"Announcement"

So, for those of you who don't know already, we are 12 weeks pregnant. This is my 6th pregnancy and I only have one child, so you can guess the rest. I had this ultrasound done yesterday morning, and it revealed a healthy baby. Healthy at this point basically just means measuring the right age. This is the furthest I've made it out of all the losses, so it's great news!

Now, I know that this doesn't mean that nothing bad can happen. When you go through what we have been through, I think you are permanently changed. You never look at pregnancy the same. You know that it ain't over 'til that baby is in your arms, and it's vital signs are good. So while we are "realistic," we are also hopeful that we will be welcoming a new life into our family early next year.

My official due date is Valentines Day! How cute :) We think it's a girl, but will find out for sure in 2 months. We are open to naming suggestions. I think it's appropriate to name this one since we have seen it. If something did happen, I would like it to have an identity. I feel bad that the lost babies didn't have identities, but it was too early for me to have an impression about gender. This is about how far along I was with Nate when I started feeling strongly that he was a boy.

So, for names, if you have any ideas, I would like something a little traditional/old-fashioned (but not too common), and romantic, since it's Valentines, if you can use romantic as an adjective for a name..... Naming Nate took a long time, so this one might also. We had a girl name sort of (almost) picked out before we found out he was a boy, but we were stumped when it came to boy names. So, we are trying to prepare for either one this time.

I am realizing as I write this blog that it's more for me than anyone else, so oh well. :)

And about Mandy, she's doing fine. Still trying to get her to play, but she does run around with us a bit more in the backyard, and we left her alone in the house for awhile yesterday, and she was just fine. Right now, she is laying at my feet asleep, like normal.