20 Weeks!

On Monday, January 30th, we had our 20 week full anatomy ultrasound for baby #4 to make sure everything looked good. Our ultrasound tech was awesome and talked us through everything. We, of course, started with baby boy's heart and the first thing we clearly saw was FOUR CHAMBERS! Praise the Lord!!! The tech continued to check all of the standard "stuff" and everything. looked. perfect.

{{{ We're having a healthy baby boy!!!!!!!!!! }}}

It was so good to see baby "Rufus" -- did I mention that's what we're calling him until we decide on his actual name? hahahahaha! -- and to get a positive report from our beloved Perinatologist! We go back to see him at 26 weeks. He plans for me to have my glucose test at 24 weeks (usually it's scheduled at 28 weeks) so we can see if I'm going to go ahead and jump on the Gestational Diabetes bandwagon again this time around as I did with E's pregnancy. The odds are ever in my (unfortunate) favor that I will, and of course we'll want to start monitoring it sooner rather than later. #nomorecake #nomorecaramellobars

I can just hardly believe I'm half-way through this pregnancy already! I'm getting more and more anxious to meet this little guy. There's so much to do before his arrival, though, so I'm thankful to still have another 19 or so weeks ahead of me!

We're Having Another...???

As I mentioned yesterday, I've been a bit behind with posting here on my blog. So without further ado, let me share some exciting news we found out 4 weeks ago on Friday, January 6th.

The kids were rather adamant that we find out together whether we were having another baby brother or a baby sister. Hubs and I didn't want to bring the kids to our next scheduled ultrasound, which was January 30th, because it was the full anatomy scan with the Perinatologist and we didn't want the kids there in the event any issues were uncovered with the baby.

My other option was to schedule a gender reveal ultrasound at my OB office. This seemed like a good idea, but I didn't want to cram all of us in a tiny room for it. Plus, the kids had also decided that CAKE needed to be involved (these are awesome kids, I say!). So here's what I ended up doing:

1. I scheduled the gender reveal ultrasound for Friday, January 6th. I went to the appointment alone, and asked the u/s tech to turn off my viewing monitor.
2. Prior to the appointment, I stopped by a local bakery to order my own gender reveal cake. Weird, right? I gave them all of the details -- with the obvious exception of the color for the inside filling.
3. At the end of my ultrasound, I gave the tech a card with the number to the bakery and asked her to call them with the results.
4. I left the appointment, went by the bakery, picked up a pink and a blue balloon, and headed home.

At home, we gathered around the cake, turned on the video camera, and cut into that beautiful cake! Now, keep in mind that ALL of us were ((sorry baby #4)) TEAM GIRL. Even Chase and E. It was the cutest thing. But especially LO. And even I was completely convinced it would be a girl. You can just IMAGINE the SHOCK when hubs and I cut into the cake and saw lots and lots of blue filling.

I immediately looked at LO and she said she was disappointed, but she would still love him.

WHEW!

My sweet precious girl!

So there we go! The exciting news of baby #4!

Here's a little glimpse of my sweeties patiently waiting for the big reveal...

And I just had to share this one of Chase. He's so crazy. And so big!! And so into Pokémon (No more Mario!! Can you believe all that you've missed with my lack of blog posts??).

Catching Up... Again

Who drops a "We're having another baby!" bomb on their blog and lets almost TWO MONTHS go by without so much as a single word or update?

((points at herself))

-------} THIS GAL! {-------

I mean, really, this blog has been my outlet to the world, my public journal, my brain dump onto proverbial paper, since June 3, 2008. I did the math. That's going on NINE years, folks. For nine years, I have shared {almost} every detail of the many happenings in mine and my family's lives.

Spoiler alert: Having 3 kids done totally messed me up! At least from a blogging standpoint (and probably many other standpoints as well, but we won't get into all of that now). Anywho, I realized after E was born that I didn't find as much time for blogging. Was being a parent to three kids really that different from two?

But further unofficial research also uncovered the fact that I DID, in fact, find time for Facebook. Lots and lots of time for Facebook. All of my time: Facebook. Sure, I love the social aspect of it, but it's not very useful for journaling. For record-keeping. For brain-dumping. All of the things my blog has always been for me.

With that in mind, I'm going to try a little experiment. I am going to -- wait for it! -- DELETE the Facebook app from my phone.

((pause for audible GASPS))

That's right! I've heard it's possible to do this. I mean, I certainly don't have any experience with it. I certainly can't recall a time in my life during which I didn't have the Facebook app on my cellular device. I'm thinking it's quite possible I may lose touch with the millions (LOL) of people I connect with daily. But it's worth it to me.

Why?

Because my family is more important.

There. I said it. That's it! That's my reasoning! Less time on the Facebook app on my phone should, in my calculations, result in more time with my family. Like, time that I'm really THERE with them, ya know? Not watching-the-latest-Marvel-giphy-on-my-iPhone-while-my-daughter-shares-a-crucial-life-changing-moment-she-experienced-before-breakfast kind of there. See the difference?

The other side of my decision will hopefully result in more blog posts! I know that sounds so 1997, but I love reading through posts from years ago and reliving the experiences our family has shared. In fact, just today I realized there were several blanks in E's 1st year baby book, and I felt like a terrible mommy! However, I jumped onto my blog here and was able to rediscover those special milestones with E... first tooth, first time rolling over, first time crawling, first time walking... so many special times! And it was all right here. On my blog. Perfect.

So keep an eye out for more posts from me here. And pictures, too! And fun announcements. And more baby milestones.

I'm happy to be "back."