Surprise, Surprise!!

We're expecting again!

I know this may come as a surprise to a few of you, especially because I was so set on waiting until we were done with school before we embarked on this journey, again. The spiritual promptings that we hear from time to time, had a lot to do with this new baby of ours.

The story is really neat, and if nothing but for my sake, I am going to share it.

The General Relief Society Conference held right before the October General Conference every year is something that I look forward to. This last year was no different. I came home a little distressed and bothered, not because of something that was said, but the spiritual promptings I received while in attendance.

I told Shawn that I wasn't going to go back to another General Relief Society Conference if this is the promptings that I will come home with. Then I told him that I felt like it was time for us to have another baby.

Shawn just smiled at me and didn't say anything, probably because he knew that I would beat him if he said what he was thinking. I did a lot of praying. The thoughts that were going through my mind sounded something to this effect: "This is really bad timing, We are going to be in the middle of 4th year clinical rotations!" It really isn't that I don't want more babies, it is I just had myself believing that we were waiting, and with that, this caught me off guard. I knew someday we would have more, I just didn't want someday to be now. The timing for this prompting couldn't have come at a better time though. Shawn had just started putting together his rotation request schedule, so with more prayer, we put down a priority vacation at the time we felt the timing would be right. I talked to my Dr. and asked how reasonable it would be to have my IUD removed and try to get pregnant during one cycle. He told me that it could happen, but the odds were a little against us. I schedule the removal date, only to have a spiritual prompting come a few days later. This time I felt like I should change the removal date and make the date sooner. So I did.

We had one cycle to get pregnant on. That sounds really demanding, and a little selfish, but I will explain.

Emma and Mason were both delivered by emergency C-Section. This one will be scheduled. I don't want to go through a C-Section with out Shawn with me. If we were to get pregnant one month before we wanted to, there would have been huge possibility that he would have been on a 4 week rotation 2 hours away from home. If we waited a month, we would be on a 4 week rotation in Caldwell, Idaho. My insurance won't pay for a scheduled C-Section in another state, in a hospital that they are not contracted to. So I would again be here by my self.

This timing was critical. Here is the tender mercies of the Lord: We conceived exactly when we needed to. I decided to take a home pregnancy test on Valentines Day. I figured that if it were positive, I would put the test in with Shawn's card, and if it was negative, we would wait and see if I missed my period. I had a home test from a box we bought back when we got pregnant with Mason, but with out realizing (until that morning) it was expired. I got up at 5:30 and took the test. My heart sank when I saw "Not Pregnant". I laid in bed for a half hour, then got up to make breakfast. Before Shawn left for School, I told him. He said that we should get another test because this was expired. We went out that night and got another test. When we got home Shawn wanted me to take it right away, but I didn't think that I could handle another "Not Pregnant" in the same day.

I took the test at 11:30 pm (WAY past my bed time) and left it in the bathroom. Shawn got up and looked at it, then brought it to me and it read "Pregnant"!! I took another one 2 days later just to be sure.

Our due date couldn't have been more precise. The due date is October 25, 2008.

We had our first ultrasound on March 28, 2008 to measure the baby and find out by growth how far along I was, and the measurements were about 5 days different than the calculated due date. By ultrasound, the due date is October 30. We get to schedule out the delivery date a week before the due date, and that week is the 1st week of the 3 week break Shawn has. Heavenly Father couldn't have been more mindful of us, and the situation we have. My faith to follow spiritual promptings has strengthened, and I am more aware that when we are asked to do something, there is a way prepared to accomplish that which is asked.

Today was my 2nd prenatal appointment. My Dr. couldn't pick up a heart beat on his little machine, so we were sent in to have a quick ultrasound. We saw the little strong heartbeat, 154 bpm, and it was amazing to me how much this little person grew in two weeks.

Here is our first ultrasound:

Here is our second from today:
Emma is really excited, although it is conditional. She wants a "sister baby" and not a "brother baby". If we talk about the baby maybe being a boy, she ignores the conversation, and when asked if she would love a brother baby, she says "no, only a sister baby!" We will hopefully find out in June what we are having.

We are very excited about this little one. The time waiting for this baby to arrive will fly and before we know it our family will have grown by one!