Our Best Kept Secret...

Well the news is official. Sage will be joining the big sister club in a few short months! We've been keeping the announcement to ourselves since we found out on Father's day this year, just letting family and friends know face to face. It's been fun to have this be our own little secret and not make a big deal on social media about it, especially when I see others around town who I haven't seen in a while react to my belly. But since it's no longer able to be hidden, and the little one will be making an appearance right around the corner, I figured it was time to let you all in on the news. 

The girls are pretty excited to have another baby in the family soon. They're already practicing non stop at "being mama", rocking the baby to sleep, and changing diapers. Its been so fun to talk with them about the baby growing in my belly. The questions they ask are hilarious, like about how its growing or what its eating and how big they think its going to get. Watching a 3 and 4 year old trying to figure out the concept has to be one of the most entertaining things. The tie is still even between the 4 of them who thinks its going to be a boy and who thinks its going to be a girl. We're praying for that little boy someday, but know that we will be overjoyed either way! 

We get asked quite a bit if we'll keep going with building our little tribe and our answer has continued to be that we'll just take it one kid at a time...(except for that time we had two at once). And yes, we know that there is only ONE in there this time. This pregnancy wasn't a surprise and we always knew that after having Sage, she wouldn't be our last. Not to mention, she's made it easy on us to keep wanting to more! Its pretty surprising to people when I say that we want to keep going and I'm not sure what it is in us that wants a big family, other than the fact that we just love having little ones. Don't get me wrong, its not any easier for us than other parents and we don't have a magical formula that makes parenting a smooth ride. We have just as many hard, frustrating, sleepless, confusing moments as anyone. But I guess its the moments of laughter and play and being rewarded with the gift of parenting that far outweigh the tiring ones and its in those times we remember how much we love this opportunity we get to have.  

And by no means do I think that not having a lot of kids says that people don't love their own or love parenthood. I'm sure this would be a totally different experience for me all the way around if I was sick to my stomach every day of pregnancy too. I'm super thankful that I've been able to somewhat function normally throughout all my pregnancies and it's something I don't take for granted at all! Exhaustion is the strongest thing that sets in for me while carrying which can get pretty disheartening to me when I want to be present with my girls or don't want to waste a minute. Plus the fact that its not always fun to have a belly stick out so big you can't bend over to put your own shoes on! But I know its temporary and the sweetest gift if awaiting us at the end of the journey.

For a few months we thought I was due at the end of March until my last ultrasound appointment told us we are actually due a whole month sooner! I'm about 5 and half months along now so with that news its felt like this pregnancy has flown by a whole lot faster. There will be a two year gap between Sage and this new one, making it the biggest age gap between our kids so far. So getting back into the swing of things with a newborn will feel natural in some ways and in others I'm sure it will be a whole new adjustment. We can't wait to see what this new one will bring to our family and can hardly wait to find out the gender when it makes its appearance in February.