Third time is the charm...

From Baby Girl

The big news from our house is we're going to have a baby girl sometime around Valentine's Day. We had a 20 week checkup about a week ago, and got the good news and determination of the baby's sex. Cooper doesn't really seem to understand totally yet, but I think he'll be excited and surely a little jealous when #2 (code name Jens - as in Jens Voigt the hardest man in pro cycling) arrives.

And now the story behind the story....
This isn't a story we've really talked about much, only telling a few immediate family matters, but we've had some bumps along the way getting Cooper a sibling. It all started well, we are an apparently overly fertile couple, but then it went bad. We were off for a Labor Day weekend vacation in Portland to see our friends Chris & Molly get married. Jill got real sick after a hike in Mt. Rainier National Park and a couple days later told me she didn't feel pregnant anymore. A couple days later the doctor confirmed our fears and we had lost the baby.

It was a tough time for us, but I deferred to Jill on how / when to talk about it and we got through it. After some time to let everything get normal again, we started trying again and immediately Jill was pregnant again. We took it very easy, although we knew it was nothing we did that caused the first loss, but right about the same time we lost the first baby, Jill once again told me she just didn't feel pregnant anymore.

One was tough, but the second was even tougher. Now doubt had started creeping in that we would be able to have another baby at all. How many more times could we put ourselves through this? To make it even more of a trying situation, we had a major scare with Jill. In an attempt to avoid a surgery, she was given medication to help her pass the lost baby. She was lightheaded and hardly coherent late one night (it was the lightheaded symptom that made me realize this wasn't normal), and I quickly got Cooper up out of bed and loaded everyone into the car to go to the ER.

At the ER, they wouldn't let me take Cooper back with me so I had no choice but to get Jill admitted and then go back home. Its after midnight, Cooper and I headed back home and I put him back to bed. I stirred around the house doing anything I could to keep from chewing my nails down to my knuckles. Finally after 3 or 4 excruciating hours, Jill called and was ready to come home. That ordeal took years off my life...

Despite this setup, we had Cooper, so we were optimistic about the chances so we decided we'd give it another go and you guessed it....instantaneously pregnant. Our 3rd try since Cooper we were quite cautious with everything, including telling anyone that Jill was pregnant. As we passed weeks 12 & 13 our fears started to subside and now at 20 weeks things are looking really promising. We're thrilled to have Jens on the way, and be able to get Cooper a sister.

I have completely deferred to Jill on this topic, remaining silent on the matter for the most part. Now Jill has decided it was time to share our great joy with Jens as well as give the back story as to why we've maintained such radio silence on Jens.