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.