Brought to you today by the number 10.....

Two tens actually. For those of you not in the know (like you missed the FB post) after 1.5 yrs we have finally managed to begin the procreation process for the second time. Apparently I'm not that easy a breeder, go figure. We are presently at 10 weeks and yes, I know, most people in my precarious position (Advanced maternal age, such a great title to be tagged with) don't tell the world until 12 weeks but back in the real world it just wasn't practical. Which leads me to the second 10, that's about how long I'll have had (in years) between my 2 children. Hiding it from the 9 yr old was going to become difficult right quick.

You see my mother in law flew out Christmas day to spend a week and a half with us. She'll be here for my first real prenatal appointment (I've already been once but apparently it doesn't count) (?) and she has 2 sons so the pregnancy/grandchild thing is a super big deal for her. Super big deal. FYI I'm not telling my own mother until I have to. Preferable never but I'm a realist. So maybe she'll figure it out in the 3rd trimester. Anyway the mother in law likes to buy all of the maternity clothes (fucking awesome). She did it for my sister in law for her one pregnancy (they tried to have another but she was in her 50's by then, no go) and she did it for me when I was pregnant with my daughter. Now since she lives in San Diego I knew that there would be some shopping involved in this visit. Shopping of the preggers nature. This basically made it so we kinda needed come clean with the kid because she's no dummy. She figured out the secret of Santa last year all by herself. Trust me, she'd have noticed something was up a lot sooner than my idiot mother will. And I'm ok with that. So we decided we'd tell her on Christmas day as an extra bonus gift. She's dying for a girl. Mother Nature being what it is she has a better than 50% chance of it being a girl. I always wanted a boy but really, I think it'll be a girl. Murphy's Law right?

I did have an appointment as soon as I tested positive. My doctor is paranoid because of that whole brain explosion thing 3 (was it 3?) years ago. I thought I was only about 5 weeks along so we didn't know if we'd see anything on the ultrasound. Turned out at the time I was 7 weeks along (wow, impressive math skills Michelle) and we got to see it on the ultrasound (doesn't look like much at that point) and most exciting, I got to hear the heartbeat. This is big for me. At my age (37) my eggs are old and there are a multitude of different things that can go wrong. The heartbeat tells me, at the very least, it's alive. I had a co-worker whose wife got pregnant at the same time I did with my daughter and she ended up getting a D&C because they never found a heartbeat. That's gotta suck. There's also a high risk of miscarriage, most of the women I know around my age had at least 1 before getting a viable pregnancy.

I have high hopes for this pregnancy. The last one was at a kinda precarious point in my life, was only really dating my present hubby, and we had no idea how the relationship was going to work out. And there were a variety of other health issues in the beginning so I was pretty much miserable on top of being hormonal. I don't have any happy memories of that pregnancy. Or for a good 2 years after either. It's been almost a decade since then though and I'm determined to have a pleasant, if not happy, pregnancy. I'm not worried about labor and delivery. I know all the horror stories and I have some of my own. And just so ya know, an aneurysm hurts WAY WORSE than giving birth. May you never find out the hard way. I know what I do and do not want. I have people (no, not the hubby) who will be there for me and will either kick out or beat the crap out of anyone who goes against my wishes. It's good to have some serious beotches at your back in the L&D room. Everyone needs at least one. I also don't have family telling me what I'm doing wrong. I'm a mom, my kid, my word is law, they can piss off.

I'm so glad I'm not a first time mother anymore, that was HELL. I have high hopes for this one. I may have to kill a few people who piss me off but I have no problems with that. I'm a chemist, no one can hide bodies as good as me.

Did I mention that (as an added bonus) my kid saw me in the shower yesterday morning and told me I didn't look like I was pregnant. She also said that her friend (a boy whose mom recently had a baby) said I didn't look pregnant either. I didn't want to pop her bubble and tell her it's because mommy already has too much of a belly on her and if mommy was skinny you'd be able to tell. No, I thanked her and told her it was a sweet thing to say. The child is built like the hubby, stick thin forever, so she doesn't need to know that there are those of us who will always be a bit round. May this next one have the same luck and get the skinny gene. Wish us luck!