Count 'em

Yep....that's 5 pair of shoes...and the white booties are not Snuggles'. We are in awe, very much shocked, speechless, overjoyed, relieved, a little nervous but mostly thankful to introduce Baby Little Tres or as I have nicknamed him/her: our little Stowaway!!! It would appear we had an extra passenger in the car on the trek up to Ohio. We have had a while to digest the news (I'm 15 weeks on Friday) and it still is hard to take in! After our surprise in December, we realized things might be working in this messed up body of mine so we better take some extra precautions. When will we realize that God's sovereignty trumps any "plans" we have? One day I suppose. In the meantime we sit here and look at each other and ask "how did this happen?" :) We knew we wanted another baby, but honestly didn't think that time would come until a) the twins were a little older and out of diapers (please!) and b) once we moved back or were for sure on our way back to NC. I won't be going into details here but I can tell you after 4 years of trying to learn how my body works - I had it down (or so I thought) and knew what was going to happen when. If you look at it scientifically, there shouldn't be a baby growing in there :) If you look at it that God has always wanted us to have a 3rd child and while January wasn't His time and while I still don't quite grasp why we had to go through a 2nd miscarriage, His time was now so we have a baby on the way! End of story.

I'm due November 17th...my Dad's birthday :) I'm mortified at the thought of being pregnant another month! I had the twins at 36 weeks....what do you mean this one should go to 40 weeks or more!?! I didn't get sick for one second with the twins and now that we have moved 500 miles from anyone we know to help me out, I'm so .very. sick. The house unpacking came to a dead stand still, I haven't been to the grocery store in weeks (thankful for a willing Husband!!!), the house cleaning is all in my head and the twins have learned to bring mommy the toy or book they want to play with while I lay green faced on the couch or the floor. They are used to me gagging and dry heaving all over them when I change their diapers in the morning - at first they cried and screamed - now it doesn't phase them at all. I could care less eating lunch or dinner, but the heavens open at around 6:00 every night. All of a sudden, I feel great, have an appetite and have energy! But of course by then, Ryan is tired from working all day, then coming home and taking over twins and supper duty. I am praying praying that this dies down now that we are in the 2nd trimester - it has progressively gotten worse from about 7 weeks on.

Thankfully we have 3 bedrooms and a loft in our house. Our landlord is great and is going to let us fill in the loft so we can have 2 nursery's and a guest for all of the help I'm going to need! The twins will have just turned 2 in October. So we will journey through twins being two and a newborn. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy.

In a strange, twisted way, Ryan and I talk about how different things must be with one baby! We can really take turns at night instead of both being up every time, if one of us needs a break from baby holding, we can switch and not get another baby in return, I just might be able to nurse discreetly in public, no more mega twin boppy, hey...we only have to fit one crib in the room this time, etc....! But then we quickly fall back into reality....we've never had twin toddlers running around with a baby either. oh........

So, you hear how women show earlier and earlier with each pregnancy....well, this is what happens when you had twins then have a subsequent pregnancy...you look huge...quickly:

My doctors just shake their head sympathetically and say my poor stretched out uterus thinks it should make room for two babies and that I'll have lots of growing pains. That sounds great. Thanks. But truthfully, we are very thankful to be where we are. I went in to see my Doc as soon as I realized I was pregnant  which was very early on. They started testing a bunch of stuff to see if they could see any issues with me carrying this pregnancy. My progesterone was already down to 17 (by like 5 weeks pregnant)...you start having trouble carrying a pregnancy at 15 so I was well on my way to loosing this baby too. That is slightly terrifying to think about going through a 3rd miscarriage up here all alone so I just thank God for His protection and don't think about it much :) Thanks to tons of hormones and meds, we are through the 1st trimester and just this past Wednesday I was released to stop all of that icky stuff. yea!

Anyway,  there are a million other thoughts going through my head but I'll wrap it up for now. Pray for us! In every way God brings to mind...pray for us!