Baby Makes Four

It’s been a minute since I’ve checked in on The Brunette One. It’s crazy to think of a time when I spent every spare minute blogging and would get a post up five days a week for months (years) on end. While it makes me sad that doesn’t happen any more, that just isn’t my current reality. 

I’ve spent the past few months tackling a new job at work and keeping up with a very active toddler. If that wasn’t enough, we are expecting baby #2 next May! Our hands may be full but our hearts are fuller. We are so thankful to be blessed with adding another little one to our family.

Arriving at the decision to try for number #2 wasn’t necessarily as easy as some make it out to be. Because when you are truly in throws of raising a toddler, the thought of adding a newborn to the mix is truly terrifying, let alone all of the additional expenses (i.e. DAYCARE) that come along with it. Can I just win the lottery right now? Or hit a big raise/promotion at work? How are we going to do this? Along with the thoughts of can it happen again? If we start trying, will it happen right away or take awhile? You can truly go down a rabbit hole. 

If I’m being completely honest, a big part of my fear was what if our next baby has all the same health issues that Jack has? Would we be crazy to want to bring another baby into the world with the possibility of having food allergies, severe eczema, and EoE? Even one doctor once gave us a “look” and pretty much told us we were crazy to want to bring another baby into the world (NO JOKE) as we we at the doctor’s office for an appointment for Jack. Cody said something along the lines to help ease my mind/heart that if this baby has the same issues as Jack, the good news is, we already know how to handle all of these things. Despite all of his health issues, Jack is a happy and for the most part, healthy kid. We will be fine, we’ve got this. It’s true, we will be fine no matter what happens. 

Now, onto the details…

This time around we will be finding out the sex of the baby and I’m anxious to turn our guest bedroom into a big boy room for Jack. Thankfully, our nursery is very neutral in design, and I have a few tweaks I want to make for Baby #2 but for the most part, the design will remain the same. We haven’t even discussed the idea of transitioning Jack out of a crib, but we did experience our first time of Jack climbing out of his crib a few weekends ago. 

As for me, I feel like I’m finally turning a corner. I was extremely tired and nauseous my first trimester and literally nothing ever sounded good to eat. I also just recovered from a 24 hour stomach bug, the absolute worst experience. Thankfully, I’m feeling almost 100% better and just it was just in time to enjoy some Thanksgiving goodness. 

This time around it’s much harder to take time to rest because I’m chasing around a toddler. Toddlers don’t really allow for mommy/daddy to ever sit down. Jack does a new thing where he will come up to you and grab your hand and say, “Come here, come on!” It’s too cute to ever turn down, though I know it will be much harder in the coming months to sit on the floor with him. I’m just soaking in as much solo Jack time as I can get, he’s pretty perfect, not that I’m biased or anything. 

Another thing running through my head is the question the doctors keep asking, “Do you want to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) or a scheduled c-section?” I’m terrified of both. I went into labor naturally but we ended up having an emergency c-section because Jack was in distress. I don’t know what either type of birth would be like, a VBAC (quicker recovery) or a scheduled c-section (which I’ve heard is 100x better than an emergency c-section). I’m fearful of taking care of a newborn and Jack wanting to do all the things when I would be unable to lift him up for weeks. It’s a very overwhelming decision, but thankfully I don’t have to make a decision quite yet. 

To sum it up, my thoughts are a little jumbled but my heart has never been more full with the thought of bringing another baby into our family and watching Jack become a big brother!