Pregnancy, Fall, Family, and other SUPER LATE Updates

It has been a long time since I blogged...I guess I just haven't known what to say. Oddly enough, since most people who know me really well, know I like to speak my mind often. Looking at my last post I had to laugh a little, since - for those who don't know - I am about 15 weeks pregnant with our second baby. So many things have been happening, I don't even know where to begin. Or, even if I should elaborate on the past months.

I guess we'll start with the pregnancy. Alex has been doing REALLY well at night, getting up maybe once every night, if at all. Xander and I had started talking about the possibility of having another child, and what that would do to us and our current "college family" life. It took us almost a year to get pregnant with Alex, so, being the silly girl that I am, I assumed it would take us at LEAST six months to get pregnant with number two. We started trying a month before Alex's first birthday, and got pregnant on the first try. It was a huge shock to us, pleasant though. I was personally unprepared for it, expecting a much longer period of trying. After some time though, as I suppose happens with most women, I became rather excited to have another child.

Getting through this first trimester has been a lot harder than it was when I was pregnant with Alex. I am sick and tired a lot more often, I can't seem to keep anything down - especially sugar. Which, I suppose is a good thing, since I could only keep sugary foods down with Alex. Having a one year old who needs/wants your constant attention, and who is just starting to walk everywhere, is VERY taxing on my already tired and starving body. I am constantly feeling like a horrible mother to Alex! He doesn't always get the best meals, and rarely gets baths now - which is his favorite thing. I'm lucky if I can get more than two baths in a week for him. I feel horrible about it, and helpless too. Whenever I try to get up and do things, my energy lasts about ten minutes, if I'm lucky. I feel trapped in another woman's ailing body.

I had high hopes for my second trimester, since my first pregnancy I never felt better after week 14. But so far, I am still sick, and can't keep a lot of food down. Every pregnancy is so different! And I am just hoping after another week I'll finally have that "burst of energy" they talk about in the second trimester. I am so ready to be done with the sick, and finally able and capable of taking care of my family again.

Fall has become my favorite time of year! I love the changing colors, the colder (but not freezing) weather change, and especially all the holidays that come with it. These holidays always make me homesick. And I look forward to Christmas so much faster each year.

AND THANK GOODNESS FOR FAMILY! My wonderful mother sent my little sister Leah out to help me for a week, and she has definitely been a godsend. And on top of that, my little brother also cam up to help, and my wonderful big sister Annie came to help, and will be coming up again (with my sister Clare) on Monday to have Halloween with us, and also help. Such charity, love, and support from all of them has been so wonderful, that it constantly brings tears to my eyes. How I love family. Lately I have been so homesick for all of them, even my extended Brown family, that I told my husband it was time to go home again. Of course, being the wonderful practical man he is, he told me I was already home.

However, this got us to talking about our future after school, and we both feel that we need to be in the Kansas City, MO, area (close, but not overly close, to our families). After we decided I felt so excited and now anxious for Xander to graduate. There is nothing more important to me than family. And I want my children to know their cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles. I want them to be best friends growing up.

Well, this happens every time I post something - SORRY! - I always end up venting my mind out, and you end up getting a bunch of words instead of pictures. I'm not the best blogger ever, but oh well! :) I do like to speak my mind.