Our three pregnancies

By Published On: January 11th, 2016

I’ve been talking a lot about the two tiny humans […]

0103161209-1-1I’ve been talking a lot about the two tiny humans we have running amok at home, inadvertently neglecting to discuss in any depth the third son who’ll be joining our brood in April. I apologize—to you and D3—for treating him like the middle child, you know, the one everyone forgets about. Each pregnancy brings the same excitement/terror of welcoming a new life into this great, big, scary world. But let’s face it—that’s where the similarities end.

Here’s a list (compiled with L just this week) marking the similarities (but mostly differences) between her first, second and now third pregnancies … PREGNANCIES, as in the events occurring from the time of conception to childbirth. Whatever happens afterwards is anyone’s guess.

Our Initial Reactions to Finding Out L is Pregnant

First: “AWESOME!” Super-excited (and immediately terrified at the same time).

Second: “Awesome, N will be three when G is born, that’s a good age gap.” Already confident in our child-rearing abilities, we’re excited (and slightly less terrified) that we’re having another kid.

Third: “We need to find a car with third-row seating.” Seriously, the struggle is real. We’ve got two happy boys, but we’re going to be outnumbered. Our humble abode is about to turn into Romper Room.

Our Subsequent Reactions

First: “Holy cow, we’re really having a kid?” But now we’re no longer solely responsible for keeping ourselves alive, we’ve gotta keep a baby alive!?! Yikes!

Second: “OK, we can do this. We’re still at even-strength.” What’s one more, right?

Third: (watching N and G run around the house non-stop for two hours) “Maybe we’ll have a girl, so we can calm this place down a little bit,” as if that’s even rational thinking.

Boy or Girl?

First: We didn’t find out and were struggling to find both boy and girl names. We finally decided on a not-super-popular-but-not-trendy-and-ridiculous boy name but legit had no girl name. Crisis averted.

Second: Again, we didn’t find out and had a plethora of names we liked as holdovers from the first time. We narrowed down the boy names to two while firmly agreeing on a name should it be a girl.

Third: We found out because we wanted to know whether to keep or purge all the old boys’ clothes. We still had the girl name in play, but naturally we’re having a boy. Every name we like is ridiculously popular, we we’re still are no closer to a name than we were from Day 1.

How We Revealed Pregnancy and Gender

First: We framed a picture of the ultrasound and gave it to my dad for his birthday and L’s mother for hers (separately). We told everyone we weren’t finding out gender.

Second: N wore a “Big Brother” shirt, and everyone got it. We told everyone we weren’t finding out gender.

Third: G wore a T-shirt that said “Best Big Bro” on Thanksgiving (we hosted both our families) that no one paid any attention to because their first thoughts were that it was a hand-me-down from N. I finally (loudly) asked if anyone noticed G’s shirt. We revealed gender with cupcakes after Thanksgiving dinner even though everyone hounded us to eat dessert first, which we almost did because it was just getting annoying listening to them beg.

1226151450Others’ Reactions

First: Surprised. Everyone was pretty excited because it was going to be the first grandchild on either side.

Second: Excited but not like the first time.

Third: Totally caught off-guard. No one was expecting a third, but they were all happy nonetheless. Because we had everyone there at the same time, the shrieks weren’t that L was pregnant but rather that we were having another boy.

Keeping Track of Pregnancy

First: Downloaded an app that to this day sends emails almost daily about baby’s progression and what to expect from a toddler. Bought The Belly Book and entered all the milestones and info as it happened.

Second: Still had the app; however, I neglected to update it to notify me about Baby No. 2. We bought another copy of The Belly Book and filled it out roughly three times, once per trimester.

Third: New phones, so the app is gone. We have yet to purchase our third copy of The Belly Book. Don’t judge us.

Baby Bump

First: Yes.

Second: Yes.

Third: Yes.

Baby Bump Tracking

First: Took a picture of L’s baby bump once a week

Second: Took a picture of L’s baby bump once a month

Third: Have yet to take a picture of L’s baby bump

When We’re Expecting

First: Born mid-April, when the weather was turning nice.

Second: Born in early-May, when the weather was nice.

Third: Due late-April, when the weather will hopefully be nice. (We find it more convenient being able to go from the hospital to the outdoors while the weather is nice.)

Hospital and Stay

First: Lenox Hill (we were living in NYC at the time); we chose to pay extra for an individual room instead of sharing a room with anyone else.

Second: Hartford Hospital; we were given an individual room which I think was standard procedure.

Third: (likely) Hartford Hospital; (hopefully) we will be given an individual room.

So yeah, as you can see the differences far outweigh the similarities—but honestly, L and I are so excited to welcome another boy into the brood. But seriously, we have to find a car with three rows!