Been awhile

Boy, has it been a long time since I updated! I've been terrible about reading my friends' blogs, too; for that I apologize. Life has been pretty hectic since we've moved in here. I am not one to settle right in and make home; maybe by the time Aaron retires in 15 years I will have that little skill down. Our garage is such a giant mess, and I am buried in laundry. Most of you know why this is; around the time I was writing my last blog, unbeknownst to us, we made a new addition to our family. I am now 11 weeks along, and the baby is due July 27th. It has been a big huge adjustment to my mental. I am a bit of a control freak, and I like to plan things. So being pregnant as a surprise has been a bit of a struggle, mentally. I am coming around, though! I hired a midwife yesterday who I'm really excited about, and I'm planning a waterbirth here at the house. I never really was interested in a waterbirth before, but while laboring with Jack I kept wishing I had a nice tub. So I'm pretty excited about that, and I guess I didn't realize how much I was stressing about it. I feel so much better, more relaxed, and more able to focus on the joy that is a new baby.
Aaron and I have been teasing each other a lot about what the baby's gender might be. (A lot of people have been asking me if I know the gender yet....I don't understand this. I'm only 11 weeks.) When I first got pregnant, I was really wanting a boy. In a "If I have to be pregnant it better be a friggin' boy" way. As time has gone on, I have been feeling unendingly girl feelings. Of course, I was convinced Libby was a boy, so who knows. We'll hopefully find out around the beginning of March. Aaron has been pushing for a boy. I know we'll both be happy either way, although I do think it'd be nice for Jack to have a brother.
This pregnancy so far has been a whirlwind. Finding out right before Thanksgiving, waiting for the morning sickness to kick in so I could feel confident that Baby was sticking. On December 10th, I woke up with a pain in my side that I'd been trying to ignore for a couple of days. That morning, it was intense. I decided to call my neighbor and ask her to watch the kids, and have Aaron come home and take me to the ER. I couldn't walk the kids over to the neighbor's house, and by the time Aaron got home I was a whimpering mess on the floor. I'm sure it must have been scary for him to come home to that. He carried me into the ER, and a few tests later an OB came in and told me that it looked like what I had was a standard uterine pregnancy along with a tubal pregnancy on the right side. The chances of this are 1 in 30,000, and the only solution was surgery. If I left it to rupture, it could kill me, and methotrexate, a chemical solution, would destroy the uterine pregnancy as well. I was fine until they wheeled me away from Aaron. I panicked for a minute seeing him walk away but I knew this needed to be done. The personnel at the hospital were very kind to me, and the surgery went without a hitch. Instead of a tubal pregnancy, what they found was a blood-filled cyst on my right Fallopian tube. Removal went fine, and I was sent home that night. I recovered fine, except for a couple of stubborn undissolved stitches, and baby hung on despite a 50/50 chance of miscarriage.
We stayed home during the holidays due to cost, and I think we've discovered a new joy in a nice, relaxing holiday at home. When we go visiting for the holidays, there is always a lot of scheduling and traveling...everyone lives so far apart! It has been nice not to run all over the puckerbrush anymore.
As a result of the pregnancy, my milk supply is diminishing like crazy, so, alas, I'm forced to wean Jack. It was really hard for me to admit at first, but obviously some things are beyond our control. We are starting with night weaning, and it's going pretty well. It's exhausting, though.
My little girl is turning 8 in a few weeks, and her Grammie and Poppa are coming up for a couple of weeks to be here for her baptism and hopefully give Aaron and I some much-needed couple's time. Then, in March, we are hoping for a visit from my brother and his family. I can't wait to meet my niece! And, maybe in April, my bff will be visiting. So this should be a very exciting spring, and I'm sure it'll fly by!
That's what I've got for now. Hopefully it won't be 3 months before I update again. Thank you for reading.