The FOUR the Merrier

It's official----Pax will be a big brother at the end of September!!!

This is a picture of our "speck" on Feb. 4th. I was six weeks along. Remember the words of Horton (from Horton Hears a Who), "A person's a person, no matter how small!!"

The class after they finally figured out Pax's shirt! Paxton's really cute shirt--courtesy of Aunt Steph!

Pax, Brad, and Mom all came to school Friday (Mar 4) to help me share the news. This was also Dr. Seuss day, thus the Seuss reference above!! Pax came dressed in his Big Bro shirt, which we also wore to tell the youth at church Wednesday. The kids kept reading his shirt, but definitely didn't get it. We started asking them questions, and Pierce said, "Oh, I get it, I'm HIS big bro!" Uh, no, Pierce, his shirt is the one that says that! Then we asked, "Does Mrs. Dobbs have any other kids?" Still didn't get it! About 10 minutes after they saw the shirt, Aeffrey finally announced, "Mrs. Dobbs is having a baby!" Thank you, Aeffrey!!! It was funny! They didn't believe it at first, and some didn't really get it. It was a very fun way to tell them, though!

Since this is my first "post" about being pregnant, I feel there's a lot to update on. We found out the evening of January 16th. I took a test at home, and the lines were very faint, so I took another one the next morning. Again, it showed positive. Brad and I were sooooo excited! I decided to head on in to the doctor and let them confirm it through some blood work. That resulted in 2 more doctor's visits to check my levels. They looked good each time, they were just being cautious. We finally had an ultrasound on Feb. 4, and heard the heartbeat at that time, too. It was in the 120s, which is supposed to be strong for such a young baby. Paxton got to go with us for this. It was a very sweet and special time for our soon-to-be family of 4!!!

Back to January 17th. After confirming that we really were indeed pregnant at the doctor's, we shared with our families that evening. Unfortunately, we had to share with Mimi and Papa on a 3-way call, because Brad had headed out of town that morning. We wrote on a tennis ball, "I'm going to be a big brother" and let Pax toss it to our families. I think it was a pretty fun way to share!:-) Thanks, Aunt Sarah, for the idea!

Then I texted this picture to other family members that we couldn't tell in person.

After that, we kind of kept it low-key and didn't tell many people. I didn't even tell any of my friends until Friday! That's a long time for me to keep a secret, but I guess it was still a little surreal. Paxton, of course knew, and if you would ask him, he would say, "Mommy has a baby in her bewey!" He would come out and ask things like, "Can we keep it?", "Is it mine?", "Will it wear a hood?" Things you could tell that he was thinking, but that he didn't really get it. One night, we were watching One Tree Hill, and Haley told their son that they were having a baby sister. Pax looked at me and said, "He's having a baby sister like me!" From that point on, our house thinks that it's a girl!!:-)

I also think it's a girl, just because this pregnancy has been SOOOO different already. I am 11 weeks today, and have been very nauseous. I even had morning sickness while we were out for winter break. I didn't have ANY at all with Pax, so this was a shocker, and really knocked me back! I have even been getting car sick the last 2 weekends when we've been traveling. I haven't been tired, like I was with Pax, just very irritable, grumpy, and nauseous. Don't ask Brad about the grumpy part! You don't want to get him started!! Anyway, that's just my premonition for now. But, we'll know in about 5 weeks, because we plan to do a 3-D ultrasound! So exciting!

I announced to the Facebook world on Friday by posting this picture below. I got some funny comments back!!! But, now the whole world knows!!!

We are expecting in September!!