A reason for the silence...

...I've been trying to keep a secret!  We are currently 11 weeks in with Baby #2!  I guess I felt like I couldn't post without spilling the beans, but there has been a lot going on--the month of October seemed to fly by!

October 1st we welcomed baby Nicholas Northrup Chicken into the world!  Shortly thereafter James's mom came to visit for 10 days, and we were able to get out and do lots of things over fall break when she was here.  We visited Walden Farms, the Discovery Center, the mall playground, and Kids' Castle.  After she left, it was only a couple of days before Cadence got a nasty cough--I think it was probably RSV since it came with a pretty high fever (103 degrees), and we had about 4 days with little to no sleep.  I even slept on the floor in her room with her a couple of nights so we could both get a little rest.  It was so sad to see her little body dealing with such a horrible cough!

Then...it was Halloween time!  Cadence dressed up as a Rockford Peach, and although not everyone knew what her costume was from, those who did were pretty impressed.  I wasn't sure how it was all going to come together since my sewing skills are a little rusty, but given enough time I guess I can figure anything out.

Oh, rewind, about Baby #2!  I took a test on September 25, but it was negative, which I expected since given the timing of things it was probably a little too early to get a + test.  However about a week later I was needing to pee all the time--which seemed weird to me.  So on October 6 we went to early church and I dropped James off at the dining hall since he was on duty and it was time for brunch.  Cadence and I came home, and I decided to take a test, just in case.  Boom!  Positive!  I went back and forth as to how I should tell James--I knew I couldn't tell him at brunch because his reaction would make people wonder, so I decided to spell out, "Mommy is Pregnant" using Cadence's blocks on the floor of her playroom.  James would see it would he took out the dogs, so it seemed like the perfect plan!  So we went to meet him up at brunch, stayed to chat for a little while, and then came back home.  He took the dogs out, didn't see it, and then brought them back in and Maggi knocked over one of the blocks as she ran through.  He then noticed it and said, "Mommy is Regnant?  What's regnant?"  I looked at him for a second, saw he still was getting the picture, and then flipped the block back over, and he said, "What?!?  Really?  You're pregnant?"  So it's safe to say he was surprised!

We had our first doctor's visit while James's mom was here, but nothing major to report from that.  We have a new doctor, Dr. Salter, who is very young, but very nice.  She does seem to want to push me towards a C-section since Cadence was so big, but I think in the end she will respect my wishes, and having been through it once I feel like I can better advocate for what I want.  Our second visit was on November 12, and I had a transvaginal ultrasound.  They wanted an early ultrasound so that they could pinpoint the due date, since we weren't really sure how long my cycle was when I got pregnant.  She also thought it would be nice for us to see the little baby after our unfortunate experience last spring.  I was so glad we got to have the ultrasound, it was amazing to see how even at 10.5 our little raspberry was definitely a baby--seeing the little feet and hands moving around--s/he even played peekaboo with us!  They said our estimated due date was right on, so June 7, 2014 is our goal!