Baby BOY Brown!

In all of the delays and excitement recently, I completely forgot to announce on our blog that I am pregnant with our 2nd child! We just found out it's another little boy, and I'm due November 10th. We are thrilled and are planning to return to the Chicago area in October to prepare for the birth. We will stay in the area until early 2016 if the baby is healthy, and then head back out on the road! 

15 weeks piece sign!

I feel very fortunate that this pregnancy is going very smoothly! I felt nauseous and had little appetite pretty much the entire time we were in the Netherlands, but once I was out of the 1st trimester, that all went away. I went through a few weeks of terrible headaches (I think related to hormones), but that has also subsided. At this point, my only complaint is that I've gained more weight than I wanted to at this point (stupid, fatty American food!) and exhaustion. I think my exhaustion is mostly from trying to chase my son around everywhere as he gets faster and more independent. 

Alien baby face at 15 weeks

Because of all the delays, I was able to have my 10 week, 14 week, and 18-19 week appointments with my midwives. At each appointment, I thought we were leaving soon, so every time I set up another appointment and came back in I felt like a huge liar! At the 14 week appointment, the baby was really high in my belly and the midwife ordered me an ultrasound to make sure that we had our dates right for the due date. That was a big source of stress for a few days until our ultrasound because there were really three options- our dates were right, our dates were a month off, or twins! At the ultrasound, we found that the baby was 3 days bigger than my original due date, but not a whole month. So, all of our plans remained intact. 

20 weeks- I think this profile looks a little like Landon!

Profile with hands- 20 weeks

At my 18 week appointment, the medical assistant was going to give us an order for an ultrasound, but we had a flight leaving the next day, so we decided to wait and have the ultrasound in China. Well, as I already noted, our flight turned around at the North Pole and then Austin's work changed his assignment again, so we had some time. We got the order and scheduled the ultrasound for yesterday, and we're leaving Monday!

The ultrasound took a little longer than expected because our baby boy was squirming all over the place! The ultrasound tech was trying to get good pictures of all the parts of the heart, but baby boy was not cooperating at all. It was a stretch to even determine gender. She was a pro, though, and eventually got all the pictures she needed. Landon came with us and enjoyed looking at the movie of baby brother. It ended up being great timing and we were able to announce it over Skype to our families without too much trouble. We are thrilled to have another boy joining our family. Logistically, it will be easier because we already have all the blankets, clothing and gear we need for a boy. I still want to have a girl at some point, and I have lots of girl names picked out so hopefully at some point we can have that privilege. For now, Austin and I will try to agree on boy names. It is not an easy task!

It's a boy! 20 week ultrasound

Landon really thought we were having a girl, so at first he was sad that he was not getting a baby sister. We told him maybe next time! We tried to get him excited about all the things that he can show/teach his baby brother- how to catch bugs, play with cars and trucks, and pee standing up in the potty- that got him more excited. Landon lays his head on my belly at least once a day and hums songs to his baby brother, and even sometimes tries to feed baby brother snacks through my belly button, so I think he's ready to be a great big brother! In fact, I think he wants baby brother to come out right now. We told him that I have to get much bigger before baby brother comes out. He has no idea how much his life is going to change in a few short months!