22 Weeks

22 Weeks.  Ahhh-- the week I've been waiting for with this pregnancy.  It's here!  I knew it would come and I knew I'd have to face it sooner or later.  

When I was pregnant with Gavin, at 22 weeks, I was sent to the hospital after bleeding and having contractions that were 6 minutes apart.  I was told I had gone into preterm labor and that if I had my baby that moment/weekend we would not be going home with him-- most babies aren't viable until 25 weeks.  I don't think I need to go into all that- I feel like we've all heard the story before and I'd rather focus on the outcome-- he came at full term and was a healthy baby boy.  However, I will say that realizing this moment was coming, I can't help but be nervous that what if that happens again?  

If there was anything I learned from my experience and pregnancy with Gavin, it was that God is in control.  I still believe that today and know that this pregnancy is in HIS hands.  I've given up WORRYING about whether or not I could go into preterm labor again, and just like to think that I'm being cautious, or AWARE of the idea.  I'm grateful for the knowledge that we have about preventing preterm labor and Brooks and I are taking all the necessary steps we can to do our best to keep that from happening again.  Our prayer is that his pregnancy will be different and if it's not, we will be prepared and ready.  

So, I guess I just wrote all of that just to get it off my chest.  I felt the need to acknowledge this time in my pregnancy is here and I'm hopeful that this will just be another week in the pregnancy.  As I've learned from my sister in law, Anna, who gave birth to sweet Audrey at 30 weeks without ANY signs of an early labor; you just never know what can happen.  I do feel that once this week passes, I may breathe a little easier and feel some kind of relief, but who knows.  We shall see.  

I realized that other than my "I'm Pregnant" post and my "It's a Boy" post, I pretty much have neglected sharing news or anything about baby #2.  Things are going good and he is growing, and so am I!

To say that I am growing would be an understatement.  I can't get over how much my belly has grown in the past few weeks.  I know everyone says you show a lot faster with your second one, your body already knows what to do.. I get that... but oh my goodness-- is it normal to be 22 weeks and be closer to the size I was at 32 weeks with Gavin?  I'm not complaining because I don't mind it, it's part of being pregnant, I'm just shocked with how big I'm getting.  Last night, I already had to start sleeping with a pillow between my knees and tonight I may add one behind my back.  However, I think I'm going to contribute all of that to the HORRIBLE, HARD bed we are currently sleeping on.  Oh, how I long for our sea shipment to get here with our mattress.  That will be a glorious day!    

22 weeks

                                                                         20 weeks                                             16 weeks

Gavin has enjoyed watching my belly grow and now knows where "baby brother" is.  Speaking of "baby brother", he still remains nameless.  We have a short list of names we like, however, we keep running into issues of why we can't name our child those names.  For instance, we love the name Brock, but we were thinking of naming this child's middle name, Brooks' middle name, which is Lee.  So, how do we name our child Brock Lee Perry?  Do you see our dilemma?  We can't name our kid "broccoli".  There are a few other situations, not like that, but similar that we just have to work through.  We keep joking with our parents that if we can't decide on a name, we will just call him Mohammad in honor of being born while we lived in the Middle East.  Okay, I know, that's not funny; some kids are really named Mohammad (I had a student one year whose first name was that).  We will come up with something soon.  Feel free to send us some suggestions if you'd like.  We are looking for ideas.   

I have my first doctors appointment next week.  We are going to meet the doctor, check out the hospital, learn their procedures (hopefully), and get to see our little boy!  We were told we get a 4D ultrasound at every appointment.  Not sure if that's true or not, but hopefully, it is!  How fun would that be?!?!  Brooks will come with me, obviously, and once we've had some time to scope things out, we are hoping to make a decision based on whether or not we will have this child here or back in the states.  We are earnestly praying over that decision.  There are pros and cons to both ways and we just have heavy hearts over deciding which one will be the best.  We don't have to make a decision anytime soon, thank goodness, but it is a constant thought of ours.

I think that's about it for baby #2 at the moment.  I'm serious about sending us name suggestions!