Pressing On

There are days when I think to myself, “However did I make it last year?” Granted, right now I am experiencing pregnancy exhaustion. That might be the reason that I was reminding myself this morning of what I was able to do during Seth's deployment. Or, it might be that I was recently told that I have my hands full with the boys. From time to time, it just hits me, the deployment year was hard. I struggled through it. I had great times with my kids. I also had some tremendously hard days. I learned a lot about myself and the difference my attitude makes in the struggles of each day. I had friends say to me during the deployment, “I don’t know how you do it.” The truth is, I have no idea how I did it either. I just did the best I could. I wasn’t on top of everything but I managed the most important things. I loved the boys, loved and missed Seth, tried and refined my faith in a faithful God. I remember toward the end of the deployment I felt like I had failed in some ways. I was reminded that, “You haven’t failed if you haven’t given up.”

Telling the Boys

We told the boys about the pregnancy first--before telling the family or friends. We are all at the table finishing a snack. Seth reminded them how we told them first about him getting out of the Army. Then, he said we had something special to tell them. He went on to say that Momma has a baby growing in her belly.

Jonathan jumped up out of his seat, looked at my belly and said, "Are YOU PREGNANT?!!" It was really cute and funny at the same time.

Then Jonathan or David (can't remember which) asked if it was going to be a girl or a boy. Seth explained (come to think of it, I don't think I did much talking) that we didn't know yet. Jonathan says, "Oooooh, I hope it is a BOY. Four boys would be SOOO cool."

In the days since Jonathan and David have talked about the baby and whether it will be a boy or girl. When Jonathan talks about having 4 boys, David reminds him, "We ALREADY have 4 boys...Daddy is a BOY." David also always insists, "Daddy said the baby MIGHT be a girl-u-l."
Jonathan has commented that my belly isn't getting very big yet (thank goodness!).

All Thomas knows is that we are suddenly talking about babies... mostly telling him that "pacis" are for babies! (I don't know how we are ever going to get him to break his ties to his pacifier. This is a new experience for us, too, since the other boys were not pacifier babies.)

Pregnancy Details

I was so happy to get the comments on my last post. (I am almost silly about it-- checking for comments quite often!) We are very excited about this pregnancy. Here are some details... I am due on November 16. That is based on my own calculation. I called last week for a doctor appt and the first one they could give me was 3 weeks away! (You gotta love the speedy military health care system!) So, I am really looking forward to my 1st appt on May 1st. I will also be done with my 1st trimester at that point. We are very excited about baby #4. In case you are wondering, we aren't trying for a girl. We just want to have 4 children. It is VERY easy to imagine a 4th boy in our Owen house! If we had a girl... well, I would have fun buying pink, that's for sure!!
I guess that's all the details I have for now.
Oh, one more thing, we have no idea where we will be living when this little one comes along! Seth is due to be out of the Army by mid July. It is certainly going to be one exciting year!!