So much news!

There are so many reasons for my silence this past month. There was the tough stuff that was happening in our lives, the funny stuff and the secret stuff. I can't decide which one to talk about and I don't have the energy to write all 3 at this moment.

By result of random drawing I will discuss....(drumroll please).... secret stuff.

I found out in the beginning of October that I was pregnant. Hip hip hooray!!! But... there's all these rules and junk that say you shouldn't tell people right away. I had one of those thought processes going on of "What if I tell everyone and something happens? Then I'd have to talk to everyone twice!" and "If I tell everyone now and then find out it's twins at the ultrasound I'll have to tell everyone twice!"

Basically I wanted to do as little talking as possible.

I know this is rare for me, but I didn't know how people would react. I googled it and discovered that the whole pregnant with our 4th child news doesn't always go over well. Apparently people think you're being greedy or something. Some get upset because it's not fiscally responsible. Others go with the whole population problem and point out how you're adding to it. With all of this information available I was less eager to share than ever :( I know, sad right?

However, my 3 boys want another baby at our house. Badly. I also hate secrets and surprises so as much as I was unsure how to tell the world I was in agony waiting to tell my precious children the news they had been waiting to hear.

I had my ultrasound at the beginning of this month and everything appeared normal. They only found one baby, and trust me, I made the doctor check like 5 times. I'm very serious about not liking surprises. That evening we took our sons out to dinner and broke the news. It was outstanding! Our 8 yr old twins acted cool. They smiled a lot and asked some questions but mostly were into their dinner. Our 6 year old was giddy excited. He kept saying "we're having a baby!" and "I'm going to be a big brother!" We told them that we would let them tell everyone else.

The car ride home that night is a memory I'll cherish forever. It was time for the inevitable "where do babies come from?" discussion. I had prepared for this. I read books, I polled other parents, I googled. Yet I was totally unprepared. Apparantly my sons knew that a baby comes from an egg but they were having trouble distinguishing between a chicken egg and a human egg. From there they thought it best to follow the life cycle of a bug. Curly summed up all of their different theories into one easy story:

Moms lay eggs in their tummies 12 times a year.
Sometimes the eggs die and sometimes the eggs become babies.
When an egg becomes a baby it grows in the moms tummy.
It gets food from the mommy through a tube. That's why mommies can't have caffeine. Caffeine is not good for babies.
The baby grows for 9 months and then the egg cracks open and hatches.
The mommy goes to the hospital and the doctors cut her open and take out the baby.

I didn't correct or question any of it. So far I am very content with letting them all believe in this story. I'm sure we have a lot more of these conversations heading our way and I am in no rush to have them. I have never been happier at my sons lack of curiosity.

The next day we met up with my sister and my boys shared the exciting news. She was so excited that it got me more excited. So far so good on the reactions right? The plan was to have the boys call or video chat with my parents, my other 2 sisters and my husbands sister. We planned to tell the rest of my husbands family when they came to visit for Thanksgiving. After that we'd roll out some adorable announcement on facebook to let the world at large know and bask in all of the attention.

Except our adorable little Moe couldn't keep his trap shut for even a day and blurted it out to his Grandma when we met her for lunch the day after he found out. This ruined the plan and so we hastily put together a video clip of when the boys found out and texted it to immediate family/close friends who don't check facebook and then posted it on facebook after we were sure our family had checked their text messages. The boys got to share it at school with their friends and teachers (except a lot of the staff already knew because I went to a staff baby shower right after my ultrasound and I couldn't lie when everyone asked "are you going to have another?") but the big reveal didn't quite work out.

I think we're all okay with it. Except maybe Curly who didn't realize everyone knew and tried to tell his Aunty and Uncle yesterday. The moral of this is, if one of my kids tells you I'm pregnant, pretend it's the most exciting brand new news that you've ever heard!!! Pretty please.

Points of Clarification:

Yes, this was planned. When my father-in-law passed away my husband and I both realized that we couldn't wait to have a child until the money or timing was right. It was most important for the baby to know as much of our family as possible. Also, our boys begged a lot. Begging works. Finally, have you seen/met my kids? They are freakishly adorable and amazing and we were doing the entire word a disservice to provide them with another little bundle of awesomeness.

Yes, we are hoping for a girl. I mean really?!? WE HAVE 3 BOYS. Yes, those were yelling capitol letters. We will find out the gender in February and due to my hatred of surprises we will spread the word as soon as we know. The good news is that we are as close to experts as you are ever going to find when it comes to boys so either way this baby will be a blessing.

I am due in June 2013. It will be a planned c-section unless an act of God occurs.

Yes, I threw out all our baby stuff. I am a very giving person/hater of clutter so I regifted a lot of our baby stuff to friends and family as soon as we were done with it. I saved the big stuff for a long time but I had a little breakdown after trying to get pregnant for a year and having it not work out where I gave away the rest of our baby stuff. At this point we have some very old boys infant size clothes and a breast pump that I need to make sure still works. I'm thinking this will make it a much bigger adventure and you gotta love adventure :)