Clara's New Gig

It's a good thing that Clara loves babies, because one is expected to join our family at the end of January!  We are super excited and thankful and feel so very blessed.  I'm sure none of us fully realize what this change will mean for our family, but I think that Clara will be an excellent big sister.  A friend of mine says that a sibling is the greatest gift that you can give your child, so I try to remember that whenever small feelings of panic start to set in.

A little bit about this pregnancy:

-My official due date is January 31st.  Typically I prefer even numbers for some reason, but I think that the due date 1.31.13 is really kind of cool.

-I started showing much earlier with this pregnancy and feel huge (at 16.5 weeks) right now.  I haven't started to wear maternity clothes yet, but my wardrobe is definitely pretty limited.

-Thankfully I didn't need quite as much medical intervention this time.  In fact, I was fully expecting things to take as long as they did with Clara.  So this pregnancy, although desired and planned, still felt like a surprise!

-I have been more sick and felt sick for longer with this pregnancy than with Clara.  Weeks 6 to 9 were the hardest and nearly every afternoon I'd be curled up on the couch with full body aches and an overall flu-like feeling.  I'm so glad that phase of pregnancy is over.  Now that I'm in the second trimester I feel really good.

-Food aversions and preferences have been really similar to my first pregnancy - meat is the hardest for me (especially anything in a lot of sauce -- the thought of pulled pork makes my stomach churn).  Fruit and yogurt almost always sound good.

-I have my third doctor's appointment this week.  So far everything seems to be progressing normally and healthily.  We've had one ultrasound and heard the heartbeat and things are great!

-Spencer and I both feel like this baby is a girl, but partly I wonder if that's just because it's all we know so far.  We would be thrilled to have a boy or a girl.  Two little girls would be so fun, but so would a little boy and girl.  We should be able to find out in a few weeks.

-Mostly we are super excited to do all of this again.

Sweet little Clara Jane, fresh from heaven.  Less than one day old.

P.S. If you don't read my blog in a reader, you may have missed several updates I did yesterday.  Clara's 17, 18, and 19 month posts, Bear Lake, the 4th of July, and Clara getting dirty.