Baby #2 is On the Way!

Yay! We are having another baby! This has been a terribly hard secret to keep for the past few weeks, but now we can shout it out! Yesterday we went to our first doctors appointment and then did about 6 hours of telling our huge family. Here's how our day went:

• Our appointment was at 9. We registered, sat down for 1 minute, and then we got called back to get the ultrasound. I had never had an ultrasound this early with Ava, so I really didn't know what to expect. The ultrasound lady just keep looking at this screen and there would be a beeping sound every so often and we were all so quiet for at least 5 minutes, it could've been an hour though. One thing I don't like is silence. And there was a lot of silence. The ultrasound tech and Kyle were both staring at the screen with straight faces, so at that point I started praying and waiting more. Finally, she turned the screen for me to see, and there it was. This tiny little baby...the head, the body, I could see little arm and leg buds, and the most exciting thing to see there was the flutter of the its little heartbeat. I just sobbed. I couldn't believe it! The tech just let me stare at the screen for a long time and it was so weird because I could see exactly what this baby was doing inside of me. I asked what the heartbeat was and she said 180 bpm (which Old Wive's Tales would say is a girl, but we know that's not exact). A few minutes later, she sent me back to the waiting room. We went back and waited maybe five more minutes before a nurse called me back, weighed me, and got me settled into a room. She took my blood pressure (and said it was amazing), and told me to change into a gown (which was really more of a poncho and made me laugh hysterically until the doctor came in. I hadn't met my new doctor yet (because my old one moved away :( ), so I was a little apprehensive about meeting her. I knew she was young, but I also knew she was good. She came in and talked to us a lot and did my exam. I decided I really liked her. She's straightforward and very kind. Plus, she's had two of her own children, so it's nice to know that she knows exactly what I'm going through. So, the doctor sent us on our way again, to make a new appointment, and head down to the lab to get my blood work done. This is NOT what I was excited about. I went down and had SIX vials of blood drawn, gave a urine sample, and fled from that place! We went outside, where my sister was waiting with Ava.

• Once we got in the car, we told Ava the big news, showed her the ultrasound pictures and waited for her reaction. It took her a while, to understand that she could not get her baby right now. She has been looking at my belling and laying her face on it saying, "awww, you're so cute." It's probably the sweetest thing she's ever done.

• After we told Ava, we started our trek around town to tell all our families. We showed them several pictures of Ava my sister had taken that morning and then I said, "Oh, we do have one more, and I got you your own copy." We gave them the ice cream and pickles picture. Oh my goodness.....the reactions we got were priceless. It took everyone FOREVER to get it, except Kyle's dad. Everyone is pretty excited!
  

We were excited to tell our friends last night. We've gotten lots of sweet messages and phone calls. I will leave you with some pictures.