Anxiously Awaiting

Well, in less then 24 hours, my wife and I will be in the hospital having our fourth child.  To say that I am not nervous and anxious and scared all at the same time would be a blatant lie.  You would think that by the fourth child we would be old pro's at this, but truth be told, every pregnancy has been different and this one is falling right in line.  It's just a natural part of life to wonder what could, would, and should happen.

Trei started out the same as every child we've had, SURPRISE!  Then everything was different.  Little man decided from the beginning to keep his head up.  Normally that would be a good thing, but not with a baby.  The child being breach was new and scarey.  We hadn't had to deal with that yet.  Then SuperMom was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  Again, a scarey new experience.  Thank God for the internet to provide us with all the information of what could happen because of this.  Sometimes I wonder how we made it as children since our parents didn't have all this "good" info.  Oh yeah, less stress.  Time passed though and so did the worrying.  Little man fell right into position with weeks to spare and the diabetes was more of a hiccup then anything else.  The inconvience of daily sugar tests took care of that concern.  Now, as we have entered our 39th week, the concerns come back.  SuperMom has had a lot of contractions over the last several weeks.  Nothing regular, but painful for her and very uncomfortable.  With all this action, you would think we would be closer to her body being primed for labor, but progress is slow.  We have planned to be induced on Wednesday so that we don't have to worry about Trei being too big to be delivered naturally. (Another concern brought on by the diabetes.) We also have a host of other "good" reasons, but it is still nerve racking worrying and just plain not knowing.  So, we are all anxiously waiting the birth of our little boy.

Anything worth having is worth waiting for and we all know it will be alright in the end.  I will update as soon as little man makes his appearance, but for now, the show must go on. 

I Am Number Four!

Totally different then the action packed thriller about aliens living among us with super powers, this post is about my family's journey to child number four and all the emotions along the way.  Not any less exciting, just without all the killing and stuff.

"Four kids, really?"  That's the typical response from anyone I tell that we're expecting another child in May.  That and the always classic, "You haven't figured out what causes that yet?"  It's funny that people look at four children as such a high number.  I think in the current world, two or three is the norm.  After having two children, the third was pretty easy to handle, so why not try for four?    It just seems like a logical choice to me.  I can't help it that I prefer even numbers and symmetrical architecture.


With all that being said, I never thought I would be the father of three or even four.  I thought two was more then enough.  God blessed me and mine with a third though, and at that time, I knew in my heart that three kids was good and plenty.  My wife had said she wanted another child, but I had all but taken that completely off the table.   We struggle to raise two, much less three.  There was no way we could afford to have a fourth child.  So, almost two years passed and I woke up one morning thinking about having another child.  My wife and I had not even talked about it.  It was just there.  A seed had been planted and began growing in my mind. Every Dad can probably agree that they want to have a boy, sometime in there life.  I had already been blessed with three beautiful girls, but I wanted to see if the fourth time was the charm.


Several days later, during one of our day off, house cleaning sessions, I proposed the idea to my wife.  I didn't immediately want to start trying, but I could see having another one in the next couple of years.  It took all of a week for us to find out we were pregnant.  Thank God that He had planted that seed in my brain because I was already ready for it.  Now, we are about four months along.  We find out in about four weeks what the sex of the baby will be.  I hope it's a boy, but whatever God decides to bless us with will be more then wanted and loved.  I remember clearly my wife, then my girlfriend, telling me that she had been told since she was fourteen that she couldn't have children.  Every child to us is a blessing.


So, I picture a little boy growing in my wife's belly, sucking his thumb, running his laps, and thinking "I am Number Four!"  He will be blessed with super powers just like the rest of us.  Love, compassion, humor, and smarts will be in his tool box.  And he will be born in May.  I can't wait to see the world premier.

And Here Comes Another One

Today we had our first ultrasound since we confirmed pregnancy two weeks ago. It was so exciting and stirred up so many memories of the pregnancy of our other three children. The ultrasounds, the kicks, listening to the heartbeat, all just memories of a new life. It's hard to believe we are going to be a family of four and so very exciting. It seems like yesterday my oldest was born and she will turn seven this February. I took some time to look through some old pictures of my children growing up and it made my heart swell with pride at how much they are growing up. My Punky Doodles will turn two in three days. How time does fly by. Hopefully this pregnancy will go as smooth as the previous ones and sometime towards the end of May, we will be blessed with our newest edition. Cross your fingers we get that boy. We'll find that out in about eight more weeks. All that really matters though is that Mom and the baby are healthy. Everything else after that is gravy...