Baby Mine

**BRACE YOURSELVES FOR SOME BABY RAMBLINGS!**


Tatum is well over half-way to making her debut.

Here I am at 24 weeks, belly stretched beyond belief, feeling my baby girl kicking away.
This pregnancy has been so slow and yet has seemed to fly by at the same time. I keep thinking about when we found out, it was WAY back in the middle of August! Doesn't that seem forever ago? One minute I swear I've been pregnant for years, and then I can't believe I'm as far along as I am.
I look forward to Tuesdays the most, when the weeks roll over.

Symptom wise, it all seems pretty familiar. Nausea, fatigue, headaches, peeing all the time, feeling huge, not being able to breathe when lying on your back, braxton hicks... it's such a magical time! I do feel like it's all a little more intense than it all was with William. Everything is just up another level. although, we have made it to 24 weeks without having to rush to the hospital, so I'm counting that as a victory!

William has been a little funny. I swear, on some level he must know his world is about to change. Since I first got pregnant he started to be a stage-5 clinger. He started always needing to be held, or at least hold my hand. Now that I have a tummy, he likes to cuddle with his sister,and loves giving my tummy "buzzers", if we bring up the fact that he's going to have a sister, though, or even talk about mommy having a baby at all, he is usually less than impressed, not very interested. In fact, when we help him say his prayers at night, he runs down his list of family members... "KeKe, Kyle, Sarah, Papa, Nana, Ellie, Grandma..." Those he does by himself, he'll repeat every other thing we say, except to bless Tatum. He will not say her name. (Well he has a few times, he says it "Tamer". It's the cutest thing!) He LOVES babies. He is so interested in his new cousin Audrey. I'm sure he'll be curious and sweet with baby sister when she gets here, at least I can hope so.

The other day I had a mini meltdown for Billy about this baby's timing. Let me tell you just how good we are at planning... Tatum's due date is April 29th. She will most likely come a little earlier than that. My doctor says she doesn't want me to have another 10+ pound baby, as Will had shoulder dystocia, and then with him coming out the way he did (Hands up like a boxer, and elbows out, so he dug them in on his way out) my recovery was a long, painful process that included me being hospitalized with endometritis that turned septic. neither she nor I want me to have to go through that again. So the other day, out of no where, I start worrying about timing with her. My doctor said they will be monitoring her growth closely towards the end. Well we know that the ultrasounds towards the end can be a little inaccurate towards the end when it comes to measuring. What if they look at her around 38 weeks and she LOOKS like a good size, but then ends up coming out small? Or what if they look at her, and she looks normal sized so they let her lungs develop a little more and then she comes out a 12 pounder? Or what if I end up having to have a c-section? And then there's the matter or Billy's graduation? This baby is going to be born right around his final exams, and then there's commencement, and after all we have been through, I am going to watch him walk, darn it! And then we will want to have a party to celebrate his accomplishment, so many people have supported us, we want to share in the moment with them. And hopefully Billy will have a new job on the horizon, possibly a new living situation for us. This is going to be an incredibly busy spring, and it worries me sometimes.

Luckily Billy has a way of keeping his admittedly high strung wife calm. Mostly I just tell myself it's the hormones. I'm only able to use that excuse for so long, so I'm going to use it while I can!

This little girl is such a blessing.
We've decided on a name for her- Tatum Grace. Tatum is an English name (like William) and means "cheerful, full of spirit, bringer of joy". Grace, she gets from my Grandma Robel, it was her middle name as well. She is already living up to her name. She brings me so much joy, I can't even explain it. If you know me at all, you probably know just how little I feel I know about girls. I wasn't a girly-girl by any means growing up. I was relieved when the ultrasound tech told me William was a boy. I have said that my dream would be a family of 6 boys. But I've had a feeling from the beginning though that this baby was a girl, which was intimidating at first, but she just fits. She makes my heart feel so full, and I haven't even met her yet!

We are so excited to meet you, sweetheart!