Back so soon?

That's the first thing they asked me when I showed up at the Bloated Pregnant Ladies Anonymous meeting.

Yep, I'm 9 weeks pregnant. Surprise! When we told Lily last week she was so excited and asked a few questions. Then she looked at Amelia and very skeptically said, "'Melia's still really young." Tell me about it!

Turns out the mini-pill is not so effective once you start weaning. I knew I should have kept breast-feeding Amelia til she was 3 (kidding, Sara, kidding...By the way, I'm totally waiting for my bronze boob trophy!) After Amelia was born, my doctor told me, "when you wean her, give us a call and we'll call in a prescription for regular birth control pills for you." Silly me, I assumed (never assume; it only makes an ASS of U and ME) that meant once she was completely weaned, not once I started weaning her. Ladies, learn from my ignorance.

After a couple of days of freaking out, we've gotten used to the idea and we have a game plan in place. It's not that we didn't want another kid, it's just the timing was sooner than we'd planned. I realize that a lot of people plan their kids this close together (2 years and 4 months) on purpose, but for parents that are used to having a mostly independent 4 year old to accompany a newborn, it's going to be challenging. And Amelia's still so small, it's hard to imagine her not being my baby anymore.

I think the single most scary thing for Dan and I is having a terrible-two and an infant at the same time. I'll be trying to nurse the baby and Amelia will be screaming and throwing her pink sippy cup of milk across the room because she wants the blue sippy cup with water and she'll be super pissed because Mama won't get up and get it for her right now. Sounds super fun! I guess I'll just have be become proficient at mobile nursing and doing other things one-handed.

Other concerns include the fact that our health insurance only covers maternity in the event of complications or a sick baby. So if everything goes smoothly, we have to pay 100% of the bill. In Utah, the only way you can get maternity coverage is on a group plan through your employer. Since we're both self-employed, we had to settle for an individual plan. It seems like it should be illegal to exclude maternity, but I guess there's so much breeding going on in this state that the insurance companies would lose their shirts if they offered individual plans with maternity coverage! Fortunately, both the hospital and the physician offer a 30% discount if you're footing the bill yourself. And we have an AFLAC supplemental policy that will pay out some cash for the birth. We've pushed the pause button on our debt snowball and we're starting a Baby Fund where we'll put all of our extra money until we have enough to cover the birth. We also have to save for a different car. Our two Honda Accords just aren't wide enough to accommodate 3 car seats (by state law Lily has to be in a booster seat until she's 8).

This baby is definitely wanted, it's just different from the other two where we had it all planned out. Dan's biggest disappointment? "Man, what a rip-off! The best part about trying to get pregnant is all the sex and now I won't even get that!" I'm in the yucky morning sickness stage right now, and although I am fortunate enough to never throw up, I feel nauseated all day and want to just lay in bed. It should pass in about 2 or 3 weeks and by then I'll probably start feeling a lot more excited.

My first doctor's appointment is next week. It will probably be too early to hear the heartbeat, but I'll be sure to keep you posted on any updates. I've added a couple of widgets to the sidebar. I like the top one because the graphic is cool, but the bottom one is more informative. You can click on it and it will tell you how the baby is developing. Perfect for the Nana types!