Ryan + Ann + Owen + ???

So I know I'm a little behind in sharing our family's amazing news and most of the people in our lives already know, but for recording purposes I figured I might as well "post the news".

We are having a baby!!! 

We are thrilled beyond belief. It has been a long 14 month process, which we did not expect. Owen came quickly and without much effort at all (sorry if that is TMI). We always had this picture of what our family would be like and it never included our first two kids being 3 years a part, more like 2. 

I have the personal goal to run a 1/2 Marathon between each kid, #1- to keep myself fit and #2- to keep my weight loss between each kid in check. So I ran my second one at the beginning of May 2010, with my amazing friend Jessica who I must say is a trooper and a half because she ran 5 miles on her own at 6am before the race because she was training for her own full marathon then she ran my whole 1/2 marathon just a few steps ahead of me the whole time to keep me moving--it was the first time I'd run it without a group of girls running together. So shout out to Jess. You're the best! (sorry for the tangent) Anyway, the plan was to get pregnant right after the race and have a baby in February-ish of 2011. Well that obviously didn't happen and we were super sad month after month. We couldn't figure out what God's greater plan was for us. The timing would have been perfect as I was surrounded by friends and had a great support system in place in St. Louis. But for whatever reason, we were left babyless and sad. 

So after may months of no luck, and another 1/2 marathon behind me (I might as well keep running I thought), we consulted my OB who eventually put us on Clomid. After 3 cycles we are now pregnant and due on March 2nd, three days before Owen's third birthday. We are thrilled and relieved. Owen is super excited and has declared to the world that is is a girl. We are hopeful but would be equally happy to welcome a little brother. But in my gut I feel it's a girl. We find out on October 12th, if all parties cooperate. 

Side note: I know my mother is going to die when she reads this, she is much more private than I and will probably think sharing these details is wildly inappropriate in such a public setting, but the truth is the more we struggled to get pregnant the more I came to realize that there are A LOT of people in this world who struggle to get pregnant when they want. I firmly believe you have to find your own comfort level with talking about such private details but it was such a comfort to me to discover so many people, even some of my closest friends and a random flight attendant I sat next to, were going through the same thing I was. For so long I thought I was broken, or thought maybe we weren't going to be able to have any more kids. But the truth is.....I don't know! I have NO IDEA why some people can get pregnant when there husbands just look at them like my dear sister in law, mother of 7 kids, or two irresponsible teens wind up preggers. (Uhhh...don't get me started on that injustice!) Another sister-in-law of mine who is in her mid 30's and knows LOTS of people with kidos told me that she only knows 2 people in her whole life who have never struggled at anytime to get pregnant when they want. That is amazing. So for anyone else out there who is still playing the waiting game.......have comfort that there are many many many more people on your side of the court playing the same game. 

I told my family when we were 7.5 weeks along because I was home for a bit of a family reunion. My sis-in-law had made these awesome shirts for all the grand kids to wear during a family picture. 

The night before the pictures we were all sitting in the same room celebrating birthdays and graduations and talking about the pending photo shoot and admiring the shirts. I told Jennie, who made the shirts, "Now I wished I would have gotten you to make a t-shirt like this for me to wear," and I held up a paper sign to my belly with the same icon but that read "- 7.5 mo." It took most other people a few seconds to figure out what that meant but she jumped up with tears in her eyes and hugged me. She knew we had been struggling for a while and was so happy for us. Then my other sis-in-law Arwen did the same. My dad sat on the fireplace stunned....so happy but didn't know what to say. By the time everyone understood what was going on there were lots of happy tears and excitement. It was such a cool moment. (Thanks Jordan for the idea.) 

Ok, that's enough baby talk for now. Thanks for all the well wishes. We are so happy.