two more weeks down...

Here's my last belly photo taken 2 weeks ago (31+ weeks):

Here's me today (33+ weeks):

Not near as much "noticeable" change from the side view as my last comparison (see my last post), but if you look closely you can tell he's grown more upward in the last couple of weeks than out. From the kicks in my ribs, I'm not at all surprised. He's definitely getting longer and packing on some weight!

Even though he feels big, the measurements at my appointment last week verify that he's growing right on track. To the very week, actually.

This pregnancy has been so good to me. For those of you who know me, you know that I have pretty severe circulatory/vein problems that initially began while pregnant with Britten and required me to have surgery before getting pregnant with Chloe. But they still got so out of control with Chloe that it was literally debilitating and I could hardly get around the last couple of months of my pregnancy. We chose to stop having babies after Chloe because it was so horrible, and frankly, I was scared of what another pregnancy would do to my body.

Suffice to say, God had another plan for our family and despite all of OUR effort to NOT get pregnant, he blessed us with our 4th addition. Ironically, it was while I was at my pre-op appointment preparing for another surgery that I found out I was pregnant again. I can't say that my initial reaction was happiness...It was more like fear.

Fear of having yet another baby when I just stopped nursing Chloe and we just started sleeping through the night again! Fear of the financial implications of adding yet another child to the budget. Fear of starting the baby stage all over again, when I was so ready to put that behind me and move on in our life. But mostly fear of how this might affect my body (not in a "vain" - no pun intended - way, but physical). How could I keep up with everything in my life when struggling with the pain for almost 9 months?!?!

Once the news finally sunk in a little, it didn't take me long to get excited and realize that God gave us this baby for a reason. I assumed it was a boy from the beginning, only because God knew we were already content with the three beautiful girls He gave us...didn't He?!?!? :) Though we would've have been thrilled to have another girl, Andy and I were practically speechless when we found out we were having a boy. God is good. I decided to put my fear aside, leave it all in God's hands, and know that He is ultimately in control. Besides...in the whole scheme of life, it was only 9 months, and I could handle that.

With only about 5 1/2 weeks to go, I am totally amazed and honestly in awe of how good I've felt this pregnancy. I've had days where I'm in pain, and all my body aches to do it sit, but overall, I've been great, and my doctor even commented on how my veins don't look near as bad as they did while I was pregnant with Chloe.

Call it what you will - whether it's related to the hormonal difference between being pregnant with a girl vs. boy, or how the baby is positioned in the womb, or who knows what other medical mystery it might be - but I'm calling it what I think it is: a miracle!

So yeah, overall I'm very happy with how this pregnancy has gone/is going, and I haven't sweat the small stuff this time around. But that's not to say that I'm not looking forward to having this pregnancy done and over with...Because when it is finally done and over with, I'll be holding my little miracle in my arms.