And now, the day has finally arrived to unveil “What’s Going On?”  Your guesses with the clues have been so much fun and I appreciate you making me laugh.  Thank you!

Okay… I told you there were TWO crazy things happening, so let’s start off unveiling “Crazy Thing No. 1:”

Yup, that’s right: we’re pregnant with baby No. 4.  After my last pregnancy ended in miscarriage during the end of the first trimester, I haven’t wanted to spread the word high and low yet, for fear we’d lose this baby, too.  However, the baby is doing really well and my doctor has no reason to suspect that this pregnancy won’t go full term.  The baby was measuring small for how far along I should have been, which made me really nervous, but that little gummy bear just keeps on growing and has a good strong heartbeat, so things are looking good.  I’m almost 10 weeks along now in the pregnancy and am due on September 19th.

With every pregnancy I’ve thanked my lucky stars to not have had my third trimester during the summer… now, however, I will have my full third trimester during the hottest part of the year – hello swollen feet and ankles.  With my other three kids I delivered in December, March and May, so all my maternity clothes are long-sleeves and pants.  I suppose it will be fun this time to not have to bundle up with a big belly.  Regardless, I’m really happy for this pregnancy.  My youngest will be over 2 years old when the baby comes, which is really nice spacing.  My older two will be 4.5 years old and 3 years old – they’re SOOO excited.

With all that said, though, I will have 4 kids under the age of 5, which sounds a bit insane.  I’ve loved having my older 3 kids so close together; they’re such great friends and play together really well all day long.  However, a 4th?!  I’ve been pretty sick with this pregnancy (Crazy Thing No. 2 is part of the problem) and it’s been hard to be excited about being pregnant as the pregnancy itself is overwhelming and then when the baby comes, that could be overwhelming, too.  However, remember how I said on Tuesday (today) I’d get news on both crazy things?  Well, that was referring to my OB/GYN appointment that was scheduled today.  Last Thursday I was so sick and in so much pain that I actually went to my doctor then and she sent me for an ultrasound (I know, coulda unveiled at that point, but why spoil the fun?)

Enter Crazy Thing No. 2:

I have an ovarian cyst the size of a golf ball.  Woot.

My doctor had seen it in her office ultrasound exam a few weeks ago, but with my continued pain and discomfort, she sent me for an extensive ultrasound last Thursday.  The good news was that I got to see my little gummy bear baby AND I got to hear the heartbeat!  Isn’t that the BEST sound in the whole world?  Immediately, I fell in love with this little baby and all my worries about being overwhelmed washed away.  (Note: at this stage in the pregnancy I think the baby’s look like gummy bears with their little arm buds and leg buds growing).

The bad news was that the ovarian cyst is the same size… hasn’t gotten smaller.  The tech found that the cyst has sprung a small leak and all the fluid it leaks is very irritating and painful to your insides.  This could mean that it will continue to leak until it gets smaller or that it’s trying to burst (pain that is supposed to bring you to your knees).  It could also mean that the cyst will stay the same size all the way through the pregnancy and I will stay in a lot of pain and discomfort until the baby grows bigger, more out of the pelvic cavity and up into the lower abdomen, so that it’s not squishing the cyst as much… that can take 3-5 weeks.  So…. needless to say, all of this has been a major curve ball in my plans for life right now.

Okay, so here’s a quick synopsis of the clues and how they relate:

• Clue No. 1 – Messy kitchen -> Feeling so crappy means household things are slipping through the cracks… it makes me crazy, but can’t be helped too much, I suppose.
• Clue No. 2 – Golf ball -> The cyst is the size of a golf ball.
• Clue No. 3 – RawMelissa Chocolate Raspberry Pie -> Isn’t the first trimester awful with finding food that you can choke down and not gag on?  Luckily, I can always eat this pie and still love it.
• Clue No. 4 – I {Heart} Sweat Pants -> Every day I’m grateful for sweat pants because they are so dang comfortable, especially when things just aren’t feeling good.  What would life be like without sweat pants?  Seriously… think about it… scary.

And there you have it.  The big unveiling was probably not as exciting as your guesses, but I’m so happy to finally be able to have all of the pregnancy announced!

Tagged as: pregnancy