The Pregnancy Announcement Blog Post.

Who has time to think of creative blog-post titles these days? Clearly not this girl. 
Sickness + insomnia + toddler = no creativity. 

So... in case you didn't read the title of this blog post, let me cut to the chase here:

I worked hard on teaching her that "shock face" for these photos. Now she loves to do it! :) 

Baby Moad #2 will be arriving sometime around July 22nd.

Hopefully not after, because... July is hot. And being pregnant is NOT...
fun in the summer. (so I hear) 

This right here is the very reason why I was completely MIA from blogging for like 3 months.
First trimester was NOT my time. So glad it's over.

Moving on.

If you have read my early blog posts where I talk about the experience of pregnancy and childbirth and my attitude towards it one would think:

Wow, this crazy woman ain't ever having another kid. 

And that's what I would have told you too... probably even up to a year after having Lucy!

Don't get me wrong. SHE.IS.AWESOME. 

We love her to pieces and can't get enough of her! She is truly a joy and a blessing in our life and has fulfilled it in ways I never could have dreamed. 

But parenting is hard, ya'll. 
So is childbirth. 
And pregnancy is no walk in the park. 

So those three things combined left me in a bit of a jaded place... for a time.

They say you get over all that and you forget. 
RIGHT!? Forget! How hilarious. 
Let me just be real... I definitely don't forget, it's just... a little fuzzier than it was and I realized I survived it somehow so... I will again. Probably. Maybe.

I never believed it... until this past summer. When all of a sudden I thought.

I want a baby. 

Then I stopped in my tracks, looked around and asked "Who said that"

Just kidding... Greg actually did that. Literally, that very thing. 

But the desire grew, and it grew in Greg and so... why not! Let's have another, Lord willing! :) 

Sure pushing out a watermelon is hard. 
Sure being up all night and all day with a screaming baby is a challenge. 
Sure your life pretty much halts and everything changes in one split second. 
But... kids are great! And any sacrifice they bring is worth it. 

So... I apologize and repent for my former Negative-Nancy take on this whole having-kids thing... because we are doing it again! 

But in all seriousness, we are overjoyed! That feeling, the over-joyed one, that too was a special new experience! When we first found out with Lucy it was totally unexpected! You can read about that here. It was not the happy, thrilling, excited moment one would have hoped for, or at least not at first!

This time around, I was anticipating and hoping and praying! And seeing the positive test brought joy to my heart and I even think I did a little dance... then took 3 more. :) 
Greg was equally as excited (Though I didn't see him break into a jig, doesn't mean he didn't... I just didn't see it) 

We told our families right away. I was about 6 weeks along. Greg's family reacted better than the first time around where everyone accused us of being liars! haha This time it was just a lot of  "I knew it!!!!" and "yay!!" 

My family... a little more difficult. We bought Lucy one of those great "Big Sis" shirts... my parents were out here in Hershey working on our house.... so I took her over to see them in her announcement shirt. 

NOTHING. 

I mean nothing. My dad even picked her up, held her, read her shirt... and didn't get it. 

Reading the shirt... out loud... And nothing. 

I looked at Greg like... for real!?
So... I took her over to my mom. Surely my mom will get it. 
Nope. 

For my parents and each one of my siblings, all of whom held her, hugged her, looked at her and so on I had to walk them through it...

"Lucy's shirt has something to tell you!"

Light bulbs. 

That shirt was not worth $10. mm kay?

We do not have a good track record in baby announcements in our family. 
Oh well :) They were thrilled once they figured it out! 

So, 
I am just under 20 weeks now and not only do I get to tell you that good news up there (that we're expecting) but also the gender!! 

I'm not a surprise person - I don't like them, never have! I am be-prepared person! So not finding out the gender was NOT a possibility. PLUS we have this new house that is tiny and limited on bedroom space and we're picking paint colors and so... we just had to know what we were doing in there! :) So, as we did with Lucy we found out the gender as soon as we could!

Though not nearly as early as we did with Lucy... if you remember how THAT turned out. 

Our Ultra sound technician of course asked

Are we finding out gender today?

A resounding Yes. Absolutely. Please.  From the Moad couple.

So she did the digging, and just like Lucy this little one was doing flips and spins and summersaults like crazy. We produce active little babies! 

Then we just hear:

"Well! There you have it! This little one is proud, proud, proud!"

We didn't know what that meant... and if you've ever looked at an ultrasound screen it just looks like... well... nothing, I have no idea what it looks like, but not human anatomy. One time during the session she pointed out baby's foot, and I asked if that was a rock next to it... she said it was the baby's other knee. 

Tell me that right foot is not kicking a rock in my womb. amiright?

Of course it is. How could I not see that. 
emoji of confused face would go here. 

Anyway... she then pointed out the anatomy and announced it is absolutely, without a shadow of doubt, a...

B O Y !!!!!

Baby Moad #2 is a baby boy who apparently is proud of his manhood.... he flashed it boldly three or four other times in our 45 minute session. 

We were thrilled! Truly thrilled! I could see it in Greg's face and THAT brought joy to mine! I truly would have been excited for either gender, but I know Greg was really hoping for a Boy! 

Thank the Lord for His goodness!!! 

Our families were equally as thrilled! We have a lot of boys on my side so my sisters congratulated me on the wonderful blessing of a boy! (they should know!) And my parents were equally as thrilled! 

We got to have a reveal game for Greg's family
The second time we have revealed a "boy" to his family... except the first time we were wrong. 
But not this time!

Greg and I had talked all day about ideas... most of Greg's ideas were completely not going to happen... and I won't even share why! But he did have one good idea, so we went with it and it was a hit! 

Greg and his family love games, so this was right up their ally! 
And... so sorry about the picture qualities, it was really all happening SO fast and I'm not professional photographer! 

Somehow they managed to pick EVERY cup except the one with the announcement. It was definitely climactic having it be last! 

They were thrilled. 
We were thrilled. 
Lucy had no idea what was happening. 
And was a little scared of all the screaming. 

Until she tasted and saw that it was GOOOOD. :)

So... the clock is ticking: get the house finished, move in, get the nursery ready, do some nesting (lots and lots of it I'm sure) buy bigger shoes for the inevitable summer-foot-swelling that will occur and welcome our sweet little boy in July! 

Thanks for following along in our journey! We are excited for #2 and for our family of 4 and appreciate your prayers along the way!!! 

Also.. I like have no clue what to do with a boy.... seriously... so feel free to throw you best tips below!!!