. It holds one of your ultrasound pictures (the one that showed Mommy and Daddy that you were a boy!) It holds your first lock of hair and the car that will hold your very first tooth.



This is the sign that hung on our hospital door when you were born.







This frame holds my favorite ultrasound picture of you. It is a profile picture of you and was taken on 7/24/09.







This chair was in your Grammy's room when she was a little girl. This teddy bear was delivered to the hospital when you were born along with a basket of flowers and was sent by your Daddy's office.

















You love to "Feed the pig"!

Doctor's Appointment 7/25/11

Today we went to the doctor for our monthly checkup for Baby Wills. We got to hear the heartbeat and it was beautiful. That sound is the most amazing sound in the world. After a little scare this week, the sound of our sweet baby's heart beat brought tears to my eyes. My doctor was surprised that we could hear the baby's heart beat already and was sure we'd have to do an ultrasound but our baby did not disappoint. For some reason, the beats per minute were not showing up on the machine but the doctor said it sounded like it was between 160 and 180 which has now convinced me we are definitely having a "brudder" and that is just fine with me.
My doctor told me that the faster the heart beat, the more likely it was a girl but that theory means little to me as Walker's was always in the 160's. We are just so happy to be having another child that we do not have a preference either way.

We find out what we are having in September and we are very excited to see if we will have a little Prince or Princess joining our family!

The best part of a roller coaster ride is the end

The best part of a roller coaster ride is the end, for me anyways. I will never forget the first time I rode a roller coaster - I made it all the way to my 17th birthday before riding a roller coaster that went upside down. My mother dated some guy when she was a teenager who worked at a carnival and therefore, the fear of roller coasters was embedded in me from a young age. I spent my 17th birthday at Six Flags with great friends and my sweetheart. I made my friends sit by me on the roller coaster and sent Chris and the boys to the back, as if they wouldn't be able to hear me scream back there.

In my last post about TTC, I compared it to a roller coaster ride. It has been full of ups and downs, twists and turns, and like that first roller coaster ride on my 17th birthday, the best part has been the end.

That's right - we are one of the lucky ones who made it to the end of the journey with a happy ending. We found out we were pregnant on June 12th, 2011 and we cried tears of joy together. We couldn't believe our journey was finally over but we were so happy it was. We told Walker he was going to be a big brother (swore him to secrecy of course!) and even though he didn't understand, we knew that we were finally giving him the best gift we would ever be able to give him.

When we found out we were pregnant with Walker, we told our families right away. This time Chris wanted to do something special to announce our big news and we had planned for that but I could not keep the secret from my family. I wanted to shout it out to anyone who would listen so I just had to call my mom and tell her.

We kept the secret for a week longer from his family. He really wanted to announce it in a special way and we were all getting together to celebrate Father's Day that next weekend. I made this picture holder for Chris's parents a few months ago. It has the names of all their grandchildren starting with the oldest and ending with a blank block for our little niece who will be born in September. So, we made another block and put February 2012 on it. We wrapped it up and let Walker present his Pop Pop with his Father's Day present (of course he also got a Home Depot gift card).

Chris is a cautious guy and did not want to announce it even to our families until we were out of the first trimester but I could not keep this secret in that long. I knew that I would have some friends who might have a hard time with my news because they are on their own journey so I wanted to make sure I told them personally before they saw it on facebook. Chris finally let me announce it after we saw the little heartbeat for the first time and were told that everything looked perfect.

We are due February 16, 2012 and we are just thrilled. I'm not sure that Walker understands at all what is going to hit him in a few months but if you ask him where the baby is, he lifts my shirt and kisses my belly so gently. Yesterday, he pointed to my belly and I told him that was his brother or sister and he said "brudder". Unlike Walker, I do not have a preference for a boy or girl - I am just thrilled to be carrying this child. This pregnancy has been totally different from my pregnancy with Walker. I have only been sick one time and up until about two weeks ago, I had tons of energy. I do get tired and I do have a bit of nausea at the smell of, well, just about anything. But I am thankful. Oh so very thankful for every bit of it.

Catch Up

I'd like to say that I cannot believe it has been so long since I have written in this blog but I can believe it. These days I am one tired momma but I am going to try my best to keep up with the blog a little more. After all, the whole point of the blog is to turn it into a book for Walker at the end of each year. So, let's play some catch up.