I am now officially working on my twenty-third week of pregnancy. We've made it to the top of the hill for our halfway mark, and now we are making our trek down the hill for the last half homestretch. I absolutely cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going by. I have mixed emotions about how quickly this is going by. Part of me wants it to keep passing by so I can be that much closer to holding my precious little baby, but the other part of me is saying "slow down!!" I want to cherish every moment of this, and I feel I have SO much to do to be ready for D-Day!
Since I posted last we did find out the gender of our growing bundle of joy. Most everyone reading this will already know the results when you read this, but for the sake of journaling I will write about it anyways. :-D
Other than the crazy morning - I mean - all day sickness, everything about this pregnancy has been so different than with Carissa. Everyone swore it was a boy and I finally gave in to that same notion. But I still wanted to think about girl names, just in case. We went for our big ultrasound on January 12th. It is still so amazing to me all the things we can see. The lady was super nice and explained everything we were looking at. We saw all the little organs working properly, the fingers, toes, legs, arms, spine (vertebrae by vertebrae). Heart was beating a strong 150+ bpm. She had previously asked about whether or not this was our first, and if we had a girl or boy already. It had been hard to tell what we were looking at on the screen until the lady told us what we were looking at. But at one point she asked us if found out what we were having with our first, and if they showed us a picture of it. As soon as she asked that, I looked at the screen and immediately saw the 3-lines indicative of the girly parts that I recognized from having Carissa. Without question I said, "It's a girl!" before the tech even had a chance to type "It's another girl!"
The funny thing is I don't remember feeling surprised about it at all. I did laugh and think it was hilarious that everyone swore it was a boy though.
David said he was surprised at first ... but the first thing I remember him saying was "Well we definitely have to try for three now." Although, now that I question him about what he really said first, I do recall that he said "I'm being outnumbered!" first. And then a little later he said we have to try for three so we can get a boy. :)
We are both super excited about having another girl! It is going to be SO great for Carissa to have a little sister close in age. She already loves her little sister and knows she is in Mommy's belly. And of course, I think she is definitely starting to notice that mommy's belly is protruding a lot more lately! :)
Because we had a boy named picked out since before Carissa but not another girl name, we had to decide on a name. My great-grandmother (our kids' great-great-grandmother) is still alive, and her name is Elena. Her grandmother has that name, and her granddaughter - my mom - has that name as a middle name. I am thinking it also goes back another generation, but I can't remember accurately. But it occurred to me that it is my turn to use that name if I were to keep the tradition going, and my Mema pointed it out to me as well. We decided that if we used it we would use it as a middle name. We had such a hard time finding a name we liked to go with it as a first name so we toyed with looking at other names. We narrowed it down to a few, but none that we felt like were just that "perfect name." David is a lot more picky than I am, and one morning he got out of the shower, came out, and said, "I thought of a name to go with Elena." As soon as he said that and it registered that he said "...with Elena," I just knew it had to be "it" because of how picky he is. So I asked him what it was and he said "Kathryn Elena, and we can call her Katie for short."
Hearing that name I just knew it was perfect. So we are proud to say that our second precious little girl bears the name Kathryn Elena. I want to use Kathryn and Katie interchangeably. I don't want to only call her Katie though. (My parents only called me Missie unless I was in trouble, and actually got to where I HATED being called Melissa - I obviously like it now haha.) But I want to use both names and let her pick her preference to tell her friends and teachers etc. The more and more I use the name, read it, or hear it ... the more I love it.We have taught Carissa that her name is Katie (it is easier for her to say) and it comes out as "Kay-E" or "Kay kay." She wakes up looking for "Kay-E" and has to pat my belly. She has to show other people "Kay-E" and even gives her kisses. It is so precious and I just know she is going to be a great big sister!
