To Know or Not To Know...

To know or not to know, isn't that a question every expecting parent runs into? Well, here we are. Now I know a couple of parents who chose to wait till the delivery to find out what they were having. When I asked them, why and how could you wait, they just said that there aren't that many surprises in life anymore. To that I say, so true.

Then we have those who found out at the 20 weeks ultrasound, which included us, and the reasoning is a simple one, preparation. So here we are. We are looking to have our 20 weeks ultrasound next week where we'll, hopefully, if our little belly fruit cooperates, find out if Ty will be getting a baby sister or brother. Now when we were having Ty, we made the decision to find out what we were having for the reason of preparation and well, we couldn't wait.

Now, I was listening to a radio station and the topic of the different ways of finding out came on. One way stood out to me and made me say hmmmmm. It's called a Gender Cake Party or Sex Cake Party. The second name always gets people attention for some reason :) So here it goes. You go to ultrasound and you tell the technician you don't want to know the sex of the baby, but please write it down on a piece of paper. Then, you take that to the baker and tell them to bake a cake with the inside to match whats on the paper. If it's a boy, the blue type insides and if it's a girl, then pink type insides. Frost it with white icing and decorate it with a question mark. Then, invite family and friends over, have a little get together and then cut the cake and share the surprise. Pretty interesting huh?

I think it's the perfect middle ground between knowing right away and finding out later. What you think? We're pretty amped! Except for my sister who just insisted on knowing right then. She wasn't there for Ty's ultrasound, but now she has a chance to share in this experience. We both agreed, she could be the first to find out.

We'll keep you all posted. Stay tuned...

Baby Gender Poll

Welcome to the Channers Second baby blog. For many of you this is the first post you are seeing about our journey of bring a second child into this world. We are all super excited and looking forward to the joys of raising two young children at once. When you have the time go ahead and read the few posts we have up so far. You can see how much fun we have been having.

As you may know we are in our 18th week of pregnancy and are scheduled to have the big ultrasound in two weeks. Well we didn't want to keep the fun all to ourselves. So we decided to set up another gender guessing poll for this baby. Unlike with Ty who I knew was going to be a boy, I have absolutely no clue what this baby could be so your guess is as good as mine.

So join now and get your votes in before it is too late.

All entries must be in by Dec 16 at noon to be included.

Strongest Heartbeat Ever

Very exciting time today. Chris, Ty and I all piled in the car and headed to our third prenatal visit. Chris wasn't feeling all that well today, but he was a trooper. The past few weeks I have still been filled with fears and concerns about the babies safety. Because we have only heard one heart beat and because I have been so small and haven't felt much baby movement I am constantly questioning whether the baby is still safe and sound. I feared we would enter this appointment and leave not hearing a heartbeat and being worried and rushing to the emergency room.

Well the first portion of the appointment was just your typical appointment. Besides the fact that we actually got whisked in right away, no waiting at all. I barely had time to get my weight before they were ready for us. Then we had the usually small talk, how things are, what are my questions, etc. And she got out the goods and instructed me to get on board for hearing the heartbeat. I prepared myself for a good five to ten minutes of trying again. She jelled up the unit and put it on my stomach and immediately (no exaggeration) we heard the loud strong heartbeat at a mighty 152 beats per minute. I loved it. It was like God said .. 'There ... now quit whining Philippa.' So I am done being a big worried baby.

Other exciting news is we already scheduled to have our ultrasound done in two weeks from now.We are super excited and can't wait to find out the sex of the baby.

Ty's Birthday Party Montage

Took a little time, however here it is, a montage of Ty's 1st birthday party. Hope you enjoy it. He really had alot of fun and so did everyone. Thanks to everyone who made that dayso very special.

There is Life After All

For weeks now I have been concerned because I haven't gained much weight at all and you can not tell I am pregnant at all and we are already 14 weeks along. Especially in the morning, my tummy is as flat as ever. I have had no reassurance that everything is okay because I haven't felt the baby move yet and we haven't needed an early sonogram and our last appointment at 10 weeks it was too early to hear a heart beat. So all this time I have been operating on faith and confidence that everything is great.

But finally this past Wednesday we had our second prenatal check up. We went in saying that basically if we didn't hear from the midwife that one, the baby is the right size and two we hear a heart beat, I was scheduling a sonogram right away. Well after minutes of poking and probing and two Dopplers later we finally picked up a small drum roll of a heart beat.

This little baby has picked just the oddest position to rest in. Apparently my uterus is in a Retroflexed position. Here is a little blurb about that and what difficulties it can cause during my visits:

Diagnostic Difficulties

Uterine position can cause some difficulties during examinations. During manual pelvic examinations performed by a family physician or gynecologist, a retroverted or retroflexed uterus may be more difficult to feel. Retroflexed uteruses can cause examination difficulties during early pregnancy. The baby's heartbeat may not be heard as early in the pregnancy as with an anteverted or retroverted uterus. Retroflexed uteruses may be difficult to image during the abdominal portion of a pelvic or early pregnancy ultrasound, whereas a retroverted uterus may be more difficult to image using transvaginal ultrasonography. These difficulties arise because portions of the uterus are farther away from the transducer, or ultrasound camera.

Read more at Suite101: Uterine Positions: Normal Variations and Associated Difficultieshttp://www.suite101.com/content/uterine-positions-a141677#ixzz14Q64wlYa

 So you can imagine my relief of why it took so long to find the heart beat. This positioning would also explain why my stomach is so small on the outside. I can feel my pants are tighter but didn't really see anything. That is because the baby is growing up and downwards and not toward my tummy. But the good thing is this isn't permanent. My uterus will change to the anteverted position (which is the ideal position) as the pregnancy goes a long and the baby gets bigger. Kind of like a balloon inflating.

10 Weeks and Counting

This week we reached the ten week mark and things are getting exciting. On Wednesday we had our first prenatal check up at BirthCare in Virginia. Originally Toya was going to come with me but things worked out that Chris was home and able to come with me instead. The appointment was a normal first check up, urine test, blood test, pap smear and the first attempt to hear the heart beat. We tried but the baby was just too tiny for the Doppler to pick up the heart beat. Our next appointment isn't for another four weeks and I will be 14 weeks then so maybe ... fingers crossed. We were thinking of doing an ultrasound around now, like we did with Ty but because the insurance is different up here they may only cover one ultrasound so I think we would just go ahead and wait until the big 20 week ultrasound.

Besides that, things are as expected. I am almost always, tired and always hungry and always feeling woozy. I had my first episode of emotional breakdown ... which compared to this time with Ty is a lot better. In the middle of the week, after the appointment I was just looking around at all the stuff that wasn't getting done properly (or at all) at work, at home and just everyone. I was feeling very low and ashamed. Since then things have certainly improved. I have caught up a lot at work and my boss is so caring and understanding that he has given me Monday of next week off. And my home is in much better order thanks to Chris' help and Ty's cooperation. Things aren't perfect but at least I don't feel like a failure right now. Which is nice.

Cheese Burger Anyone?

I just wanted to share with you that it seems that this child has a strong desire for cheese burgers. I strongly believe that I have just finished eating my tenth cheese burger for this entire pregnancy. And seeing that I am only 10 weeks along, that isn't good.

Thanks the Lord that I am also eating plenty of fruits and veggies to balance out the McDonald's attacks.