the post where I tell you I'm having a baby!

howdy.

so, I maybe should've buried the lead to make this a bit more interesting, huh? oh well, this is way more fun. and besides, we have been hiding this info long enough. it's time to share.

in the interest of full disclosure and sharing some things I wish I had known, I'll be giving details that some of you might not really want to know. and it's okay that you don't want to know. just skip those parts, or pretend like you didn't read them, or whatever.

so. we are having a baby. we are due on august 25th. I've a sneaking suspicion that it's a boy, but only a 50% chance of being right. One morning while drinking my orange juice I suddenly said, aloud and to only Gobi, Hazel, the baby in my belly and myself, "oh, you're a little boy, aren't you?" Hence, my sneaking suspicion. We shall see.

we are currently 17 weeks and 5 days pregnant. but we've only been "officially" having a baby since Thursday, since that's when I shared the news on the book of the face.

I know that 17 weeks is a kind of ridiculous amount of time to wait to share news like this. And I'm okay with that. In the interest of that whole things-I-wish-I'd-known part of this process...

From weeks 4-8 I was experiencing some slight bleeding. Nothing to worry about, they said, we'll check you out at your first appointment. I thought that when you went to your 8 week appointment you had two primary possibilities. 1. yay, baby has a heartbeat! 2. I am sorry to inform you [insert medical sad thing here]. I knew that there might be a complication or ect0pic pregnancy or whatever. But I really thought it was kind of cut and dry at that point. And since miscarriages run in my family, I thought I was going to get to breathe a huge sigh of relief after that appointment, as long as I experienced option 1.

I was terribly, terribly wrong. We had something that happens in 1% of pregnancies. this.

I won't be showing you pictures (pictures of my innards aren't for public consumption--but I'll email you one if you like). But I will tell you that the hemorrhage blob was bigger than the baby blob. Good news: strong, steady, appropriately placed heartbeat. Bad news: I was told they don't know why it happens, don't know what to do to fix it, that my risk of everything that wasn't a birth defect was increased, and that I needed to do everything I could to reduce stress and just be a princess (no exercise other than walking, no lifting, sit still as much as possible and be calm). riiiiiight. oh, and I was under strict orders not to g00gle. I gave my doctor my Girl Scout's honor and everything.

At 10 weeks, the baby was bigger and the hemorrhage was smaller, thank goodness! They told me it could resolve on its own, or that it could be there for my entire pregnancy and cause more bleeding, a later-in-term miscarriage, preterm labor and all sorts of freak-you-out kind of stuff.

But at 12 weeks, it was gone. I fully 100% believe in the power of prayer. I also believe in the power of acupuncture. And in the power of letting your body heal itself. And they combined together to make for a happy Carrie. :)

I wrote some posts in the interim and saved them in my email. Perhaps I will share soon.

But for now: surprise, we are having a baby! :)