X OR Y

Chromosome that is.  What do I think is growing in my belly?  A little boy?  A little girl?  It's the question I get asked the most.  Well, along with "How do you do it?" Referring to not finding out the gender.

My honest to goodness answer is- I do not know.  People always say, "I just had a feeling," "I knew it was a boy (or girl) from day 1," and "The second pregnancy felt different, so I knew it was a boy (or girl)."  I am not that way at all.  Quite frankly, I feel like those people are smokin' somethin' :)

Bottom line is folks, every pregnancy is different.  My mother has four daughters and we were all different pregnancies.  And I am 100% positive we are all girls(XX)!  So here's my story of how this pregnancy has gone for me.

We knew we wanted our children close in age.  Roughly two years apart at least.  We have friends and have heard of friend's friends that have had difficulty getting pregnant the second time around.  To be honest, it scared the living daylights out of us.  So, we thought we would get a jump start on the 'trying for #2' bandwagon.  Turns out we had no trouble at all.  I truly believe this is God's plan for us.  I've wanted nothing more than to be a mom my whole entire life.  Our two children will be 21 months apart.

In the beginning, I felt so sick.  I didn't want to eat anything and anything that I did force down my throat gave me a terrible stomach ache.  I never puked.  Thank the good Lord.  I was miserable.  This started my the downfall of working out.  The first trimester was nothing like it was Addison.  So, my first instinct was boy.

Second trimester was great.  Felt the same way I did with Addison.  I was exhausted though, therefore the no work trend continued.  When Mike was home, I was a bum and relied on him to do a lot of the evening routine around our house.  However, with his fabulous career, he is gone for four days straight.  This exhausted me to no end.  I dreaded the day he left almost more than ever before.  Feeling the same = girl.  Then my belly started to show...more and more.  My belly button popped early.  I feel like I am carrying the exact same way = another little girl.

The third trimester hasn't been terrible.  The morning sickness never came back- thank the good Lord again.  I have the normal woes of pregnancy.  I am completely uncomfortable.  It hurts to walk, sit, and lay down.  I feel like I cannot breathe and my whole abdomen feels as if I'm stretch armstrong.  Like, there are two professional tug-of-war competitors clawing their way to another victory...in my skin.  It hurts.  No stretch marks to date.  It doesn't mean my skin is not stretched.  Still carrying the same, although that's just how I feel, some people tell me this too.  Another point on the girl side.  I am measuring right on this pregnancy, which is different than with Addison.  This baby has its feet stuck in my right rib cage...it's lovely.  I do not remember this with Addison.  Baby B 2.0 also seems to wake me up in the middle of the night with movement, which I have heard is bad news.  A baby awake in utero in the middle of the night means a newborn awake in the middle of the night.

About a month ago, I was telling Mike that it's another girl.  I did all the old wife's tales and, if I'm not mistaken, they all said girl.  I did them with Addison and they all said girl, which turned out to be the case!  I've had moms tell me they felt the exact same with their second as they did with their first.  I have also had moms tell me they felt completely different with their second and it was the same gender as their first.  You just never know.  It's 50-50.  We know there is one baby in my belly.  And as far as we know, we are blessed with a healthy baby growing just as it should be.

Our name journey has been rough...we truly agree on so little in general.  With that said, our boy name was set awhile back.  It took us awhile to get there, but we have agreed.  A girl's name just became settled last week.  I love our boy's name and feel different about the girl's name.  I like it, but I don't love it like I do the boy's name. With Addison that's how we felt about the girl's name...we loved it.  Maybe that's a sign?  It's a boy?

And here I sit.  Some days I think it's a boy.  Maybe it's b/c of a dream I had the night before.  Other days I think, no way it's a girl.  Either way I know that this baby will have the best big sister and I hope and pray they have a sibling bond like no other.  I will jump for joy when we have a real life, healthy baby.  I will jump for joy b/c I am done with pregnancy #2, I get to become a mom of two, and I get to watch my children grow up together.  It's a wonderful thing...and I cannot wait till it's done ;)