Why almost 5 years?

The word is out!  Baby Mock #2 is on the way! 

For the life of me, I could not get this pic to rotate correctly! (sorry).

Some have asked and I am sure a lot are thinking... why did you wait this long to have another? Yes, we did actually plan this little peanut and yup, we wanted to wait this long for another.

I am not sure where the 2 years apart rule came from, but I guess we are definitely not followers of that so called rule. I remember when Julia turned 2 and many were saying "time for another".  I am sure there were some (like eager grandparents) who were wondering when another would be on the way. :)  Did we always want another?  Well, honestly, not so much right after Julia was born.  With all the things we endured with Julia (long NICU stay, surgery, other issues, and my blood clot), we needed to get over that bittersweet time of our life.  Don't get us wrong, we absolutely LOVE our little gal and love being her parents, but the events of her birth and shortly thereafter were a little frightening for brand new parents.

...and then we moved to Wisconsin just after Julia turned 3.  I vowed never to be pregnant while selling a house or moving again (I was 8.5 months pregnant with Julia when we moved into a new home) and also did not want to be pregnant or have a baby while temporarily living in a tiny apartment. 

Once we got settled into our new house in Wisconsin, we thought ok, now is a good time.  Well, when you have two blood clotting disorders and a daughter that was born with a congenital defect, there are a lot of doctors that have to get involved BEFORE you even try getting pregnant.  After seeing a hematologist (blood doctor), an OB/GYN doc, a Maternal-Fetal Medicine doc (high risk pregnancy doctor) and a neonatologist they all gave the ok to have another (that was about 4 months of appointments).

No one could 100% guarantee us that the congenital defect Julia had wouldn't occur again. The baby docs were all intrigued by her history though and even consulted colleagues at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin and UW-Madison to see what the chances were of the lung defect occurring again.  All said it was just a fluke since she didn't have any other issues with the lung defect (like heart problems or Down's Syndrome when you usually see the lung defect).  Most were confident it wouldn't occur again, but said it had a 0.000001% chance (or some minuscule number) of occurring again. Of course they don't want to give us the 100% guarantee because nothing in life is 100% guaranteed.

We are of course excited to be expanding our family, but nervous at the same time. Nervous about lung problems, nervous about blood clots, nervous about anything going wrong again.  I take blood thinning medication in the form of shots twice a day to help prevent blood clots and there is nothing I can do to prevent the lung issues.

We pray for a healthy, happy baby (hopefully a boy for Mike's sake, but we really don't care what the gender is).  We would love to bring our new addition home within 2 days of being born (how odd that will be for us!).  The plans for this little one is in God's hands and we know he will help us as parents to take good care of both of our little kiddos.