a little more about family member number four

I used to not like surprises.

I am a planner through and through. I plan grocery lists and weekly menus. I plan outfits and monthly budgets. I am a list making queen and have the sparkly, albeit slightly gaudy, crown to prove it.

Spontaneous is not a word that exists in my vocabulary.

A certain little event changed it all. It taught me that sometimes the biggest surprises are also the biggest blessings.

Our little surprise is due May 22, only eleven days after my favorite big brother turns 3.

I will be 13 weeks on Friday.

I have slacked off on blogging and baking and house cleaning. I forgot how completely exhausting growing a baby is. Most nights I have been getting in bed shortly after putting Baker to sleep. I offer no apologies for snoozing long before the clock strikes eight. I even fell asleep before the end of the Alabama versus LSU game last week. I know, I know, and I call myself a Bama fan. I am already celebrating a 2:30 kickoff this weekend.

Nausea and cravings have dictated the weirdest dinner menus. I have been known to have a hankering for something. Like a day consuming, brain warping, grocery trip inducing craving, only to cook it, put it on the table, serve it to my plate, and decide it is the most repulsively disgusting thing every to land on my dining room table.

Pregnancy is the most beautifully bizarre thing, and I am loving every minute.

Brian and I went for my 12 week visit last week. I indulged in a Diet Dr. Pepper prior to the appointment. I think a moment of silence is in order to acknowledge the blissful goodness that is a can of aspartame and dye and carbonated splendor. Sweet Jesus, it was heavenly. Baby liked it too. He or she wiggled and stretched and put on the most magnificent little show. Brian and I are still trying to throw an ultrasound machine into our Dave Ramsey budget, because waiting 4 weeks to see those teensy toesies wriggle in delight is just entirely too long. Y’all, there is nothing so spectacular. Yes, I think I quite love a good surprise.

For those of you who ask whether we’ll find out the gender, well I haven’t changed my name. I am still Jennifer Planning-Extraordinaire-List-Making-Queen Bell. We will most certainly find out whether we get to pull out all of that adorable blue smocked sweetness that adorned our Baker Boy, or get to stock a closet full of all things pink and precious. We will find out just in time for Christmas and I just cannot think of a better gift.

We have thrown a few names around. Nothing too seriously yet. Right now, it’s fun to whisper them aloud and dream of the name of another baby filling our home.

It’s hard to imagine falling so hard and so fast in love with someone whose face you’ve never seen. Whose hand you’ve never held. But I have. I am crazy in love with this little person who will share my name, my heart, and my home.