Alright, so before I spill the beans on gender, I’m going to also use this post as an opportunity to answer some popular questions I’ve been getting. Before I begin, I want to take a second to say, I’m answering them to the best of MY ability, based upon my own thoughts and feelings and nothing else. I also want to say, I deeply empathize with anyone struggling with fertility so I’m really hoping that by sharing and answering some questions, that I am not offending or hurting anyone that may be struggling. I do not take for granted how lucky I am to be able to get pregnant and god-willing give birth to not one, but two healthy, beautiful babies. It is a complete blessing.

Question #1: How did you know you were ready for baby #2?

+ this is going to be the lamest answer ever and for that I sincerely apologize. In my opinion, you just know when you know. I had a general idea of when I wanted to start trying to have another baby before we even had Avery (more on this in the next answer), but even with a pre-disposed timeline of sorts in my head, I don’t think you can live your life on a tight schedule, nor can you really control when your body allows you to get pregnant, so with that in mind my “timeline” was very loose. Until the time came, I also didn’t know if I would actually be ready or not. And taking on anything, let alone another living, breathing human being, is not a decision you can make lightly. So after lots of discussions, my husband and I both just really said we felt ready and like it was time. And really that was it, it was just a feeling in our bones that we were ready to expand our family- alas, you just know when you know.

Question #2: What will the age gap between the babies be?

+ so they will be a month short of being 3 1/2 years apart. My very loose timeline of sorts was just that I did not want to start trying until Avery was 2 1/2. I just felt like that would be a good enough time for Avery and I to really bond and I didn’t want to feel like I was just moving on from on baby to the next. I wanted to soak up as much time as possible just me and my girl before altering the scale for the rest of eternity lol. My sister and I are 22 months apart, so just short of a full 2 years, and with my own little family, I wanted a bigger gap than that. Nothing against the way my sister and I grew up, there was just a lot of competition and comparing that came our way from everyone around us, except our parents. Our extended family would call us Mary Kate and Ashely, I got branded the “smart one” and Amilee the “athletic one.” And while I knew to ignore or let that stuff go, it always made me think, when I get older and have kids, I want there to be more space so that this sort of thing is a little less likely to happen. I mean we mingled with the same people and had all the same teachers in middle school, high school, coaches of all of our club sports activities, so everyone just knew us as the Smith girls and that was kinda it. It just made me think having another year between would help alleviate some of that. Again- not trying to judge anyone else’s choices! Just sharing my opinion. I’ve also had some funny comments regarding the whole 2 under 2 situation. While I have a handful of friends who are loving and ROCKING that 2 under 2 lifestyle, also friends who have LOVED and SURVIVED the 2 under 2 lifestyle, I just always knew that wasn’t going to be my situation. For both reasons I spoke about before. I just always felt that I wanted 3 years to soak up as much solo time as possible with just me and my little bean. Also, where she’s at now is my favorite stage of all and I feel so happy and blessed that I’m experiencing it with her just me and her.

Question #3 : Was it planned?

+ yes, I had stopped birth control a few months before we knew we wanted to start trying for baby #2. A few people have asked how long we were “trying” for before getting a positive pregnancy test and I don’t want to give any concrete answers on that just because I understand the difficulty of fertility and don’t want to put my number out there just to avoid any comparisons. Everyone’s journey is different.

Question #4: How are you feeling?

+ 20 weeks in and I’m finally a living person again! The first 17 weeks were hands down the absolute worst. And SO much harder than my first pregnancy. I hate that they say every pregnancy is different, because it’s so TRUE and also doesn’t help the type of person (me) who likes to plan or prepare for things. I was counting down the days till I hit 12 weeks because that’s exactly when the sickness and exhaustion stopped during my first pregnancy. But NOPE, 12 weeks came and went and we were sick all the way up till 17 weeks! It was NUTS. The first meal I ate that I didn’t throw up was literally Thanksgiving dinner. I’m feeling so much better now and am very happy to (knock on wood) not be the person who is sick the entire 9 months. I could not even imagine.

Question #5: How is it being pregnant while also taking care of a toddler?

+ the first 17 weeks- like an episode of Survivor. Literally. It was just about getting through each activity and every hour to survive the day. Now it’s just madness in the best way. Thanks to playing competitive sports my whole life, there’s something in me that just looks forward to getting in bed at the end of the day feeling utterly exhausted. And it’s like that every night. My biggest struggle is really finding the time to sit down and relax when I know that I should.

SO I guess before I wrap it all up, I should share the real news with all of you!

IT’S A BOY!