And It Begins . . .

You hear the mumblings, the whisperings, the guilty sighs. The second child always has fewer pictures, a smaller baby book, and generally is not heralded quite like the first. The "newness" of having a baby isn't quite as new. Yet the second baby is not loved any less. And one should never attempt to measure love or awe by the quantity (or lack) of pictures.

There is truth in this in this second child syndrome. We are nearly halfway through this pregnancy and the blog is sorely lacking in the details of his growth and triumphs. I'm sorry my second son. The days fly by. Each week is over before it begins. I am chasing after your wild older brother and trying to keep up with work, the laundry, the mess (yes, most of which is mine), and the dishes. You are getting the short end of the stick but we love you just as much!

We were very excited to tell Jeremy's Grandpa this weekend that our sweet second son is going to be named Keaton Clifford . . . Clifford being Grandpa's name. It's very important to us to honor our family.

So because Rader is our last name we are honoring Grandpa Larry Rader and Great Grandpa Fred Rader (Jeremy's father's side)

Carson Earl is honoring Grandpa Gary Earl and Great Grandpa Herman Earl (my side of the family).

And Keaton will honor the glorious and abundant Bride Tribe (Jer's mom's side), Great Grandpa Clifford Bride.

Last week we got to see Keaton during our 18 week anatomy ultrasound. He is quite active as usual. Although after feeling him kick quite viciously for three days at 16weeks 6 days, he's been very quiet ever since. Midwife says that's very normal. But it can be unnerving for a mother. I'm sure another week will fly by and he'll be using my gut as a punching bag once more.

The ultrasound went terrifically! All 10 fingers and 10 toes! Heart, brain, and lungs look great! We did have a little surprise that he is measuring bigger than average. I Googled "second babies bigger?" and found an overwhelming majority of second babies do come out larger. I am terrified of anything larger than Carson. A little refresher . . . he was 8 pounds 12 ounces!!! Ayiyi!!

Midwife assures me that labor also tends to go faster with the second baby so the large child will just shoot out. Not sure if that makes me feel better or not.

Pictures of me next week but each day someone comments on how much bigger I am getting. My weight gain is less than half of what it was with Carson at this point so at least it's my tummy and not my tushy.

I'm still working out and running 3-5 days a week, albeit, quite a bit slower. Had to find some larger work out tops to accommodate my rapidly rising baby bump. But I'm going to do my darndest to keep squeezing into my running shorts as long as I can. Hopefully someone will have the decency to tell me when I start squeezing out of them.