#2.

so, i'm pregnant. again. i am 12 weeks pregnant now. in theory, i am happy about this development. i see lana and how much joy she brings us and another lana seems like an awesome idea. but on a day-to-day basis, it's not so fun. i think God makes you forget things related to pregnancy/childbirth on purpose or else everyone would only have one kid and the human race would be in jeopardy. even though my first time through this doesn't seem like it was that long ago, after getting pregnant again i realized that i forgot a lot of things, namely, how sucky pregnancy can be. my first trimesters are so terrible. tons of morning sickness (nausea, gagging, dry heaving), extreme fatigue, complete loss of appetite, weight loss, etc. it's really awful. now that i'm almost at the end of the first trimester the nausea's better but the loss of appetite is not. i've lost about 5 pounds so far, but that's much better than the 10 pounds i lost with lana. if you know me, you know how much i love food. but these days, i have basically became a vegetarian. the only meat i will eat is seafood (crab, shrimp, etc. is ok), and once in a while, bacon (i think because it's not chewy like other meat). but my standard fare is cereal, pastries/pies, bread, potato chips and fruit. so basically carbs and fruit. i want to want food. so much. and i want to not be so hungry all the time. i had no appetite my entire pregnancy with lana, so hopefully this one will be better.

we asked lana what she wants to name the baby and she answered, without hesitation, "cereal." we ask her what she wants and one day it's a brother, the next day, it's a sister. then one day she said she wanted an older brother. not sure how to explain that it doesn't quite work that way. she is a very very jealous kid so we'll have to work on that throughout the pregnancy. but then she shows some really cute sweet moments - she lifts my shirt and kisses my belly and says "i kissed the baby" or she'll pat my belly and say "baby how are you?" i think she doesn't really feel threatened because the baby isn't real to her yet. but i can't even say hi to other kids without her throwing a fit, so if you have any tips/resources/advice on this front, i would appreciate it.

i am dying to find out the sex of this baby. i am actually 100% happy with either a boy or a girl. i just really wanted a girl and since we have lana, i'm good. but sh is convinced the baby is a girl (and even calls it a she), but i'm not convinced yet and want the debate to be put to rest. women these days seem to be able to find out as early as 12 weeks with new tests that are out, but since i'm not 35 (aka advanced maternity age) insurance won't pay for those tests. i guess we'll have to wait till the standard 18 or so weeks.

thanks everyone for all your words of well wishes. please pray for an appetite - that is my #1 prayer right now. in my mind, i want to take a huge bite of a five guys burger. but then i see a burger and i'm grossed out. #2 prayer is energy. it is so much harder being pregnant when you already have a kid to take care of. i thought it would be cool to post belly pics again and to put them side by side with my first pregnancy's belly pics, but i have lots of ideas that never come to fruition so we'll see about that. the point, though, would be to show that you pop so much faster with the second baby, seeing as how you're all stretched out and all. with lana i think i popped around 13 weeks but with this baby it was around 9 weeks. time to start hearing "oh so are you like 5 or 6 months pregnant?" soon. -_-