We’re Having A Baby!

Happy New Year!

In case you missed it, 2016 is going to be slightly super duper crazy for the Cotten house.

We’re having a baby!

Since I kind of left you hanging after our announcement yesterday, here’s the scoop on our little Baby C2!

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how far along? | I am currently slightly over 17 weeks pregnant.

What the what?! I know. I’m officially due on June 8, 2016, however it has already been determined that I will be having a repeat c-section. So, this baby will more than likely be here in very early June or very late May.

 

secrets! *gasp!* | Up until now, the only people “in the know” have been our parents, our siblings, a few really close friends and our employers. In fact, we didn’t even tell our grandfathers until Christmas last week. Do you know how hard it is to host a beer-themed baby shower while hiding a pregnancy?! So, why have we been keeping this pregnancy under wraps for so long?

No reason, really.

Maybe it’s a second child thing, but it has actually been nice to enjoy this pregnancy without the whole world knowing. We’re about two weeks past the point when I was successfully hiding the belly, but thankfully no one called me out on it. If you saw me recently, thank you for just assuming I’m getting fat.

 

 

announcement | I didn’t know I was pregnant, but I kind of knew I was pregnant. I just had a feeling. And conveniently, the pregnancy test confirmed it sometime in September.

I was sitting outside watching the “Super Blood Moon” one evening (remember that?) when my husband joined me before heading to bed. We sat in silence for awhile, before I said, “We need to talk about something.”

He said, “You’re pregnant.”

Turns out men have those intuitions too, sometimes.

 

gender | After a small debate, we have decided that we will find out the gender at our 20 week ultrasound (which is just a couple weeks away!). I, personally, did not want to find out. Since we’re having a scheduled c-section, and we already have all of the gender-neutral baby gear that we could possibly need, I kind of wanted to have a surprise. Mr. Cotten, on the other hand, is extremely impatient. Instead of spending the next five months torturing him, I took one for the team.

If I had to put money on it right now, I would guess Baby C2 is a boy. Courtny, on the other hand, is hoping for another girl. We shall see!

 

big sister | We talk about the new baby with Dorothy all the time, but I’m pretty certain she has no idea what’s going on. Every single time we ask her about the baby, she says it’s a “boy baby.” And we should name it Guy, after her beloved purple cow. Sometimes she says we should name the baby Brynzlee, but we told her that name is taken.

We have successfully *knock on wood* moved Dorothy out of the crib to a big girl bed. Just this week we moved her to her “big girl room” downstairs… and the first night was ROUGH… but so far, so good. The room move is probably a bigger adjustment for momma than it is for D, simply because I have always been within a few steps of her bed and now I’m a whole floor away.

I’m an emotional momma when I’m preggers.

We’re also on the verge of potty training! Dorothy has gone in the potty a few times now pretty much on her own, without us trying. We’re going to get serious about it soon, so that hopefully we only have one in diapers this summer!

 

momma | I’m doing okay. This pregnancy has been completely different than the first go – Dorothy was pretty easy until the third trimester. No nausea, no fatigue… I just felt fine.

This kid made me very nauseous during the first trimester. I’m exhausted. I have aversions to smells and foods. I crave pickles, because I’m a stereotype. My lower back feels like it’s ripping apart, and my hips feel unstable. And to top it all off, I started showing way sooner. As in, I was wearing maternity jeans at Dorothy’s birthday party in mid-October.

Even with all of that, I’m feeling far less anxiety with this pregnancy. I have a hard time remembering how far along I am, and I’m SHOCKED that I’m already nearly halfway done. I’m not really nervous about adding another baby to the mix – which means I’m either mentally prepared after doing the baby thing once already, or I’m in total denial. In fact, we’re already planning a family vacation for when Baby C2 is only two months old… because I’m crazy.

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We are over the moon excited, and can’t wait to meet this new addition to our family! Stay tuned for much, much more on my pregnancy and our family’s transition to a party of four.