BOY!!!

Our new little guy!

Yes, that's right, the Barnes Family has another little boy on the way! We went for our ultrasound this past Friday and we were thrilled to see a healthy and active little guy! I think in some ways Carl and I were surprised to be having another boy. We both grew up as part of a pigeon pair and I think we were somehow expecting that our children would be that way too. It turns out God has other plans :) I was a little sad at first to think we wouldn't be having a girl this time around, but then the more that I thought about it, I realized just how wonderful it will be for Aiden to have a brother. Aiden is the type of boy that needs a brother. Goodness, I need him to have a brother. He is ALL boy and I get weary with his boundless energy and excitement. Another boy to play with... and wrestle with... will be such a joy and a blessing (although I'm sure at times crazy too)! We cannot wait to meet this new little man :)

I was looking at the ultrasound pictures and was wondering if baby will look similar to Aiden. I then started looking through some pictures of Aiden when he was a newborn and I think I do see some possible resemblance.

Notice the chin and the mouth...

...I think the shape looks the same.

See his open little mouth...

... it reminded me of this picture I took Aiden's first night home from the hospital. Ha, although this picture is deceiving, he cried almost the whole night long!

We don't have a name yet for this little one. Carl and I can't seem to agree on what we like. We have the 100,000 + Baby Names book, but it is like a maze going through it. Probably 80-90% are names I would never even consider in a thousand years. HA!

Now that we know we will have 2 precious boys, I think Carl and I are even more eager to pursue adoption down the road if that is God's will. It just seems like such a wonderful way to complete our family. We don't know what God has in store, but we are talking about it and praying about it and we are excited to see where God leads. We are so very thankful for His kind and gracious gifts to us!

I have always wanted to have my own vegetable garden. I liked the idea of the convenience and cost-saving factor, as well as the fact that you can grow a heathier product since you control what goes in the soil and what isn't sprayed on the plants. Surprisingly, Carl has been just as excited about it as I have. Usually he just lets me implement things that I think will be beneficial and healthy for our family and he is happy (most of the time :) ) to go along with my ideas, but with this he has been genuinely excited. I think it is largely due to the fact that growing up, his grandparents grew most of their own fruits and vegetables in their yard and he has very fond memories of that.

Since we made the switch to purchasing only organic foods last year to improve our health, we have been even more eager to get our little garden started. Some organic produce prices are comparable to conventional, but some are just downright expensive. We do belong to a local co op, but we have chosen not to order their produce box since I am pretty picky about what I want to buy each week, and I like to plan my menus in advance. A large portion of our grocery budget goes to fresh fruits and veggies, since this is what we eat the most, so we are hoping to see a drop in our budget now that we can grow some of our own.

For this first season we have planted 6 tomato plants, 3 zuchinni plants, 3 cucumber plants, 1 green pepper plant, cilantro, basil and mint.

My sweet hubby built 2 4x4 raised beds. We plan on adding another 2 next year if this season is a success. The flowers we planted along with the vegetables are Marigolds, they are supposedly an excellent natural pesticide. Plus they make the beds look pretty :)

We have 3 little tomatoes already. We planted 6 tomato plants (2 of which are cherry) since tomatoes are one of the veggies we use the most and they are pretty expensive at the store. $1.25 per organic tomato. Crazy!

Little zuchinni plants starting to sprout.

Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro and basil in this one. The cucumber plants have already started sprouting since I took this picture 2 days ago.

We are hopeful that this will be a rewarding experience. We both don't naturally have green thumbs, but we are eager to learn and we are thankful for the internet. I just learned of a excellent book called "Square Foot Gardening" which we are going to purchase. It has so much information about how to make the most of your own little garden and how to plant as much as you can with the space that you have. It looks lilke a lot of things we should have implemented this year, but that's okay, we can do better next year.

The boys went off to Walmart this weekend for a couple things and they brought this little T-ball set back for Aiden. He loves it and has been out everyday this week so far, hitting the ball over and over. It seems he has a good arm and can hit the ball quite far, but really what do I know. I just know that any exercise/sport that lets him run around and tire him out is a good one :)

Getting ready to hit!

Here he goes again... notice Puppy in the background

Run, little Aiden, run!

Just a cute one :)

He specifically wanted to have a picture taken with Puppy. Notice how he even put his arm around him. Lol!

This is Aiden's puppy, affectionately known as, well, Puppy. Puppy was actually a gift to me from a friend when I was back in college. Due to lots of moving since my college days, Puppy's home had been in a big apple box along with other things from over the years. About a year ago I was looking through some of my boxes to see what was inside, with Aiden helping of course, and he happened to spy this cute little dog. He asked me what his name was, but I couldn't think of a good name at the time, so I just said "Puppy". Well the name stuck and ever since he and Aiden have been the best of friends!