Now that know our little baby is a girl named Kathryn Elena I have become much more motivated to prepare for her arrival! We have a three bedroom house. Our third bedroom used to be our "office/study," but we moved our desks out to the living room area and that room turned into a "storage/junk room." I finally got motivated to clean out that room. We've decided to have a yard sale so that we can declutter our house! It's been very refreshing to see the progress and to think about how much better it will feel having a house that feels more spacious after getting rid of stuff we don't need. (Anyone in the area wanting to shop at our yard sale, come on by on March 6! :)) We also were able to buy Kathryn's bedding! It's so cute and exciting! It will be various pinks and purples with ladybugs and butterflies! 
We can't really do much else in that room until after our yard sale though because we are storing the yard sale stuff in there for now. Can't wait to paint and set everything up. My goal is to have our entire house decluttered before the yard sale, and then to have the nursery painted and set up by the end of my second trimester. I don't want to be trying to do a lot of work during the third trimester, but it is my hopes to stay on top of keep everything else organized and clean during that last trimester so I am not starting off behind on house work when Kathryn arrives. So I have until March 6 to declutter my house and I have until March 18th to have the nursery set up.I have already gone through all of Carissa's old clothes, washed all four loads of laundry we are keeping (ranging in size from nb-9month), and folded and put them all away. Feels great to have that accomplished. Also helps me know what kind of things we still need. I am really looking forward to being able to get things to help me organize the nursery!
Oh yes, and we bought a pretty little outfit for Kathryn to wear when she comes home (Daddy picked it out! :-D). We bought a little baby for Carissa to give Katie when she first meets her. And we bought her first box of NB diapers! :) We are trying to think about buying a box of diapers for Kathryn every time we have to buy diapers for Carissa.On another note, this precious little baby has been making herself so much more known! Her little flutters I was feeling the last time I posted are now full on soccer kicks!! I told David I think we are working on creating a girls' soccer team! She is very very active. I feel her move about off and on throughout the day, and at night around 10-11 - when I relax for the night - she really begins her late night party habits. I absolutely love feeling her kicks .... although I would rather them not hit me square in the bladder or ribs, but I still smile. She stretches out from my ribs to my bladder, and moves all around. Sometimes she is moving more up higher, and sometimes down, sometimes right, and sometimes left. All over! It is also neat feeling her press against my belly so much that if I press back I can feel her (not sure if I am feeling her bottom, head, etc) but it is definitely her. I can usually feel her for a few seconds before she moves away.
She has finally started letting Daddy feel her, although he still has somewhat of a calming effect on her. There have been a few nights that I make him lay with his hand on my belly so she will calm down so I can fall asleep. :)
I am definitely feeling more and more pregnant, and am starting to get to used to hearing other people comment on my being pregnant. It doesn't bother me when others comment - in fact, I think I beam when they do because I love that others know I am pregnant! It used to surprise me when people commented because I wasn't used to hearing others recognize I was pregnant!! :-D With Carissa, I think I had a watermelon belly ... but this time, it is completely a basketball all out in front. I love my belly!! It is so cute and I feel so cute being pregnant! I have also been told that I really "glow" when I am pregnant. I had someone I was talking to stop mid-sentence to tell me that because he couldn't help but notice it. I think I was meant to have babies :-D and therefore, pregnancy looks good on me! (The picture to the left was taken at 21wks2days.)Right now I am definitely at the "honeymoon" of pregnancy. And this is the time of pregnancy that I remember most in between pregnancies. It is my favorite time ... slightly uncomfortable but not TOO uncomfortable, still able to do most everything, feeling little one move around, and done with all of the nausea!!! :-D Although ... I do not enjoy the frequent sudden urges to potty from my sweet girl kicking my bladder, or the feeling that I need to go immediately after I just went because KatieBug is sitting on my bladder!! But before I know it, all of this will be history and I will have two bouncing little girls filling my house with joy! I simply cannot wait! From how active Kathryn is now, I have no doubt that she will be just as active as Carissa - and she is a ball of energy and always has been! It will be so much fun having my two girls!! :) I am so in love with being a mom to daughters! :)
