New Years and New Baby

First and foremost: we had a blast in PA over the New Years weekend.  I love spending time with Jesse's side of the family, and even though some of the usual crowd couldn't attend, we managed to have a good time anyway.  We stayed up late-- one of us ridiculously late because he forget he ISN'T in college anymore and 4a is NOT a good bedtime-- ate a ton of food, did some shopping, ate some more, celebrated my MIL's birthday and celebrated the New Years very quietly because of a sleeping Lily.

New Years Eve was, as usual, busy for us.  Once everyone was ready, Mom/Dad Hildebrand, Uncle Don and Aunt Patty headed down to Bass Pro Shop while the rest of us went to the outlets and then the King of Prussia Mall.  At the outlets, Nikki and I of course spent some time in the Dooney & Bourke store while the boys perused the Black & Decker store.  Which, conveniently enough for married couples, are right next to each other.  Jesse found a killer deal on a set of power tools he has been wanting (half off an outlet store price?  Yes!) and after we were all done, had to stop at home to drop off our loot before heading to the KofP mall.  

One of Aunt Patty's favorite (if not THE favorite) New Years tradition is to bang pots and pans LOUDLY at midnight.  Because I'm a party pooper and don't really want this happening while Lily is asleep, this didn't happen last year.  But THIS year, we made some noise before Lily went to bed, and I think we all enjoyed ourselves.  Then, struggled to stay awake until 1210a so we can celebrate the beginning of 2012 and Mom's birthday.

Onto other news.

Jesse, Lily and I are expecting another baby June 25!  We're incredibly excited.  After my miscarriage in August, we feel incredibly blessed and fortunate for me to be pregnant again and so quickly.  We found out October 25, but I'm pretty sure we both had gut feelings before I took the test but didn't want to voice our opinions so we wouldn't get each other's hope up.  Anyway, the doctor that had performed the surgery told me that as soon as I discovered I was pregnant the next time, I needed to make sure to get into another doctor quickly to make sure this baby was in the right place.  And just throwing this out there, you really can't see too much on an ultrasound at 4ish weeks.  However, the next one at 8 weeks showed a little blob in the right location and a strong heart beat.  Betsy has loaned me her fetal doppler, so I have been listening to that little heart go on occasion.  

I'm 15 weeks along today, and am finally feeling better with the second trimester, but am still searching for energy and motivation.  The first 8 weeks were awful and I was incredibly nauseous and no food sounded appealing.  I was prescribed some medicine for nausea that helped, fortunately.  So, if you've seen me since October and had no idea I was pregnant..this is the only reason why.  A good friend of mine and I were discussing recently how with the second pregnancy, I don't have time to sit and feel awful all day, which I think helps me feel worse.  When I was pregnant with Lily and felt nauseous, I took a nap.  Now, I have a little silly to chase around and am working every morning so I can't just sit around for hours on end like a lump.

Telling our parents was really fun this time.  We had waited so long to tell anyone because we wanted to make sure everything was progressing normally before we made an announcement, and we decided Christmas would be a good time frame.  We cleverly disguised and wrapped arrows for both sets of parents and had them open them.  Jesse's parents were very excited and both had a bit of a chuckle at I'm sure how clever we were in the disguise once they saw what they were holding.  The significance of the arrow goes back to Psalm 127:3-5a:

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them."

And so, we gave our parents each a quiver and an arrow when we told them we were expecting Lily.  When they opened their presents of an arrow, they immediately knew what it meant.  

My parents found out Christmas morning when we were celebrating and opening presents with Jessie, Richard, Joel, Mama and Poppy.  I don't know how anyone else reacted because I was taking the pictures, but I think this pretty well sums it up:

I don't have a picture from today..I didn't like how I looked in it hah

9 weeks

13 weeks

That's about it for now!  Sorry this was so long, but, well, I've been waiting since October to blog about this!  

8 week old kid we're affectionately calling "Bob"