Announcing Little Buddy #2!

via lightworks360

So the secret is out...our family is expanding by two feet! And Jack is going to be a big brother. Baby Drennan #2 is scheduled to arrive late December, but who knows, could be November if things go the way they did for baby's big brother!

Jack has absolutely no idea what is going on or how much his life will change, but then again, I suppose we have no idea either! Sometimes I feel like we are just crazy for doing this all over again. And incredibly crazy if things go as they did with Jack! But we shall see in due time.

To answer some questions...

Do we have a nickname for Drennan Baby #2?

We have started calling him/her LB2 for Little Buddy #2...I'm sure it will change as time goes on, but for the sake of this post, let's refer to baby as LB2.

Will we find out LB2's gender?

Definitely! I'm not a huge fan of surprises. I was hoping we would already know by now considering my mom is an ultrasound tech at an OB clinic, but we just haven't found the time to do the ultrasound. So who knows if we will actually find out earlier than the average person. I think we found out at 15 weeks with Jack that he was a boy! I had an inclination with him and would have been incredibly shocked if he had been a girl! This time around, I really don't know. I had a dream a few weeks ago that we were having a girl. I kind of expect us to have a boy since our first was a boy, and I just imagine myself as a boy mom, but who knows. God knows, and we will found out in due time.

When is Baby #2 due?

LB2's official due date is December 30th, but I can promise you LB2 will be arriving earlier than that. The little Drennan people will most likely be more or less a month apart. If Baby #2 was born on his/her due date, then they would actually only be a week apart. But the Dr. said her goal was to get me to 37 weeks and then I would most likely be induced at that time. I told her that my goal was to bring my baby home from the hospital. I would say our goals are more or less exactly the same. So we are guessing and I should really say hoping LB2 won't arrive until the first week of December. I wish we could hope for closer to the due date but the chances of that are slim.

So why did Jack arrive 6 weeks early again and how do you know this won't happen again with LB2?

The truth is...we don't. We could go through the exact same thing we went through with Jack. I could be hospitalized for a week, go into preterm labor, have a baby that is having heart decelerations and ultimately have a c-section...and a baby that is in the NICU for 3 weeks. Peter said if we had to go through all of that over again, then we may have to rethink having more kids in the future. Our hope and prayer is that this time it would be different. But only time will tell, and as traumatic as Jack's birth story was, it truly could have been so much worse. The difference this time around is that we are emotionally prepared to relive it all again. We know what that looks like. And we were so tremendously blessed by Jack's three weeks in the hospital. We got to know our baby while being surrounded with caring professionals who taught us how to care for him. How to hold him. How to feed him. How to change his diaper. How to touch him. And it was beautiful really. And the funny thing is...we don't know what it looks like to bring our baby home from the hospital.

And the reason why I was hospitalized in the first place was because I was diagnosed with high blood pressure at nine weeks pregnant with Jack. So they monitored me really closely, and told me all along that I would have a small baby due to the blood pressure medication I was on, which meant I would most likely have a c-section because he would reach a point where he would grow better outside of the womb than in. Also, considering he was small, he wouldn't be able to handle contractions, which would ultimately result in a c-section. Now my case was unique because I actually went into labor and had contractions and was dilating and everything the day Jack arrived...but with every contraction his heart rate dropped. Hence, a c-section.

So we are seeing an OB this time around vs. midwives and a blood pressure specialist. The OB is able to monitor my blood pressure all on her own and it's been great so far. She actually suggested I get off the blood pressure medication and just see what my blood pressure does, and if I'm honest, my blood pressure is normal at home when I test it...most of the time. And of course it's always a bit higher when I go to the Drs. office. But I think her hope is that we continue as things are without the medication, and baby continues to grow at his/her own pace without the medication. I'm sure in due time she will have to put me back on something, all in the hopes of preventing preeclampsia, but for now things are good.

This Drs. perspective is incredibly different than the specialist I saw with Jack, which has been really interesting. We feel empowered with options and truly a part of our medical decision making process, and that feels really good. This OB is okay with higher blood pressures (130/85), and the specialist was not. He wanted me to have normal blood pressures throughout my entire pregnancy even if that meant I would have a teeny baby. Different priorities. Different stories. Different people.

So how far along are you then...I'd rather not do the math?

So as of today I'm 16 weeks pregnant, which means baby is about the size of an avocado! I'm feeling pretty good now but the first trimester was rough. I was just so tired. There were days I would literally lay on the bed and shut the door and let Jack roam around the bedroom, opening drawers, pulling clothes out of the closet and things out from under the bed. And I didn't even care that I was going to have to clean up after him. I was too tired to care. And if I'm honest, I'm still really tired and even take naps during the day without felling guilty about it...even when there's laundry to fold or dishes to do or a house to clean. I have extended so much grace to myself this time around and my husband is amazing!

How does this pregnancy compare to the first?

Being pregnant the second time around is really different than the first time around.  I don't really have time to focus on the baby inside of me and quite often forget that I'm even pregnant. Shh...don't tell LB2. It still feels extremely surreal to be honest...surreal to be having another baby and surreal that we now have a toddler.  I am indifferent to sweets - just want carbs and I'm not a huge fan of vegetables, only if I can dip them in Ranch dressing. I still don't like the smell of bacon. Gross. I want everything to be ice, ice cold. Maybe that has something to do with the 90 degree heat we are having these days. Who knows? I was doing so good with exercising and eating healthy and counting my steps with my UP band...and then I found out I was pregnant, the UP band broke, and now I have no interest in exercising or counting my steps. I'm incredibly indifferent and utterly exhausted. The thought of running makes me feel sick...haha...again, maybe it's because it's so hot out! I know, I know...I really should start exercising again, or else I'm just going to pile on the weight with all those carbs I'm eating!

And that's all for now folks. I realized recently that I was already 16 weeks pregnant when we revealed our big news about Little Buddy AKA Jack - read about that reveal here.

And here's the sweet photo we posted on Instagram and Facebook today. Love this little guy. "What's that you say? I'm going to be a big brother??"

xoxo,

From our Family of four!