Our Biggest News

I said some big things had been happening over here behind the scenes…and today, I’m so excited to share our biggest and most exciting news!

{photos by Sophie Brendle Photography}

This little family of ours is growing again!  

Staring at these pictures blows my mind.  It seems like no time since I wrote this announcement post when we were expecting Rosie and now, Rosie has grown up into the sweetest little girl seemingly overnight and another baby bump has appeared!

I’ve strategically avoided appearing in many posts because this second-baby body is no joke.  Me hiding behind flowers in the kitchen reveal…anyone notice that??  I noticed a change before I even found out and was super confused.  It’s just been out and out since that.  With Rosie, I showed so early and started getting asked about it by strangers at nine weeks, so it’s no surprise that this time, baby #2 is making their presence known immediately.  We’re currently 13 weeks along.

Life has been the most wonderful whirlwind since having our little Rosie and she amazes us everyday.  Her personality is developing constantly and watching her learn words and understand new things is nothing short of the smallest miracles in our minds.  Getting to see her be a big sister and welcoming another perfectly unique and sweet babe to the family has us so excited.

I decided to do a little Baby Buffalo #2 FAQ to make it easy and give y’all some answers to questions we’ve been getting a lot.

How far apart will they be?

Rosie turns two at the end of January and this baby is due April 3rd, so right at two years.  It’s funny, two years was always our idea of the perfect age gap, for some reason.  Though I totally recognize that all siblings can be close regardless of age differences.  There’s no perfect recipe for a family.  But that was our initial goal, Lord willing.  With all of my health struggles since Rosie, that wasn’t going to happen in our mind sadly, but God has a way of giving you the most wonderful and wanted surprise when you least expect it.  We’re so grateful.  We’re glad they’ll be close in age and excited to be moving right along in growing our family.  

Will this be your last baby?

I’d love to say definitely not, but I recognize that we can’t totally predict the future.  But when it comes to our plans, this will not be.  My husband says 3-4, but 4 would probably be good.  I say 4-5, the more the merrier!  We’ll see where we end up one of these days…

How have you felt this time around?

Overall, I’ve felt a good bit worse than I did with Rosie.  I’m not sure if that’s just because I’m chasing her around, which obviously is a whole other ball game or if there’s something else to it.  Just like with her, I have to eat constantly, especially up until lunch or I get very light-headed and nauseous.  As with all pregnant women, the tiredness is no joke.  I’ve already not been sleeping well, which I remember happening early on with Rosie and then again at the end.  This first trimester has been a take it one day at a time kind of experience and has made work and other parts of life so much harder to fit in and do well, but it’s all worth it, right?  I have noticed a shift this last week and think the symptoms are definitely starting to fade some, which is so welcome!  

Will you find out the gender?

Umm…yes.  No doubt.  Absolutely.  We are find-out people, y’all.  We’re planners.  People always say, I’m sure you want to design the nursery.  And I totally do!  But more than that, it doesn’t become truly real to me until I know what it is, give that baby a name, and we can sort of picture who’s coming.  It really helped me to bond with Rosie and I love that.  I totally respect those who decide to wait, just know that it’s not for us and I’m totally okay with that.  I’m thirteen weeks along now, so we should find out in a few months.

Do y’all have a gut feeling or preference?

Part of me hesitates to even answer this because obviously we want a healthy baby first and foremost.  But this is the question we’ve gotten the most often and of course, it’s something we talk about a lot.  With wanting a big family, it doesn’t feel like this is our last shot at anything.  We’d love to have boys and girls in the future, so neither would be a better outcome in our minds.  That being said, there’s a part of both of us that really thinks it’s another girl.  That may just be because that’s all we know or there may be something to it.  We were both confident that Rosie was a girl and were right so we shall see.  We both love the idea of Rosie having a sister close in age too, so that may be playing a role.  But we’re really trying to keep a completely open mind and not think or want one way over the other.  Since having Rosie, I’ve had dreams about us with a house full of girls and Chris says that he wouldn’t mind that, so maybe that’s God’s way of preparing us?  Who knows.  We both firmly believe that the family God will write for us is better than any we could come up with, so we’ll wait and see!

Do you have names in mind?

This part is going to be tough, I think.  Y’all may remember the story behind Rosie’s name, so it was a no-brainer.  I’ve known my first daughter would have some form of Rose as long as I can remember.  But I’ve not really thought beyond that.  We’ve decided to not even really talk about names until we know the gender. We know it may be tough to figure out and don’t need to spend time where we don’t have to yet.  Also, Rosie’s name has such a legacy that we plan to talk to her about throughout her life.  We believe there is such power in a name and want her to know why it was chosen for her and the vision that we had for her through it.  We’ve realized that of course, all of our children need that same gift.  So that might make it harder to nail down.

Will you do another home birth?

If you read Rosie’s birth story, you’ll remember that we had her at home.  It was the most beautiful, life-shaping day of my life and truly the best decision for us.  I really can’t imagine doing it any other way, since it’s the only experience we’ve had.  It’s the familiar and was wonderful.  That is the plan at this point, but as it was with Rosie, it’ll be covered in prayer and we trust that if we need to be somewhere else, God will put us there.  There’s a lot less stress over this now that we’ve had such a smooth delivery with Rosie.  First babies are a bit more of an unknown.  It was not a light or quick decision with Rosie.  We prayed and prayed, researched, and talked to many super knowledgeable people in the field.  You can read more about why we chose that and the factors of that decision in her birth story.  While it was easier to make the decision this time around having had the experience, we did take a few weeks up front to really pray through it and felt the same peace to move in that direction as we did with our Baby Rose.

I could not be more excited to now be the proud mama of three babies: our first, sweet Angel baby, our Rosie, and now this new little life. I always thought expecting the first baby would be the most exciting because after that, you’re just distracted.  And it is different because we’re for sure busy with Rosie, but in so many ways, it’s even more exciting because now we fully understand the unique, God-made little being that’s coming to live in our home.  We feel so blessed and humbled to be in this place right now, recognizing that we know what loss and struggle in this area feels like.  I know so many who are still waiting for their babies and my heart just breaks for people in that situation.  

[show_shopthepost_widget id=”1959463″]

Thanks for sharing in our journey with us, friends.  I’ll be sharing our journey to baby all along the way!  If you have any questions I didn’t hit or advice for life with two (I can’t even think about it yet!), leave in the comments.

My Dress – Target

My Tassel Earrings – Stillwell Style

Rosie’s Dress, Sweater, Headband and Shoes – Target

All of these photos were taken by my great friend and the super talented photographer, Sophie Brendle.  If any of you are local, she’s the absolute best!  She took these in our backyard at the most awesome lifestyle shoot we did with her earlier this week.  I’ll be sharing more of those shots and us living in our fall house next week.