They do almost everything together. Over the year as Aiden has grown, so has his love for Puppy. He often takes car trips with us as we run errands, although Puppy must stay in the car. Puppy can almost always be found "helping" Aiden with whatever he is doing, be it playing with his trains, riding in his car, doing puzzles or just hanging out with us at the kitchen table while we eat or do crafts. When I put Aiden down for his nap in the afternoons I can hear all kinds of conversations over the monitor between the 2 of them... "Would you like a sip of water?" "oh, you would, here you go", "it's time to go to sleep Puppy, here's your blankie", "aww, Puppy, I weally love you". It just makes me smile!

About a month ago we thought we lost Puppy. We couldn't find him anywhere. The 3 of us practically turned the house upside down looking for him. We had to tell Aiden that we didn't know where he was, but we were sure he would come back. He was one sad little boy! It was then that I hopped on the computer and started trying to see if we could find a replacement. They no longer make Puppy, but I was able to find one on ebay from a store that sells discontinued toys. I quickly purchased it, but the next day we actually found Puppy inside Aiden's pillowcase of all places?? Silly us for not thinking to look in there! Replacement Puppy came in the mail a few days later and it is now up in our closet, still in the box, just in case we really do lose his little friend someday :)

Here is a picture of baby and me. I took this a week ago, so I'm sure I have popped out some more. I am almost 20 weeks. Yay!

This past Sunday we ended up in the ER for a good part of the day. I have been having lots of Braxton Hicks with this pregnancy, but I haven't been too worried since I had plenty of them with Aiden too. However on Sunday, for whatever reason, I was having tons. All the books say you shouldn't have more than 4 an hour, but I was having way more than that. They just kept coming. At one point, my stomach stayed firm for over 20 minutes. That definitely freaked me out, so we decided it would be best to head to the ER. Unfortunately because I was under 20 weeks (19 1/2 weeks at that point) they wouldn't see me up in labor and delivery, but had to be seen in the ER instead which meant everything took forever and made for a very long evening/night. Thankfully I saw a great Dr and he checked me to make sure I wasn't dilating and then did some other tests, as well as listened to the baby's heartbeat. All seemed well and so he called my OB just to make sure he wasn't missing anything. My OB said that as long as I wasn't dilating that I was fine to go home and that I needed to take it easy.

I have been trying to rest more the past couple days (not always easy with Aiden) and make sure I am drinking plenty of water. Thankfully the contractions have calmed down a lot and I praising God that baby is doing well.

So I thought it was time for another pregnancy update :) Today I am 18 weeks along and everything seems to be going well so far! I have yet to have my 20 week ultrasound, but I am sure it will be coming up in the next couple weeks, and we are praying that our little one is developing and growing well.

My nausea and throwing up started to slowly get better around 14/15 weeks. I am still nauseous each night, but I have only thrown up once in the past couple weeks. What a relief! I am a terrible thrower upper, not that anybody is a good one, but I still "almost" cry each time :( I am also eating most foods again (but still gluten-free, etc.) and thankfully I am almost back at my pre-pregnancy weight this week after losing 7 pounds in the first trimester. I will say that being gluten-free has been really hard during this pregnancy. It didn't bother me before getting pregnant, but now I am really craving bready things and none of the GF stuff I make seems to satisfy. I honestly would just love to have a Subway sandwich or even a handful of (not rice) crackers :) Oh well, I am definitely not going to start eating gluten now, since it really does seem to be helping my AS!

I did have a pretty bad arthritis flare during my 14th week. It was mainly in my right SI joint, but I was in a lot of pain and I had trouble walking. I had started to get upset thinking about having to take medication that so many books and internet threads (yes, I know, I need to stay off google) say are big "no, no's"  Thankfully, my sweet OB/GYN was happy to let me take the medication I needed, and reassured me that it would not harm the little babe, and reminded me that in the first 2 trimesters most NSAIDS have a category B rating, which is the same as Tylenol. The flare lasted a week and then one morning I woke up and the pain was gone. Just like that, and since then I have been feeling good! What a blessing!

Our little one is moving like crazy! I felt the first kicks on my birthday at 14 wks 5 days. At first I thought that I couldn't be feeling movement so early since I only noticed Aiden in the 18th week, but then a couple nights later, while laying down in bed, I put my hand on my stomach, and sure enough, little one kicked my hand. It has got me wondering, though, if he/she will also have big feet like daddy or big brother or, help me, have the same energy level Aiden has :) :)

I told Carl the other night, I am just enjoying this pregnancy right now! I don't think I ever said that during Aiden's pregnancy. Not that I didn't love carrrying a child and all the wonder and excitement of a new life growing inside me, but it just really stunk being in pain all the time and my doctors not allowing me to take anything to find some relief. It probably also has a lot to do with the fact that there were many times over the past few years that I had resigned myself to the fact that I would not be pregnant again. I didn't think I would feel the joy of a little life moving inside my womb again, or being able to watch my tummy grow, or even just look through pregnancy books and marvel at how our baby is developing each week. Now that I am experiencing those things, my heart is just bursting with praise and thanksgiving to God!!