20 week ultrasound + gender reveal...

Today has been a whirlwind! I headed out just after noon to meet Ben, his mom, my mom and brother at my doctor's office for our big ultrasound! When Ben walked in he didn't look so great and he let me know he wasn't feeling well. Not great news 4 days after Malakai had a stomach bug, but he hung on.

Malakai + Desmond came back with us for the beginning of the appointment. Malakai was the most excited, he had a lot of questions and his favorite part was seeing the baby move. Almost immediately we saw the gender of our baby. I knew it before the tech said a word. She told us what she thought but said she would get a better look before really confirming it. 

Once the boys were more interested in the toy in the room than the ultrasound Ben took them to the waiting room to hang out with the grandmas + Cody for the rest of the appointment. After a few minutes, she confirmed the gender and we are expecting a baby girl!!! 

{that's my DAUGHTER!}

We are a little in shock, but beyond thrilled to have a daughter. We got a ton of photos of our sweet little girl and even a few videos. Our tech was so great, we really enjoyed the entire experience (except the part where Ben felt sick). 

After the appointment we went into the waiting room and Ben asked the boys if they thought it was a boy or a girl. Desmond was more interested in the water dispenser, but Kai answered girl (as he has from the very start) and Ben told him "you're right!" he jumped up and down and did a little fist pump. He hugged my belly, he is so thrilled to have a little sister. My mom and + Ben's mom hugged each other with excitement, this will be the first grand daughter for both of them. 

Poor Ben helped his mom get the boys out to the van and she took them to her house while I waited for my OB appointment. He went straight home, he was feeling so badly. My mom + brother waited with me for a bit while I texted + called family to tell them the good news and then I went back for my appointment. It was pretty quick, just some vitals and a chat with the nurse and my doctor about the ultrasound. Everything looks great, healthy baby + mama! She is measuring a few days small but not enough to make any changes. At this point she'd have to measure 2 weeks off to change her due date. 

After my appointments the boys and I hung out at their Grandma's house where they invited us to have a celebration dinner. Sadly, Ben was so sick that he couldn't come. We still had dinner but agreed to postpone the celebration part to when everyone could be there, especially daddy! 

{26 weeks + 2 days and 19 weeks + 4 days}

As I've mentioned before, my sister-in-law Kristi is expecting a baby boy in July. I love that coincidentally she was wearing blue and I wore pink today!

It's a bit surreal to think I won't be quite so drastically outnumbered. I'm just so elated and surprised. Thank you all for your congrats on facebook, and your patience as our odd day unfolded. Please pray for Ben as he's still very sick and for me to not get what has been making it's way through our family. 

As I mentioned on facebook earlier today, we don't announce the baby's name until they are born. We don't have a name yet, we have a very long list of girl's names so it may take us a while to narrow it down! We love having something stay a "surprise" for the day baby is born. It'll be harder to keep a secret this time around with a older kids in the house, but we'll do our best! 

And now I'm off to rummage through baby clothes!...

our little secret...

If you follow my husband or myself on Facebook or Instagram, it's not a secret anymore. For the rest of you, here's a little video…

{Ben shot this video back in January right after we found out we'd be expecting again. Hence the shaggy hair on the boys, who have long since gotten haircuts…and probably are due for another one!}

We got our positive test on January 4th, we told our families but have been keeping it under wraps since then. First, we wanted to wait until my sister-in-law, Kristi and her husband Nick announced their pregnancy as they are expecting their first child due about 7 weeks before us. Once they announced, we were so close to my 12 week appointment (today) that we decided we might as well wait to hear the heartbeat. The due date is September 4th, but we're thinking (and hoping) we'll end up with an August baby.

This morning Ben + I went in and baby has a strong heartbeat at nearly 170. Take what you will from that as far as old wives tales go on predicting gender, but we'll have our ultrasound in April, and YES we'll be finding out and sharing here. For those of you who don't know- we do keep the name secret. Once we choose a name, we keep it between Ben + I until baby is born. This may be harder to do with 2 very talkative boys in the house, but we'll do our best. 

Here are some obligatory growing belly photos to kick off the baby Pottorf #3 blog posts off right!

{1.5.14 at 5 weeks, 3 days}

{2.15.14 at 11 weeks, 2 days}

And here are the boys, who decided they wanted to pose for daddy to take pictures of them as well. 

Desmond thinks that everyone has a baby in their belly, which is pretty sweet. He's also kind of right. We keep finding out about pregnant friends and family members left and right! 

Malakai loves talking about the baby. Since day 1 he started tickling my belly and saying "tickle, tickle baby!" He says the baby will be a girl and at first he wanted to name her "Alien" but recently he has changed it to "Toothpaste"…I'm not sure which one is better. He loves to be silly. 

I've been pretty miserable for the past 6 weeks. A lot of nausea and headaches, oh and the heartburn! I had heartburn the entire time with Desmond so I'm resigning myself to it again this time. The worst part had been having a sinus infection on top of it all, and I still can't get rid of the cough. Coughing plus nauseated pregnant lady are NOT a good combination! 

I started to feel better when I took some unison and B6 at night a couple weeks ago, and that day was the day Desmond had to go to the hospital. I think it was a total God thing that I was feeling well enough to cart him all over the place and deal with the stress of going to the hospital with a very sick little guy. As soon as we got home we all felt worse and I came down with a fever. That has since gone but I'm still coughing and I'm back to being nauseated. I'm praying it'll pass in the next week or 2…feel free to join me in that prayer. 

I haven't gained any weight, which is a first for me and is certainly a surprise judging by my belly but I've actually lost a little weight (I had some holiday pounds to lose, so I'm not too sad about it) because I have had such a hard time eating…or even drinking. I have to force myself to get enough water and normally I'm always drinking lots of ice water. 

All of us are beyond thrilled to be adding to our little family. Ben + I are very much looking forward to the end of summer when we'll officially be outnumbered!