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! 

not feeling so hot

On top of taking care of Kai during his recovery and you know, all the millions of other things to take care of  for work and around the house, I got sick last night. I don't know if it was something I ate or just a pregnancy queasiness. It took me by surprise, I've surely "gotten sick" more times during this pregnancy than the first time around.

 I've mentioned before that I was lucky enough to just feel nauseated, but only vomited once with Malakai. This pregnancy I've vomited 4 times now. I know that's not a lot compared to those who get sick all day every day and I'm not trying to whine. I just find it odd that it happens so sporadically, and for it to hit me again at 18 weeks pregnant!

All that to say, I don't feel good. Kai doesn't feel good. Nothing else to say or report for today.








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the return of morning sickness

As I've mentioned before, this past week I've been feeling much better (not 100%) than I had in the previous 4 weeks. I have been getting things done and eating more than crackers and fruit. Unfortunately at about the same time Malakai began to feel under the weather. Last week he had a mild fever of 102 before bed, but after some cuddling, Monsters Inc., and a good night of sleep he woke up with no fever and feeling fine. It hasn't come back since, but he started to have a tummy ache which resulted in some really terrible diarrhea.

I know, I know I don't USUALLY blog about the bodily functions that occur in our household, but this is too strange not to share (there's your warning). So Kai's issue started out as normal, but on Monday it got progressively worse. I won't share the nasty details. You're welcome. Sadly though, with as much as we were keeping him clean he still developed a pretty bad diaper rash. This meant he wouldn't let us use diaper wipes because it hurt his skin so much. He'd kick and grab and everything would be covered in the contents of his diaper...even when there were two of us.

First thing yesterday morning I took him straight to the bathtub to rinse him off and let him air dry a bit. It was a nasty job, but that's parenting for you. I got through all of this before eating, which is one of the worst time for my nausea + heartburn.

After we were all cleaned up I opened the fridge to make Kai his morning toast. The smell of wheat bread has been my worst enemy for the last 5 weeks, but the SIGHT of the wheat bread sent me to the sink and I vomited for the first time in this pregnancy at 11 weeks and 4 days. I got through the messiest toddler diaper ever, but the thought of wheat bread made me sick. How WEIRD is pregnancy!?

What's also strange is that I only vomited once when I was pregnant with Malakai and it was at exactly 12 weeks...first thing in the morning, in the kitchen sink. So far that has been the only real similarity between the two pregnancies so far. Completely random.

Anyway, Kai's diarrhea calmed down yesterday but he had a terrible stomach ache last night. Ben + I were up until nearly midnight trying to figure out how to soothe him back to sleep. Thankfully today he woke up  happy and everything is normal. So we'll continue with the BRAT diet and gatorade (he refused pedialyte, grape gatorade finally got him to drink something) for at least another day. The doctor also recommended Culturelle probiotic once a day. I happened to have a whole box of samples from his previous pediatrician so we'll continue putting that in his yogurt or applesauce for at least another week.

I'm hoping we'll all be feeling 100% in the next few days so we can get on with normal life!