whoa, baby.

just a little peek at the belly.

please ignore the heinous wallpaper in my bathroom.
(i literally can't even talk about it. it's hunter green and maroon. which makes me want to barf even more than this pregnancy. and that's saying something...)

also note the child throwing a royal fit over not being able to hold the camera exactly when she wanted to.

isn't that face awesome?!

(so are you as alarmed as i am that my belly is this big when i'm 8 weeks pregnant?! or is it just me?)

whoa, baby.

100% accuracy

once upon a time i was just barely pregnant with my first child. i can remember sitting on the couch in our condo with dave, wondering what our family would one day look like. we imagined we'd have a boy and then a girl.

and then we'd have twins. a boy and a girl.

(who daydreams about having twins?!)

umm. us? there are a lot of twins in my family, so i really almost assumed i would have twins. it seemed inevitable.

it gets weirder: i had a dream the other night that i had twins. you know those dreams- the ones that you wake up from and you're not sure if it was real life or not? it was one of those. and then i was greeted at church that same morning with my sister whispering in elias' ear that she and he should be praying that mommy has twins. now, i don't know how many of you have sisters out there, but we have this creepy connection we call sister sense, and sunday, it allowed the crazy thought of twins to be both in my mind and hers.

i have to tell you, i was a little freaked out after dreaming about twins, and remembering that dave and i thought we'd have twins back in 2006, and then hearing my sister randomly out of nowhere telling my son to PRAY for twins...

and every time i look down, i'm like "whoa- my belly is, like, huge." and i feel like i want to barf everywhere all day every day, which was never the case with my first two pregnancies. so while this is my third child and my belly will get bigger sooner (and yeah, i could stand to lay off the french fries...), and while every pregnancy is different, so my nausea means, well, nothing...

i'm admittedly sort of afraid of my ultrasound on april 5th. i mean, i'm way excited to see a little baby, for sure, but now i'm a little nervous there's going to be, like, more than one.

so. i've just shared my crazy person inside thoughts with you. i'm a lit-tle scared to say them out loud because we've been right so far surmising we'd have a boy and then a girl...

but now? i'm decidedly undecided about going for 100% accuracy.

don't drink the water

"don't drink the water" is phrase used frequently at new hope. you see, when one person gets pregnant, everyone gets all nervous and suspicious. because when one gets pregnant, it starts a pandemic. i can't remember a time in 20 years at new hope where someone was pregnant alone; there are always 3 or more women pregnant at the same time. it's just how we do it here. i can't explain it. luckily, the quota of 3 is already filled right now, which may mean i'm safe. because seriously, God has his own plans and sure does some miraculous wonders with our women's wombs. impossibility and pregnancy are never in the same sentence (umm, except right here). just ask leeann and elya, two of my featured mamas in this blog.

basically, i'm feeling the mama love lately, with all these babies and pregnancies and all. it's like i'm in baby lal-la land, all drippy and excited and ooey and gooey over pregnant women and/or teeny tiny babies.

and i'm not even joking about the number of babies and bellies. let's see...

my best friend leelee is unexpectedly pregnant with her third when there was a 99.9% chance that could not happen; my friend elya is miraculously pregnant with a baby girl (tentatively named "charlotte" by yours truly) when doctors pretty much told her there was no way for her to conceive; my fellow blog friend suzannah is expecting a baby boy, and my west coast girlfriend jesse just had her third, a baby boy named benjamin. not to mention my friend april who just had her third, bridget, and dave's cousin gretchen, who just had her third, emaline. fellow-MOPS attenders, shannon and christy, pregnant with their second and fifth, respectively. also pregnant, my friend nick's wife, tracy, with a boy, and my college friend sara, and high school friend jen. oh, and sarah just had a baby boy, jaxon, a couple months ago, who is really quite adorable.

EVERYONE is pregnant or snuggling babies!

this fever has led everyone and their mother to continue asking me if i'm expecting. especially because leeann and i have been pregnant together with both our babies (who are...no longer babies). it's funny, i kind of feel like i'm leaving her out on a limb or something by not being pregnant! it feels unnatural. truthfully, seeing all these babies and bellies is making me wonder if i want another. i think in theory i do, but in reality...i don't. it's like being pregnant- it's cool in theory, but when you're carrying another person around (that kicks and punches you) all day, every day for 40 weeks, it's not so cool anymore. at least i didn't think it was. so i'm not sure.

right now, i feel very content and blessed with two.

and...i feel busy.

so i give it up to the women who have three or more small people to tend to. you're more severely outnumbered than i am, so i commend you. you might be a saint. if not, you're likely quite close.

and i'm going to keep thinking on this whole baby thing. right now, i'm going to enjoy what God has given me, and see what his plan unfolds. i don't know...i may find that ribbons is the only gal around here having lots of babies :)