We're busy with 2 major projects right now.

Joe & I have had a very busy summer working on two major projects; our pregnancy with our second son and renovating our old house.
Joe can talk more about the home renovation (like I know anything about stucco, new window installation or gutting out the kitchen!). I'll talk about being pregnant (since I am the expert on morning sickness, bloating, round ligament pain etc!).

Let me start off by saying, I am really happy this is our last kid. I am not complaining or anything, because I truly feel so blessed to be having another baby, but girlfriends.. pregnancy just doesn't agree with me. Compared to my first pregnancy though this one has been a breeze. Hardly no morning sickness (I had it the whole nine months with Dylan), less weight gain in general and overall I feel much healthier this time around.

Joe and I waited a little before finally deciding to have this baby as we really wanted the kids to be 3 years apart. Although, if it were up to Joe we would have had 3 kids by now. Funny story.. when Julia Roberts was reported pregnant with her 3rd kid (she had her twins about the same we had Dylan) Joe was like, Julia is pregnant again so that makes us way behind. Like, are we trying to keep up with Julia Roberts?! He was kidding of course but since I am 38 going on 39 years old I knew that if we wanted another baby we'd have to act soon.

Another reason I was scared to have another baby was because of Dylan's heart defect. Doctors told me that we had a 2-4% chance that our next kid may have a heart defect, not to mention the higher risk of having Downs etc, due to my "maternal" age. That really scared me. Is it irresponsible to have another baby knowing these odds? But as my OB said, we could look at it like we have a 98-96% chance that the baby would be perfectly healthy. Anyway, we took a leap of faith and got pregnant.

I read this in another of my favorite blogs recently (Sweet|Salty at http://ingliseast.typepad.com/ingliseast/) and it really hit home to me:

Even with the freshest of slates, getting pregnant requires a huge leap of faith. You may have a glorious labour and a robust baby only to have that same child become sick ten years later. Or, twenty years later, fall in with a bad crowd and become addicted to some vice and break your heart. To become a parent is to become unspeakably vulnerable, but there can’t be true joy, or discovery, or growth, without risk. Everyone knows this, senses it on some primal level — but mamas and dadas like us know it so much more vividly, having been struck by lightening.

So far all our tests (amniocentisis etc.) have come back with no abnormalities, thank you God! Also, so far the fetal echos don't show anything abnormal with the baby's heart. I say "so far" because at 20 weeks pregnant with Dylan, his heart also looked normal. Dylan was born with a few heart defects, the major one being a coarctation of the aorta and that kind of defect usually doesn't occur until later in pregnancy. But I have faith, and the doctors seem sure that this baby's heart will be normal.

The hardest part of this pregancy has been my 3 hour roundtrip commute to Chicago everyday. Getting up at 6 am and getting home at 6:30 pm five days a week really takes a toll on me (notice how tired I look in the photos). I will work until the day I have the baby (like I did with Dylan). Luckily, my boss has let me leave early many days and that has been wonderful.

Another difficult thing has been trying to decide on the baby's name. Joe and I don't really have any names that we absolutely love. It is so hard choosing another boy name! I have resorted to posting name polls on internet chat boards to see what strangers think of a handful of names and that still didn't help (the most popular one being the one that Joe & I likes least!). Dylan suggested we call the baby Rugrat. I think he has seen the Rugrat cartoons one too many times!

Anyway, I am now in the third trimester, so it won't be much longer before this kid is here. I pray that he is healthy, mentally and physically. I also hope that he is a good sleeper, as Dylan is NOT. And if we get really lucky he will be as handsome as his big brother. However he comes out, I know we won't have any regrets, this baby will complete our family and we can't wait for him to be here. Like Sweet|Salty's post, I feel that this baby will finally fulfill the void that I have always felt before having babies. Being mama has been the job that I was born to do, and I love every minute of it.

Photos were taken at 20 weeks, 25 weeks and 28 weeks pregnant. I have gained 27 pounds so far and should gain about a pound a week until the baby is born. YIKES!