Surprise!

Camden is going to be a big brother!  My official due date is February 17, 2011.  Those of you that know my sweet husband are aware that he is obsessed a big fan of Michael Jordan.  If Baby 2 happens to arrive on its due date, he or she will share a birthday with #23.

We have debated telling family and friends this early on in the pregnancy but we realized that neither one of us could keep it a secret for too long.  That, and I'm already showing a little bit.  I'm hoping I'm just bloated but I've already had someone ask me when I'm due.  Joking aside, the main reason we wanted to tell everyone this early is so that you can keep this little baby and our family in your prayers.  Please pray that Baby 2 is healthy.  Please also pray for an uneventful pregnancy.  We had lots of stuff going on during my pregnancy with Camden (meetings with perinatologists, non-stress tests, high blood pressure, etc) and I'm starting to feel a lot of that anxiety coming back.

We went for our initial ultrasound this morning and Baby 2 is measuring right on track and had a fabulous heartbeat!  It has already learned how to wave hello!  All it needs now are some arms.

Right now, Baby 2 is the size of a sweet pea:

We haven't decided yet if we are going to find out the sex of the baby.  Patrick let me decide when we were pregnant with Camden so it's his turn this time:)    We go back in a few weeks for another ultrasound called an NT (nuchal translucency) scan where they will be able to give us an idea if the baby is at risk for certain types of birth defects.  There is also a sequential blood screening that goes along with it.  When I was pregnant with Cam, my doctor only recommended this test for high risk patients so we didn't have it but this time around it's become routine.  Plus we get to see the baby again!  This pregnancy is not considered high risk but because of Camden's dwarfism we were also offered an amnio to see if Baby 2 is affected.  We declined.  Because Cam's dwarfism was spontaneous and neither of us are carriers of the mutation, there is very little chance that Baby 2 will have hypo. 

When we were leaving our ultrasound after talking about all of the testing that's available to us, I couldn't help but wonder how we never found out that Camden had hypo before he was born.  With all of the technology available, it just amazes me that there weren't any clues along the way.  It wouldn't have changed anything if we had known before he was born, but maybe it would have helped us prepare a little more.   

Things like that make me realize how purposeful God's plan is and I revel in the fact that even though it may not be what we expect, it's perfect anyway.  I may never understand why things happened the way they did but I have faith that they happened that way for a reason.  And I'm okay with that.